now is to speak of Spain and Portugal-two countries where, perhaps, a work of reformation might have been least expected.

REFORM IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.

Five-and-twenty years ago there was not, so far as I can learn, a single Protestant native congregation in either of these lands. There may have been one in Portugal; but of this I am not sure. In a handbook for Spain, written by Forde—an accurate observer of national life--and published by Murray about that date, the possibility of reform is spoken of as something quite out of the question; and the same might have been then said of Portugal. In both of these countries the darkness was then indeed "a darkness that might be felt."

And yet, let us see what God hath since wrought in these very lands. In a Report of "the Spanish and Portuguese Church-aid Society" published a few years since, it was stated in a letter from Señor Cabrera, that in Spain and Portugal there are now some fifty congregations attended by about 10,000 "professing Evangelical Christians." In the last edition of the very same handbook for Spain which twenty-four years ago described reform as impossible, the places where thirty-eight of these Protestant congregations may be found are specified, so that travellers can test the matter for themselves.

THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE MOVEMENT.

And what, it will be asked, is the means whereby so great a change has been brought about? The answer is a very simple one--THE BIBLE! As we

trace back the beginnings of reform to their first Source we find that through the power of God's Word, read or preached, the Gospel was in each case brought home to the heart of some seeker after truth, and that by the further circulation of that Word the work subsequently progressed. Thus was it with Ruet, Matamoros, Carasco, and Cabrera in Spain, and with Gomez, Mora, Chavez, Diaz, and Costa, in Portugal. Most remarkable is the record of the various steps by which each of these earnest workers was independently brought to a knowledge of the truth; but one fact stands forth prominently above all others, namely, that amid many diversities of operation the same Spirit made in every case the same resistless thrust, and made it with the same sword—even with that Word which pierceth to the very dividing asunder of the soul and spirit! Hence it is, let me add, that the work which these men have done has been so real; hence it is that the whole movement has been marked by so spiritual a tone; and hence it is, too, that we may, I believe, predict for it a blessing from on high for which it could not otherwise look!

And now, were this the place for it, I should like to review the deeply-interesting steps whereby in the case of each of these countries the work has from time to time progressed. I should well like to recount how one after another of these valiant reformers endured persecution, imprisonment, and exile, as witnesses for Christ; and how, as death thinned their ranks, fresh warriors came forward in God's good providence to fill the vacant posts. For a record of these past events, as well as for further details respecting the present condition of the work, I must, how ever, refer my readers to other sources. At the

office of the Spanish and Portuguese Church Aid Society (8, Adam-street, Strand, W.C.), full information in the form of Reports and pamphlets will be supplied to any applicant, and a subscription of one shilling per annum sent to the Secretary, at that office, will entitle the subscriber to receive quarterly a little periodical entitled "Light and Truth," which furnishes its readers with a continuous record of Church reformation work, not only in Spain and Portugal but also in other parts of Christendom.*

While, however, it is not within the compass of my purpose to review at any length the history of the past, there remains one phase of the movement to which in this Preface it is my special duty to refer. I speak of the circumstances under which the "Divine Offices" contained in the present volume have been compiled.

DIVERSITIES OF CHURCH ORDER AND RITUAL.

In describing the reformation movements that have taken place throughout Christendom, and more particularly in Spain and Portugal, during the last quarter of a century, I have thus far regarded them in their broadest aspect, apart from any question as to the principles of Church-government or ritual

adopted in each several case. I have done so pur

posely, and for the following reason.

When we see earnest men compelled, from really spiritual motives, to protest against Romish error; when we find them doing battle, in the face of many enemies, on behalf of an open Bible, and of that free

*"Light and Truth" can be also obtained from the publishers, Partridge and Co., London, or Hodges, Figgis, and Co., Graftonstreet, Dublin, or through any Bookseller.

salvation which is therein proclaimed; when we watch them braving obloquy, persecution, and even death, in order that Christ may be glorified, we ought, indeed, to be ashamed of ourselves were we to ignore or rebuke them, simply because, in less important matters, they follow not after the exact usages of our own Church. For this reason I have not thought it right, in what I have said, to withhold sympathy or welcome, on the one hand from the "Old Catholic" movement, or upon the other from those efforts towards reform, elsewhere, which lack the Episcopal element or the advantage of fixed liturgical offices. But because I have not so done, I should be sorry to have it supposed that I make light of the serious danger to which every work of Church-reform is exposed which in its system of Church-government, or in its form of Church-ritual, exceeds or falls short of that standard which is most agreeable to God's Word, and most in accord with the earliest and purest traditions of the apostolic and primitive Church. And applying this principle to the case of Spain and Portugal, I would further say that while I rejoice at the work done for Christ by many with whose Church-principles I cannot agree, I rejoice still more to know that a strong and increasing desire has been, and is being, manifested by the reformed congregations of those lands to build up the work of Church-reform upon a sound foundation -a foundation of doctrine, discipline, and ritual more nearly resembling that selected by our own reformers three centuries ago than any basis which, so far as I know, has been adopted by any other reformed community in Christendom.

A few words of explanation will be necessary to explain my meaning.

The number of those who in Spain and Portugal have separated themselves from the Church of Rome amounts, as has been said, to about ten thousand. But when we turn to the many scattered congregations among which these Protestants are distributed, it is strange to notice the diversities of Church order and ritual that prevail.

Nor need we go far to discover the cause of these diversities. Since the time when a desire for reform first found expression in the Peninsula some fiveand-twenty years ago, the attention of many Christians of various denominations, and of various nationalities, has been called to this part of Chris tendom, and every little band of reformers which has there struggled out of error has found some religious community ready to tender to it sympathy and help in the hour of its difficulty. Anglican Churchmen, German Lutherans, Swiss Calvinists, Scotch Irish and Dutch Presbyterians, American Methodists, Independents, and Plymouth Brethren have all in turn come forward with their aid, and, as might have been reasonably expected, every congregation gathered together under such influences has taken its shape and colour, so to speak, from the particular denomination which has come to its succour, and beneath whose care and guidance its interests have been placed. Such a result is no doubt only the natural outcome of an interchange of Christian love and sympathy; but it nevertheless presents to the outer world a picture of division which, though more apparent than real, is yet enough to bewilder the friendly looker-on, and to give a handle to the common foe. Nor does such a diversity expose the movement to the reproach of disunion alone. The fact that so many foreign agencies have been apparently