Malachi, whose face is reminiscent of Abraham's, may not even be a name, but a symbolic term. Its meaning is "My messenger," an allusion to the prophet's divinely appointed mission. The Biblical book of that name was probably written about 475 bee, during the Persian period, towards the end of what we know as the time of prophecy.

Limitless buildings stretch from the base towards the sky. Futuristic human forms portend the scientific miracles of the coming age: two men breathe through tubes; we see a plastic heart; a man leaps through the air as though without weight. The end of war seems presaged by the figures of soldiers who fall downward toward the base.

Amos' lion still roars, but its message is a comforting one: (Hebrew: ) He will turn the hearts of fathers to children, and the hearts o f children to their fathers." [Malachi 3:24] This is the vision of what will happen when a new age of prophecy begins: "Behold, I will send you Elijah." [3:23] Elijah who fought against every kind of idolatry and false sacrifice will inaugurate the day when parents will no longer send sons to war, nor will the lives of parents be sacrificed in protection of their children.

Man may even learn to use the weapons of war for peaceful purposes: the mushroom cloud of the atom which rises above the prophet's head may well be "the sun of righteousness" which comes "with healing on its wings." [3 :20] In the sun is the child, every child, the promise of the future of the race, each one of whom can be the forerunner of the Messianic age.

But fundamental to all progress and to every effort to achieve peace, basic to the aspiration of humanity for surcease from war and hatred, is the simple act of reconciliation of parents and children, the reaffirmation of the tender affections of home and family-this alone will ward off the evil day of human extinction.