Out of the North shall evil boil forth(131) On all that dwell in the land; For behold, I am calling All the realms(132) of the North. They shall come and each set his throne In the openings of the gates of Jerusalem, On all of her walls round about, And every township of Judah. And My judgments by them(133) shall I utter On the evil of those who have left Me, Who have burned to other gods And bowed to the works of their hands. But thou shalt gird up thy loins, Stand up and speak(134) all I charge thee. Be not dismayed before them, Lest to their face I dismay thee. See I have thee set this day A fenced city and walls of bronze To the kings and princes of Judah, Her priests and the folk of the land; They shall fight but master thee never, For with thee am I to deliver— Rede of the Lord.(135) Jeremiah was silenced and went forth to his ministry—the Word upon his lips and the Lord by his side. Two further observations are natural. _First_, note the contrast between the two Visions—the blossoming twig and the boiling caldron brewing tempests from the North. Unrelated as these seem, they symbolise together Jeremiah’s prophesying throughout. For in fact this was all blossom and storm, beauty and terror, tender yearning and thunders of doom—up to the very end. Or to state the same more deeply: while the caldron of the North never ceased boiling out over his world—consuming the peoples, his own among them, and finally sweeping him into exile and night—he never, for himself or for Israel, lost the clear note of his first Vision, that all was watched and controlled. There is his value to ourselves. Jeremiah was no prophet of hope, but he was the prophet of that without which hope is impossible—faith in Control—that be the times dark and confused as they may, and the world’s movements ruthless, ruinous and inevitable, God yet watches and rules all to the fulfilment of His Will—though how we see not, nor can any prophet tell us. _Second_, note how the story leaves the issue, not with one will only, but with two—God’s and the Man’s, whom God has called. His family has been discounted, his people and their authorities, political and religious, are to be against him. _He_ is to stand up and speak, _He_ is not to let himself be dismayed before them, lest God make him dismayed. Under God, then, the Individual becomes everything. Here, at the start of his ministry, Jeremiah has pressed upon him, the separateness, the awful responsibility, the power, of the Single Soul. We shall see how the significance of this developed not for himself only, but for the whole religion of Israel. Lecture IV. THE PROPHET IN THE REIGN OF JOSIAH. 627-26-608 B.C. This period of the Prophet’s career may be taken in three divisions:—