He was compelled to do so. Following his master Calvin, he
made it apply to outsiders. The elect, says Calvin, are beyond the
risk of fatal fall. But "I deny," he goes on to say, that "there is
any reason why God may not bestow even on the reprobate a taste of
His favour; may irradiate their minds with some scintillations of His
light; may touch them with some sense of His goodness; may somehow
engrave His word on their minds." Horrible, most horrible, we
scream, that the Almighty should thus play with those whom He means
to destroy; but let us once more remember that these men did not idly
believe in such cruelty. They were forced into their belief by the
demands of their understanding, and their assent was more meritorious
than the weak protests of so-called enlightenment. Zachariah,
pondering absently on what he had heard, was passing out of the
chapel when a hand was gently laid on his shoulder.
"Ah, friend, what are you doing here?"
He turned round and recognised William Ogden, who had been sent by
the Hampden Club in Manchester some six months before as a delegate
to the Friends of the People in London. The two walked some distance
together, and Zachariah gave him the history of the last three weeks.
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