tion," as it will be seen, embodies, with some trifling variations, the body of doctrine known as the "Thirtynine Articles." It need scarcely be added that this "Declaration" is not intended by the Spanish reformers to constitute in any sense an addition to that deposit of Faith which was once for all enshrined in the Catholic creeds of an undivided Christendom. Its relation to the Reformed Spanish Church is precisely the same as that which its counterpart (the Thirty-nine Articles) bears to the Churches of the Anglican Communion. Unlike the Creeds, which are the possession of the Catholic Church at large, and bind all its members, these " Articles" are intended to have authority within our own Communion alone. And even within that Communion their acceptance is not held to be a condition of Church membership-still less an essential of salvation. Our Clergy must, no doubt, assent to them as "agreeable to the Word of God," and rightly is it so provided. But this assent

is given not to an accretion of novel dogma, but to an interpretation of ancient truth-an interpretation, moreover, which was drawn up for the very purpose of preserving that truth from the innovations of error. It will, I think, be admitted that the Spanish reformers were right in desiring to arm their Church with a similar safeguard, and if so, then it only remained for them to determine whether to undertake, at this early stage of their new Church-life, the delicate and difficult task of formulating fresh theological definitions for the guidance of their own Clergy, or whether (provisionally at least) to adopt for that purpose an already existing and time-honoured Declaration of Doctrine to which they could unreservedly assent, and which had the special merit of being authorized by those branches of the Catholic Church whose confidence and fellow

ship they were most anxious to secure.

Few, I think, will be found to deny that in choosing the latter of these two alternatives they adopted a right and a prudent course.

WHAT HAS NOT BEEN INCLUDED AND WHY?

So much as to what the compilers have included in these Offices. As to certain things that they have not included, there may be a difference of opinion. Some, for example, may be disappointed at finding that the Athanasian Creed (though accepted by the Spanish reformers "as containing a true definition of the Catholic Faith," and though printed in full at the close of their "Declaration of Doctrine,") does not form a part of their public worship; others may regret that in the Baptismal Offices (although the sacramental relationship between the outward sign and the inward grace is very clearly set forth) there is not a more distinct declaration (such as that in the Anglican Office) affirming the regeneration of those who are baptized; others might have wished to see in the service for the Ordination of Presbyters a commission to remit or retain sins, or a form of indicative Absolution in the service for the Visitation of the Sick. Upon the other hand, I would venture to state some reasons which, if dispassionately considered, ought, I think, to modify, if not wholly to remove, such feelings of regret. In the first place, it will, I assume, be granted that none of the things which have been thus excluded from the Spanish Prayer Book can be fairly classed among the essentials of public worship. The recitation, for example, of the Athanasian Creed by the congregation is practically unknown outside the limits of the Anglican Communion; and even as re

gards that Communion, some of its branches (such as the American Church) do not so use the Creed even now. Again, the phrase "seeing that this child is regenerate" is peculiar to the Anglican Office, and dates only from Reformation days. Once more, the words "Whose sins thou dost forgive they are forgiven, and whose sins thou dost retain they are retained" were not used in any Service for the Ordination of Priests until the twelfth century; and even at the present time the American branch of the Anglican Communion permits the use of an alternative form from which these words are omitted. Lastly the indicative Absolution in the Service for the Visitation of the Sick dates also from medieval times and does not now find place in the Prayer Book either of the American or Irish Church. Under these circumstances we cannot, I think, attach a vital significance to phrases and forms so partially used-and, some of them, so recently introduced-within the Catholic Church; nor can we condemn the Spanish reformers for excluding them from their Prayer Book, without involving in our censure a considerable portion of the Communion to which we ourselves belong.

But there is a further justification for the absence of this matter from the Spanish Prayer Book which I submit with confidence to every candid mind. When we remember the dates at which these formulas and observances severally found their way into the public services of the Latin and Anglican Churches, we cannot, with any show of probability, suppose that they had place in the ancient Mozarabic Rite of Spain, as it was used by the Church of that land for many a century before the earliest of these later dates. The absence therefore of this matter from the Spanish Prayer Book of the present day has at least this plea

to urge by way of justification-it is in harmony with the national traditions of the past. One word more. The exclusion of ambiguous phrases that have been used controversially on the one side or the other for the purpose of closing up questions that should be left open, and securing a party triumph, is surely justifiable in the interests of charity and comprehensiveness. For, on the one hand, the mere absence of such phrases does not of itself preclude the holding or teaching, by members of the Church, of any doctrine (not elsewhere prohibited) which in their opinion these phrases may seem to involve. On the other hand, by the exclusion of such matter a handle is taken from any who might point to these phrases as a reason for exclusive teaching on their own parts. All, therefore, that we have a right to look for in the Reformed Church of Spain as a condition of its comprehensiveness-and if it seeks to be national it must aim at comprehension-is this :-that in the place of these apparently dogmatic phrases on the one hand, there shall not be substituted phrases that tend to foreclose the question on the other. Now, an examination of the Offices of this Church will, I think, show that no such narrowing process has been adopted, and that no question has been closed which, by reasonable men in the Anglican Communion is regarded as fairly an open one. And if this be so, I have every confidence that large-hearted and right-judging men of all parties will come to the conclusion that in the construction of a Prayer Book, one of whose principal objects it is to serve as a bond of unity among fellowchurchmen, the Spanish reformers have done well in taking a lesson from the experience of the past, and in resolving to exclude from their Offices certain expressions which are surely not required for the purpose

of establishing any essential doctrine; which can scarcely have found place in the ancient Rite of their national Church; and which in other Churches have unhappily furnished a battlefield whereon many a bitter and profitless controversy has been waged.

SENOR CABRERA'S QUALIFICATIONS FOR HIS TASK.

I know not that I can add anything more in explanation of the principles upon which these Offices have been compiled. I trust I have said enough to win for them a favourable consideration. For my

own part, when I call to mind the many disadvantages with which these Spanish reformers have had to contend, I am filled with admiration at the ability and the wisdom with which they have accomplished their work, and most heartily do I thank God, who at a critical juncture in the history of this movement, has raised up men competent to discharge so arduous a duty. It is indeed a happy coincidence that the man, who, because of his past Evangelistic labours, his unblemished Christian character, his rare powers of organization, and his national sympathies, has been chosen as Bishop-elect of the Spanish Church- I refer to Señor Cabrera-should have in early life passed through a probation that seems to have fitted him for the very work of liturgical compilation with which he has had since to deal. Brought up as a Priest of the order of "pious schools" (Escolas pias), he was obliged in that capacity, when a young man, to pursue a course of study much more liberal and farreaching than what is usually required of other Clerics; and when subsequently obliged, because of his secession from Rome, to spend five years in exile at Gibraltar, he so far mastered the English lan