but what was called a moderate Calvinist; that is to say, he held to
Calvinism as his undoubted creed, but when it came to the push in
actual practice he modified it. In this respect he was inconsistent;
but who is there who is not? His theology probably had no more gaps
in it than that of the latest and most enlightened preacher who
denies miracles and affirms the Universal Benevolence. His present
biographer, from intimate acquaintance with the class to which
Zachariah belonged, takes this opportunity to protest against the
general assumption that the Calvinists of that day, or of any day,
arrived at their belief by putting out their eyes and accepting
blindly the authority of St. Paul or anybody else. It may be
questioned, indeed, whether any religious body has ever stood so
distinctly upon the understanding and has used its intellect with
such rigorous activity, as the Puritans, from whom Zachariah was a
genuine descendant. Even if Calvinism had been carved on tables of
stone and handed down from heaven by the Almighty Hand, it would not
have lived if it had not have found to agree more or less with the
facts, and it was because it was a deduction from what nobody can
help seeing that it was so vital, the Epistle to the Romans serving
as the inspired confirmation of an experience. Zachariah was a great
reader of all kinds of books--a lover especially of Bunyan and
Milton; as logical in his politics as in his religion; and he
defended the execution of Charles the First on the ground that the
people had just as much right to put a king to death as a judge had
to order the execution of any other criminal.

The courtship between Zachariah and the lady who became his wife had
been short, for there could be no mistake, as they had known one
another so long. She was black-haired, with a perfectly oval face,
always dressed with the most scrupulous neatness, and with a certain