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The New Zealand Evangelist

Prussia.—The King

Prussia.—The King.

The Government of Prussia is very favourable to religion and religious liberty, and great results may be anticipated from this cause. The king is a truly good man. He may have been misled as to measures, and he certainly has been in the affair of Cracow; but he is the most religious, the most protestant, and the best disposed towards Christianity, of all the sovereigns of Europe. The population of Prussia is about 14,000,000, of whom about 10,000,000 are protestants.

The speech with which his Majesty, Frederick William IV., opened his first parliament, has naturally been the subject of most lively interest, and as naturally of most widely differing comments, although all parties hear testimony to the energetic eloquence which it displayed, (a gift which the Prussian monarch possesses in an eminent degree,) the high-souled courage which breathed in its uncompromising language, and the honest conviction from which it emanated. To one paragraph especially, every Christian heart must throt a joyful response—I mean that in which, alluding to the efforts made by disloyal and infidel writers to inveigle and misguide the people to their temporal and eternal ruin, the king said, “Yes; even in our national Church the fruits of this tree of death have manifested themselves, by the twin poisons of indifferentism and fanaticism. This indeed (he continued) is no place for religious discussion, our ecelesiastical confessions both possessing their legal and authorized organs; yet I cannot possibly refrain from this day making my confession, in reference to the fearful attempts which have been made to rob my people of their page 210 most sacred jewel—their faith in our common Saviour, our Divine Lord and King. And this my confession (Fredrick William rose from his throne, and held up his right hand to heaven as he spoke these words, this my confession is—'As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!'”