God to be worshipped in buildings, though no building can be worthy of him.
Of a surety, God "dwelleth not in temples made with hands" (Acts 7:48) in any such sense as to be accessible in such places exclusively. There is truth, as well as grandeur, in the words—
''My altars are the mountains, and the ocean,
Earth, air, sea, all that springs from the Great Whole,
Who hath produced, and will receive, the soul."
And it is always to be borne in mind that we are in his presence everywhere; that he may be worshipped everywhere; that "the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him" (2 Chronicles 2:6); that he inhabits all space, as he inhabits all eternity (Isaiah 57:15). But, in condescension to the infirmity of human nature, he has been pleased in all ages that men should build him "houses" and has condescended, in a certain sense, to localize himself therein. At Sinai he gave exact and most elaborate commands for the construction of the tabernacle and its appurtenances (Exodus 25-30.) To David he communicated by his Spirit "the pattern" of the first temple'' of the porch, and of the houses thereof, and of the treasuries thereof, and of the upper chambers thereof, and of the inner parlours thereof, and of the place of the mercy-seat, and of the courts of the house of the Lord, and of all the chambers round about, and of the treasuries of the house of God, and of the treasuries of the dedicated things" (1 Chronicles 28:11, 1 Chronicles 28:12). On the return from the captivity he required the Israelites to "go up into the mountain, and bring the wood, and build the house," and declared that he would "take pleasure in it and be glorified" (Haggai 1:8). Under Christianity the first church was the "upper room" where "all continued with one accord with prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren" (Acts 1:13, Acts 1:14). Churches are human, not Divine, necessities; but God has been pleased to give them his sanction, as needed by man. Without them worship would decay, if not disappear; for men cannot live in the rare atmosphere of mere spiritualism.