House of God

   The Church building is so called because it is set apart for the worship of God. That it is something more than a mere lecture hall, or concert room or auditorium, as it is commonly regarded by modern religionism will appear from the following taken from the Annotated Prayer Book: "The Church is the House of God, not man's house; a place wherein to meet with Him with the closest approach which can be made in this life. Hence, if Jacob consecrated with the ceremony of unction the place where God made His covenant with him, and said of it, 'This is none other but the House of God, and this is the Gate of Heaven'; so should our churches be set apart and consecrated with sacred ceremonies making them holy to the Lord. So also, because they are to be in reality, and not by a mere stretch of the imagination, the Presence chambers of our Lord, we must regard them as the nearest to Heaven in holiness of all places on earth by the virtue of that Presence. And lavishing all costly material, and all earnest skill upon their first erection and decoration, we shall ever after frequent them with a consciousness that 'the Lord is in His holy Temple,' and that all which is done there should be done under a sense of the greatest reverence towards Him."