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The first of these ideas is that of special local manifestations of God's presence and power. This idea was strongly suggested by the ancient Jewish temple, and particularly by the Shechinah which always blazed above the mercy-seat. It was the earthly palace of the heavenly King, where He held His earthly court. This temporary idea was necessary for the development of the human sense of the Divine presence on the earth, as the scaffolding is required for the construction of a building, or a ladder may be needed to reach the summit of a cliff. The spiritual sense of humanity was not sufficiently developed to see the glory of God everywhere and in everything, to behold every common bush afire with God. Only a great spiritual eye can read the name of God in the common everyday writing of human history. In order that men should see it at all it was necessary to write it here and there in great capitals. Just as a man pursuing his way in the midst of gathering electric forces may know nothing of them until the lightning flashes bright from the thick cloud, so men, as yet untrained to feel the invisible, would have become regardless, and perchance ignorant, of the Divine presence were it not for its special and pronounced manifestation in the "temple" and other holy places. The attempt to force men at once to recognise an equal Divine presence everywhere would have resulted in their not recognising it anywhere. In the interminable and pathless jungle of human life they would forget a God that might be present everywhere but was conspicuous nowhere.

(John Thomas, M. A.)

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KJV: And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.

WEB: I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb, are its temple.