galaxies, make one universe.  The number of stars in a universe

therefore would be ten thousand trillion, or expressed in figures,

that is equal to the number of drops of water in all the oceans of the

world, or grains of fine sand sufficient to cover the whole of England and

Wales, to a depth of a foot, and each one of them comparable in size to our

sun'.  (The Endless Quest, Westaway).

While it is not intended that Israel are ever to reach such

astronomical figures, the contemplation of the possible number of the stars,

compels us to admit that an extraordinary increase in number constitutes an

essential feature of the Divine purpose for this `great nation'.  According

to Deuteronomy 1:10 these promises were on the way to fulfilment even when

Israel stood upon the borders of the promised land, and the present drop in

their numbers is coincident with their being in disfavour.  `If ye walk

contrary to Me, I will make you few in number' (Lev. 26:21,22).

When at length the Lord causes the captivity of both Judah and of

Israel to return `as at the first', when He performs that good thing which He

has promised unto the house of Israel and of Judah, then `as the host of

heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I

multiply the seed of David My servant, and the Levites that minister unto Me

saith the Lord' (Jer. 33:7,14,22).

At the time of the end of this age the world will be so ravaged and

desolated by the destructive method of atomic or other superscientific

weapons that the prophet Zechariah speaks of `every one that is left of all

the nations which came against Jerusalem' (Zech. 14:16), words that suggest a

terrible depletion in the number of the inhabitants of the earth at that day.

In Zechariah 13:8 the prophet's meaning is made very clear, when he says,

`and it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts

therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein'.

Something of what may be expected when atomic warfare breaks out over this

devoted earth can be sensed by the words of the Apocalypse:

of

trees was burnt up'.

of

the sea became blood'.

of

the ships were destroyed'.

of

men', slain (Rev. 8:7,8,9; 9:15).

The day is passed when these catastrophic times could be brushed aside

as mere figures of speech, we have lived through days when `a third part of

the ships' were well nigh literally destroyed.  We have seen that following

the desolation of Genesis 1:2 came the creation of man and the command,

`replenish the earth'.  We have seen that the same command was given to Noah

after the cataclysm of the flood.  This same command will be fulfilled in

Israel when they, too, shall `blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world

with fruit' (Isa. 27:6).  Ephraim, as the `firstborn' will indeed be great,

and his seed `shall become a Filling Up of the nations' (Gen. 48:19).

Once again we see the principle of the pleroma at work, with its

promise of a better day, when sorrow and sighing shall have fled away, when

the true seed shall flourish, and the seed of the serpent be no more.