In the autumn of 1878 a young clergyman of the name of Finch, resident in Ryde, left the communion of the Church of England, and was received into the fellowship of the Darbyites in London. It seems that he made it plain that he would not feel at liberty, on his return to Ryde, to associate himself with the Temperance Hall meeting; but this did not hinder his reception. He began the observance of the Lord’s Supper in his own house, with some that had followed him out of the Established Church. In February Dr. Cronin visited Ryde, and took the communion with Mr. Finch at this private meeting. He repeated the act a few weeks later, and by his advice the meeting was transferred to the Masonic Hall.
Cronin had no thought of making a secret of what he had done. On his return to London from the second visit, he reported his action to his own meeting in Kennington, and he wrote to Darby to the same effect. Darby’s reply should be carefully noted. “I only think you have deceived yourself as to the effect of the step. I shall be delighted if I am wrong. … I cannot say that your letter made me unhappy.”
Darby was right. The opposition in London lost no time in declaring itself, and within ten days of Cronin’s report to his own meeting forty or fifty brothers there found it advisable to disown all association with the new meeting at Ryde. They reported this act to the Central Meeting at London Bridge. It was not sufficient. A clamour was raised for the excision of the venerable offender, and the Kennington Brethren were given to understand that if they screened Dr. Cronin they would only share in his ruin.
The difficulty is to distinguish in principle between Cronin’s act at Ryde and Darby’s secession from Ebring-
