Like Jesse James Robbing a Train

“And, of course, New England also had her head cases, and some of them made their mark on posterity. One man, a pastor, was called ‘Handkerchief Moody.’ He thought he had sinned greatly and would not appear in public without a handkerchief over his face. He would preach with his his back to the congregation, but whenever he would turn around, he looked like Jesse James robbing a train. But these were pathological cases, not representative of the sane and sound Puritans. The problem is that moderns like to think of the morbid cases as examples of ‘the quintessence of Calvinism.’ Then, when they discover sane and balanced Puritans, these are treated as the exceptions” (Beyond Stateliest Marble, p. 27).