the pressure brought to bear on that unhappy meeting, the protracted delay is a high tribute to the strength of the attachment subsisting between Dr. Cronin and his fellow-worshippers. But it was a struggle against fate. The delinquent had once and again promised not to repeat his offence; he had agreed to abstain for the time being from the communion; but all compromises were rejected by the inexorable Central Meeting. The “act of independency” called for “judgment”. At last, Kennington submitted to the hard necessity. On the 19th of August, 1879, a resolution was taken, and transmitted to the Central Meeting, just transferred to Cheapside. It bore the odd direction, “To the Assembly of God in London,” and ran as follows:—
“After long waiting and prayerful consideration, and the failure of all previous action by the assembly, and admonition, we are sorrowfully compelled to declare Dr. Edward Cronin out of fellowship, until he judges and owns the wrongness of his act at Ryde. Eph. iv. 3.”
A statement follows that “Colonel Langford and five others objected” to the resolution. If I could recover the names of the gallant Colonel’s five allies I would gladly publish them with all honour.
The same evening, at the Priory, a small company decided to disown fellowship with Cronin for his “schismatic act”; with Kennington, for its “refusal to judge” Cronin; with all “assemblies” that would not follow suit; and finally with the Central Meeting itself—presumably for its failure to hurry things on sufficiently fast.
The next week, Darby, who had been in the North, returned to London, and brought some sort of order into chaos. He quashed the resolution of the Priory, and compelled the acceptance of the Kennington act of excommunication against Cronin. Some prospect of peace,
