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Rh 1865 the first Protestant congregation was gathered in the capital, under the leadership of Aguilar. They called themselves "The Church of Jesus," and were known from the outset as strong advocates of an open Bible in the language of the people and of prayer in their mother-tongue. Aguilar's ministry was short, but productive. He died in 1865, a victim to the cruelty of Rome. The Church of Jesus had been put under ban. No Romanist would give or sell its members food, and they were driven out of every house where they attempted to find shelter. The pastor was among the first victims of these privations, and after his death the little flock were scattered by their relentless persecutors.

In the summer of 1868, Miss Rankin was in the United States soliciting aid for her work in Monterey, when she met the Rev. H. C. Riley, then the pastor of a Spanish Protestant church in New York and her own personal friend. Her statements convinced him that it was his duty to go to the City of Mexico, where two hundred thousand souls were sitting in almost heathenish darkness. Three years afterward Mr. Riley carried out this plan, coming to Mexico under the auspices of the American and-Foreign Christian Union. His command of the Spanish language enabled him at once to take hold of the work. He had brought with him a printing-press, and this was set up and secretly began its work.

The effort to regather Aguilar's flock and organize a church resulted in a split on the subject of prelacy, a strong party preferring the simplicity and freedom of worship with which they began. As time went on one party affiliated with the "Church of Jesus," and the other—nine congregations in all—united under a