the letter; it needs no detailed criticism from any one. Suffice it to say, that the language used in it is as contrary to the laws of the land we live in as it is to the usage and order of the Church of the living God, and surely contrary to His Holy Word. Do, I beseech you, immediately entreat our beloved and honoured Brother, J. N. D. to withdraw this dreadful and most humbling document.”
The extraordinary change in Darby’s tone towards Cronin gave rise to painful suspicions. The sudden wreckage of an uninterrupted friendship of more than fifty years undoubtedly called for explanation, and many found it in an unworthy jealousy of Mr. Kelly that had long been imputed to Darby even by some of his most fervent admirers.[1] It was now alleged that in the interval between the friendly reply to Cronin and the letter from Pau, some officious friends in London had written to Darby informing him that Mr. Kelly (whose hostility to the claims of the original meeting at Ryde was well known) had been the instigator of the Doctor’s action. This at least is certain, that Darby afterwards took Mr. Kelly’s alleged interference for granted; as will appear almost immediately.
It is a great pity that Darby’s wild charges were taken quite seriously by many of his adherents. He was not much deceived by them himself, at all events in
- ↑ If this were mere idle conjecture, I should have been silent about it; but I know it to have been strongly believed in by people who could scarcely see any other flaw in Mr. Darby’s character; and I have in my possession a copy of a letter from Cronin to Darby, in which the writer mentions that he has often asked his correspondent for an explanation of this feeling. There is a good deal of corroborative evidence; and, apart from all this, the charge was so freely brought at the time of which I am writing, that even the most summary account would be organically incomplete without a reference to it.
