A writer in the Irish Ecclesiastical Gazette refers to Isaiah 56:7, and asks, "Can this be a prediction of an altar-less church?"
No; it is not. But the altar is not one lighted with candles, for the performance of the mass. The verse reads: "Even them will I bring to my mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and sacrifices shall be accepted upon my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all people." (Isaiah 56:7)
The apostle in Hebrews tells us what the sacrifice is: "By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name." (Hebrews 13:15)
And the altar is described by John in the Revelation: "And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand." (Revelation 8:3-4)
This is the altar to which we have access by the faith of Jesus. There is courage in the thought that not a petition that comes from the heart is lost, but all are offered up before God, mingled with the sweet grace of Christ, His merits and intercessions.
Let no timid soul find discouragement in the fact that it is the prayers of all saints that are offered before the throne. The saints of the Bible are people who know that they are sinners, and who know that Christ died to save them from their sins.--Present Truth, March 15, 1894.