ward thought is that their houses shall continue forever ;" i. e. that their poster- ity shall always flourish. — Calmet ; Wc- mj-ss. See Hocsehold.
House of Bishops. See Convo- cation.
House of Clerical and Lay- Deputies. Sec Convocation.
House of God, a name frequently ,,7.
given to the edifice in which Christians assemble for the worship of God, not be- cause God dwells there by any visible or - — special presence, as of olil he " dwelt be- ~"^ tween the cherubims," but because it is dedicated to God, and set apart for his ser- vice. It is thus synonymous with the word "church" in that modern use of it by which it sig- nifies a building (Eden). See Bethel; House; Tem- ple.
House of Prayer, places where persons assemble to pray, and to receive religious instruction, but where the sacraments are not administered. It is the general name of the Protestant churches in Hungary, and was such in Silesia under the Austrian rule, to distinguish them from the Roman Catholic places of worship. It is also used in Gennany to designate the churches of such sects as are not officially recognised, as the Moravians, etc. The synagogues are also called houses of prayer (Isa. Ivi, 7) Pierer, Unir. Lex. s. v. See Pkoseuch.e.
Household (usually same in the orig. as " house"), the members of a famih' residing in the same abode, in- cluding servants and dependants, although in Job i, 3 a distinction (not observed in the A.V.) is intimated by
the term iTj3", cdniddah,' lit. se7'i-ice Q' servants,''' Gen, xxvi, 24), between the domestics and the n^3, hay'ith, or proper family of the master of the liouse ; and some have thought alike dilfiniitf Id lie denoted between the Greek term oiVi'a (lii. n.-<iil, m-i 1 and o7/coc of the N. T., which are both indi-i liininaicly rendered " house" and " household" in the Engl. X'ersion. This latter view is confirmed by the improbability that any of the im- mediate imperial family (Nero's) should have been in- cluded in the converts to Christianity expressed in the phrase the;/ of Cfesar's household (oi c'/c ri/e Ka/aapof oiKictc, Phil, iv, 22). See C.esau.
Hoitseholder {oiKoti(nToTijc, master of the house, as rendered Jlatt. x, 25; Luke xiii, 25; xiv, 21), the male head of a famih' (Matt, xiii, 27, 62; xx, 1 ; xxi, 23). There are monographs on the parable Matt, xx, by Feuerlein, I)e scribaproferente e thesauro nova et Ve- tera (Alt. 1730) ; Bagewitz, I)e scrihu docto (Host. 1720). See Goodjian oe the house.
Housel, "the old Saxon name for the Eucharist, supposed by some to be from the Gothic '/»«w</,' a vic- tim."—Eadie, Eccles. Dictionunj, p. 315.
House-top (55, (jag, Swfia), the flat roof of an Ori- ental house, for sucli is usually their form, though there are sometimes domes over some of the rooms. The flat portions are plastered with a composition of mortar, tar, aslies, and sand, which in time becomes A-ery hard, but when not laid on at the proper season is apt to crack in winter, and the rain is thus admitted. In order to pre- vent this, every roof is provided with a roller, which is set at work after rain. In many cases the terrace roof is little better than earth rolled hard On ill-compacted roofs grass is often found springing into a short-lived existence (Prov. xix, 13; xxvii, 15; Psa. cxxix, G, 7; Isa. xxxvii, 27 ; Shaw, p. 210; Lane, i, 27, Pobinsoii, iii, 39,44,00). SeeGKASs.
■Icru Ej^ypu;
tops.
In no point do Oriental domestic habits diflfer more from European than in the use of the rtwf (Hackett, II- lustra. of Scripture, p. 71 sq.). Its flat surface is made useful for various household purposes (Josh, ii, G), as drj-ing corn, hanging up linen, and preparing flgs and raisins (Shaw, p. 211 ; Burckhardt, Trav. i, 101 : Bart- lett, Footsteps of our Lord, p. I9'J). The roofs arc used almost universally as places of recreation in the even- ing, and often as sleeping-places at night (2 Sam. xi,2; xvi, 22; Dan. iv, 29; 1 Sam. ix, 25,26; Job xxvii, 18; Prov. xxi, 9 ; Shaw, p. 21 1 ; Kussell, i, 35 ; Chardin, iv, 116 ; Layard, Nineveh, i, 177). They ^vere also used as places for devotion, and even idolatrous worship (Jer. xxxii,29; xix, 13 ; 2 Kings xxiii, 12; Zeph i,5; Acts X, 9). At the time of the Feast of Tabernacles booths were erected by the Jews on the tops of their houses, as in the present day huts of boughs are sometimes erected
HOUSE-TOP
376
HOVEY
on the house-tops as sleeping-places, or places of retire- ment from the heat in summer time (Neh. viii, 16; Burckhardt, Syria, p. 280), As among the Jews the se- clusion of women was not carried to the extent of Mo- hammedan usage, it is probable that the house-top was made, as it is among Christian inhabitants, more a place of public meeting both for men and women, than is the case among ISIohammedans, who carefully seclude their roofs from inspection by partitions (Burckhardt, Trav. i, 191 ; compare Wilkinson, i, 23). The Christians at Ale])po, in KusseU's time, lived contiguous, and made their house-tojis a means of mutual communication to avoid passing through the streets in time of plague (Rus- sell, i, 35). In the same manner, the house-top might be made a means of escape by the stairs by which it was reached without entering any of the apartments of the house (Matt, xxiv, 17; x, 27; Luke xii,3). Both Jews and heathens were in the habit of wailing publicly on the house-tops (Isa. xv, 3 ; xxii, 1 ; Jer. xlviii, 38). The expression used by Solomon, "dwelling upon the house-top" (Prov. xxi, 9), is illustrated by the frequent custom of building chambers and rooms along the side and at the corners of the open space or terrace which often constitutes a kind of upper story (Hackett, ni stip. p. 74). Or it may refer to tlie fact that booths are some- times constructed of branches and leaves upon the roof.