Page:Neatby - A history of the Plymouth Brethren.djvu/303

 Cronin’s rejoinder, drawing attention to the omission, apparently closed the correspondence.

Though the letter from Pau placed the Kennington Brethren at a great disadvantage, their reluctance to extreme measures was not altogether overcome by it. At a church meeting held on the 28th of April, it was resolved that “the assembly” had “no fellowship with Dr. Cronin’s act in Ryde,” or “with the Masonic Hall meeting,” and that this resolution was tantamount to a censure on Dr. Cronin. The resolution was sent to London Bridge and refused, on the ground that it had not been written out during the meeting. A more formal and explicit censure was then adopted at Kennington; but it also was refused at London Bridge, the plea this time being that four local Brethren had protested against it as insufficient.

The monotonous course of this conflict was broken during May by a most extraordinary occurrence. Darby wrote a second circular, to the same general effect as the former, but containing the following postscript:—

"“Since this was written, and so far ready to be sent off, I hear that Kennington has blamed Dr. Cronin, and rejects communion with the Masonic Hall in Ryde. I look upon this as a gracious intervention of God, and thank Him with all my heart for it, but the above was not written for Kennington particularly, but for the matter itself, as concerning all the Brethren, the glory of God itself, so that I still send it.”"

The “extreme party” actually decided to circulate this letter without the postscript. The circumstances