which could not exist with safety to the highest interests of religion in other sections of the church. In fact, the Church of England has always laid comparatively little stress on this ordinance. The element of worship has in a great measure overshadowed and thrown into the back ground the element of instruction. Men go to church mainly and primarily to pray, rather than to hear the Word of God. The cast of their best piety has all along been rather devotional, than strongly intellectual or doctrinal. So far, indeed, all this is well. We should never wish to see our English neighbours going to the other extreme, and coming, like many of us here in Scotland, to regard the whole business of the sanctuary as summed up in "sitting under" such a ministry, and "hearing sermon" in such a church. We are most willing to confess our own faults in this matter, and to admit that we too have fallen into an extreme equally indefensible, and in some respects equally per nicious with the other. But surely both errors may be avoided, and must be avoided, if the vitality and power of spiritual religion is to be increased among us. It is surely possible to have at once an impressive and enlarged service of praise and prayer, and a rich and powerful exhibition of truth, nor can either element long thrive in health and vigour without the other. Doctrine without devotion will soon degenerate into a mere skeleton of lifeless orthodoxy; devotion without doctrine will wither into formalism, or sink into a feeble, drivelling sentimentalism. If worship constitute the holy fire upon the altar-hearth, then the preached Word is the sacred fuel that feeds that fire; and whether the flame itself be allowed to languish, or the needful aliment be withheld, or but scantily supplied, the result in either case is equally disastrous. We are aware that there has existed hitherto a practical obstacle to the assigning of that prominence to the ordinance of preaching in the English Church which its importance demands. We allude to the great length of the devotional services, and particularly at morning prayer. rejoice, however, to learn that there is no reform more practicable or likely than that which would remove this difficulty,not indeed by curtailing the church services,-the bare mention of such a thing would awaken an opposition altogether overwhelming, but by dividing them, assigning one portion to an earlier service, and reserving only the more essential parts for the usual forenoon hour. This is in fact only restoring the morning service to its original form and design, and has already, we understand, been partially carried out under episcopal authority, at least in one diocese of the church. Were this practical improvement becoming universal, we cannot help thinking, that the very clearing of the ground thus

We

effected, would, of itself, tend to give a new expansion to the office and work of preaching in the Church of England, which could not but be fraught with the best results in the solidity and energy of spiritual religion within her pale.

We might have referred to other points, but the above may suffice as examples of the practical bearings of our present subject, and as serving to show, that we are enunciating no mere barren truism in holding forth the Bible as the one allsufficient antidote to the poison of a pernicious ecclesiasticism. The practical ameliorations we have adverted to are surely not Utopian. They belong entirely to the region of administrative reform, and have nothing whatever to do with organic change. They come precisely within the scope of what has been called "seminal," in contradistinction from "radical" reform, and are in themselves such as we believe will commend themselves to the church's best friends, as salutary and necessary; and yet, if fully carried out, and zealously wrought by soundhearted churchmen, who can doubt that even such partial ameliorations as these would mightily contribute, with the blessing of God, to strengthen whatever is sound and true in the English church and nation, and to counteract whatever is noxious in the tendencies of the times? *

In fine, let all true friends of the Bible and the gospel be up and doing; let them be instant in season and out of season, striving with all their might to deepen and broaden the foundations of an enlightened, spiritual, Biblical Christianity throughout the land. Let them labour to make England what Scotland once was in some degree,—a land of Bibles, and of solid Bible godliness. Let the spirit of the eternal Word pervade her schools, reign supreme in her theological halls, fill with living and life-giving energy her pulpits. Let it be the preserving salt of all her institutions, the atmosphere of all her society, the leaven of all her literature, the light of all her cottage homes. Let the learned masters in Israel, too,

We need scarcely warn our readers against mistaking the above suggestions for a scheme of church reform. Were it so, we frankly admit that we should be laying ourselves open to the charge of having brought forward one of the most meagre and "peddling measures of the kind ever yet promulgated. On the contrary, our object has been to indicate some of the ways in which, pending the question of reform, the presently pressing evils might be in part counteracted by measures of a purely administrative kind. Had our purpose been different, our remarks would, of course, have taken an entirely different direction. The immediately practicable is one thing, the speculatively desirable is another. For the same reason, we have refrained from any reference to the question of the application of ecclesiastical authority to the purging out of the evil leaven, as there seem to exist at present insuperable obstacles in the state of the law to the effective use of that authority to meet the present crisis,obstacles which, in a great measure, tie up the hands of the most faithful bishop, as well as the most remiss. To meet this state of things, important legislative reforms seem absolutely necessary; and, pending these and all other prospective changes, the sound-hearted portion of the church must meanwhile look about them for means of counterworking an evil which they cannot for the moment remove.

contribute their share in the good work, by vindicating afresh, according to the exigencies of the times, the divine authority and infallibility of the Word, and throwing up new bulwarks around the citadel of the faith. Thus gradually shall an atmosphere be diffused throughout the land in which Popery and Puseyism cannot breathe. The fires of apostolic and reformation times shall be rekindled once more; and then, too, may we hope that the same mighty agent, which has been the source of new life, will, in course of time, also manifest its purifying energy, by purging away the dross of holy things, and consuming the encumbering rubbish that has gathered round the foundations of the house of God.

ART. V.-1. History of the Progress and Suppression of the Reformation in Spain in the Sixteenth Century. By THOMAS M'CRIE, D.D. Edinburgh: 1829.

2. The Spanish Protestants, and their Persecution by Philip II. By Senor DON ADOLFO DE CASTRO. Translated from the original Spanish. By THOMAS PARKER. London: 1851. 3. History of Religious Intolerance in Spain. Translated from the Spanish of Senor DON ADOLFO DE CASTRO. BY THOMAS By PARKER. London: 1853.

