The Baptists in Sweden. By Mrs. M.F. Anderson ...

56 THE BAPTISTS IN SWEDEN.
with regard to the special meetings for devotional
exercises, given at the Court of Stockholm, October 26th, 1858.
"' We, Oscar, by the grace of God, etc., make
known that we in conjunction with the States of
the Kingdom have resolved, while abolishing the
royal placard against religious meetings, of January 12th, 1726, and what in other respects has
been enacted on this subject, to make the following
decree: Members of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church shall not be prohibited to meet for social
devotional exercises, even though the priests are
not present to conduct them. But such meetings
may not take place without special permission,
during the time when public services of the State
Church are being held. Neither shall admittance
to such meetings, as cannot be considered family
worship, be denied the parish priest, members of
church council, or the public authorities in the region; which last-named authorities, in case of any
unlawfulness or disorder, are empowered to break
up the meeting. Should there stand up any one
who is not a priest, or duly authorized by the ecclesiastical laws, to preach at such meetings, and
deliver religious discourses which are considered
as teaching separation from the Established Church
order, or a disregard for the public services of the
Established Church, or to the undermining of the
sacredness of religion, the Church Council are authorized to forbid him to stand up, in the parish,