GERMANEMPEROR'SAPPEAL FOR FAITH.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1713, 2 April 1913, Page 3

GERMANEMPEROR'SAPPEAL FOR FAITH.

_——<, ■ "WE GERMANS FEAR GOD AND NO ONE ELSE." A most spcecli, exhorting his subjects to put their trust in God, and deploring tne modern tendency to ■ scepticism, was delivered'by the N German Emperor at tho Friedrich-W'ilhelm University on March 9, on tho occasion of the celebrations in memory, of tho rising of , tho German nation in 1813. Tho Emperor and Empress, the lin-. perial Chancellor, several Ministers, and many high officials wero present, and the Kaiser's speech was quite unexpected. In fact, the ltector of the University .was about to ' begin - tho concluding address when tho Emperor stepped up to thorrostruhi and madp a speecn which was quite, spontaneous.. He spoke with great em-y pnasis, repeatedly - bringing his ; riglit hand down with' forco on/to tho desk, i' : "In.tlio old Prussian town of Koenigsberg," lie said, "I Called tho attention of Eaiit Prussia to the fact that tho sped of, that great .period of upheaval was to bo' found in tho fact. that, the Prussian people J based its. moral view of lii'o on religion,. In pther words, it had, recovered' laitii in its God. , ' ! "Tlio present generation—which is ; inclined to believe principally in what caii' bo seen, proved, or touched with tho hands, and, on tho other hand, shojvs less capacity for that which is transcendental, to put .difficulties in the way of the veryword religion—this present generation may well learn how it may "get back to tho faithVof.its'frithfc'rS, - ' ' "Shortly: hfter the . death ,of the great . ICing, 1 ■ tho Prussian "peoplo! had lost this faith.' Foreign ways gained ground among tho people, and when there caino tho great endurau;e test of 1800 there'was a collapso such as tho : world has hardly ever' seen. Was that tho work of man? That was tho judgment of God, as was subsequently a change in tho course of'worldhistory,' the re-birth of a wholo nation. That, is so stupendous a thing that 'it is worth while, to. tako it to heart aiid never to fci-get that that also • was not. the work of man, but of God. : , '~ "Thus, iu tho fear of God, an oppressed and dismembered nation roso and—a wonder such as had never occurred before —carried everything before -it, Thus' -we have.in .the facts of the past'.sure proofs of thb governance, of , God. Wc have .visible''proofs that Ho was'with us and is with us, and learri from these lessons of the past the whole of Germany's youth can .forge for itself that shield of faith proved in the fire which must never bo lacking in the armoury of Germans and Prussians. . ' • / "Arlihed with sueh weapons wo'will, untroubled from right or left, pursue our straight path, eyes upraised,, hearts upraised;. trusting in God. Then wo can nil repeat the words of our mighty first ■Chancellor: 'We Germans fear God and nothing olso in the world.' (Loud cheers.) And in token of this, let us give three hurrahs for our German Fatherland, for our beloved Prussia." (Cheers.)