4. Letters from Spain. By Don LEUCADIO DOBLADO. London: 1822.

5. Gatherings from Spain. By RICHARD FORD. London: 1846. 6. Memoir of a Mission to Gibraltar and Spain. By the Rev. W. H. RULE. London: 1844.

7. The Practical Working of the Church of Spain. By the Rev. FREDERICK MEYRICK, M.A. Oxford: 1851.

8. Religious Liberty Abroad: A Letter to the Right Honourable VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. By JAMES THOMSON. London: 1851.

9. Spain, its Position and Evangelization, &c. By JAMES THOMSON. London: 1853.

IN no country in Europe did the cause of the Reformation gather around it disciples more illustrious for rank and learning, or, in the first instance, give greater promise of success, than in Spain. Even in the darker ages that had preceded the Reformation, there had always been men to keep the torch of truth dimly burning, and to testify with more or less of boldness against the surrounding degeneracy. And when the trumpet of the Reformation was sounded by Luther in Germany, there were prepared hearts in Spain quick to hear it,

and neither the iron bigotry of Ferdinand, nor the vigorous policy of Charles, nor the gloomy fanaticism of Philip, could shut out from their dominions the new power. Tracts by Erasmus, which had done the work of the pioneer in other countries, found their way into the Iberian Peninsula, and by their wit and learning shook the fabric of Papal abuses; letters by Melancthon awakened inquiry, while they conciliated opposition; tracts by Luther, and still more his great work on the Epistle to the Galatians, struck the deepest chords in men's bosoms, and meeting their greatest wants, relieved them; translations of portions of the Scripture by Enzinas and Perez into the language of the people were circulated, and read in secret, and led multitudes to believe with joy; teachers and disciples of the Waldenses, crossing the Pyrenees, settled in those Spanish provinces which were nearest to France, and helped to spread the sacred flame; poor men of Lyons, while maintaining an external adherence to the Papal Church, avowed principles so evangelical, and paid such deference to the Bible in which they found those principles, as effectually to do the work of the Reformers; learned men and eloquent preachers, sent into countries that had become infested with the heresy, that they might reclaim its disciples, returned more than half convinced of its truth; monasteries and convents, which were confided in as the impregnable strongholds of the Papacy, welcomed the new doctrine through their gates and bars, and many a gloomy cell became a gate of heaven, and a centre of light to the surrounding regions; and when at length the alarmed civil and ecclesiastical authorities had planted guards at every seaport and frontier town, to check the introduction of Bibles and other religious books, and to watch the movements of priests and teachers that were suspected of sympathy with Lutheranism, many a Bible still found its way into Spain skilfully concealed in casks of Burgundy; while Julian Hernandez, the shrewd and humble muleteer, contrived to elude the jealousy of the spies and familiars of the Inquisition, and to bear thousands of copies of the Word of Life across the Sierras into Andalusia, hidden beneath the guise of a less precious merchandise.

To one who should look merely at these auspicious beginnings, it may seem strange that the Reformation should have been suppressed so soon in Spain, especially when it is remembered that in Germany, and other countries now Protestant, the same cause, with a commencement in no degree more vigorous, advanced to an early and stable triumph. But we have only to glance at the historical circumstances of those nations, in order to see that in all of them the Reformation enjoyed means of protection and facilities of progress unknown in the Peninsula. In Germany there were electors

and princes favourable to Luther, and free cities which had caught the new influence, and the well-defined rights of whose burghers it would have been perilous for either the Emperor or the Pope to touch. In England, the quarrel of Henry VIII. with the Pope was the means of keeping Papal influence at bay, and gave time for Tyndale's Bibles and Latimer's sermons to leaven the land with Protestantism. In Scotland, a weak monarchy in league with Rome had to cope with powerful barons and bold feudal chiefs who were almost supreme within their own territories, and some of the best and most potent of these taking the side of Protestantism, shielded Knox from the enmity of the court, so that, ere the great Reformer died, the majority of his countrymen had broken in sunder the Papal yoke. In France, Rome could only reach her victims through the local magistracy, who, in many instances, sympathising with the Huguenots, were slow to act against them; while the queenly influence of Margaret of Navarre bridled the action of a sometimes hostile, sometimes vacillating court. And in the cantons of Switzerland, and in the Low Countries, the people enjoyed solid constitutional powers, which were oftener than otherwise turned to the side of the Reformers.*

But in Spain none of these facilities and immunities were enjoyed. The Scriptures could only be circulated as contraband goods, the friends of the gospel could only assemble in secret, and he who preached in favour of a more apostolic faith, or even hinted a fault in existing institutions, knew that he did so at the peril of the inquisitorial tribunal, the torture, and the flames. There was no "shadow from the heat" in that land afforded, either by popular rights or by a balance of powers. When the energy of the civil authorities appeared at times to flag and to yield to some of the better influences of a natural humanity, the more iron-hearted and remorseless spiritual powers of the Inquisition were ever ready to goad them on, and with their more ubiquitous and subtle means of detection, to feed the sword and the fire with new victims. Could the suspicions of the inquisitorial fathers have been kept asleep for a little period longer, and the machinery of the confessional stayed, or had there even been a fragment of shelter for liberty of speech, of assembly, and profession, the new faith would have numbered the mass of the people, as well as the flower and chivalry of the Spanish nobility, among its disciples, the double yoke of Popery and of despotism would have been broken from the neck of a great nation, and Spain would have been seen standing at this hour, with other nations that yielded their hearts to the reform, among the great lights of the world.

* M Crie's Hist., ch. vi.