THE HOUSE OF GOD | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 15, 1861

THE HOUSE OF GOD.

*“The true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.” John iv, 23.*

PRAYER has no place peculiarly its own— No lofty temple, with its shining throne, But everywhere the knee may bow, The soul may breathe in accents low, Its humble wants.

Churches unknown within the city’s mart, Hidden within the verdure of the heart Of each true worshiper, uprise, With steeples pointing to the skies— Emblems of faith.

There, meeting in the still, secluded place, With holy prayer and upward-lifted face, The yearnings of our spirits bend, And all our thoughts together blend In one desire.

The spirit’s dome is gilded o’er with prayer; And downward leaning from the arching there, Are cherubim and seraphim, Waiting to catch the rising hymn Of praise divine.

There, without fear, in penitence we bow, And our confessions make in accents low, Owning our weakness and our sin, With only tears fast dropping in God’s treasury.

But these are precious in our Father’s sight, As was the dropping of the widow’s mite. And treading the still, inner aisles, He lighteth up the soul with smiles, And makes it his—forevermore his own— The home, the "house of God," his humble throne, The soul-church, where our longings meet, And where our aspirations sweet Make Sabbath there.