ministerial house. His father
had occupied the same pulpit. He himself had been born in his own
manse--which is to say, in all the purple of which our grey Puritan land
can boast. We were proud of the Doctor, and had good reason therefor. I
have said that even my field-preaching grandmother looked upon the
Erastian with a moisture quasi-maternal in her eyes, and as for us who
"sat under him and listened to his speech," we came well-nigh to worship
him.

Yet "the Doctor" was self-effacing beyond many, and only our proper
respect for the "Lady of the Manse" kept the parishioners in their
places. Discourses which he had preached in the callow days of his youth
on the "Book of the Revelation" had brought hearers from many distant
parishes, and at that time the Doctor had had several "calls" and
"offers" to proceed to other spheres on account of their fame. But he
had always refused to repeat any of them.

"I have changed my mind about many things since then," he would say;
"young men are apt to be hasty! The greatest of all heresies is
dogmatism."

But among the older saints of the parish that "series of expositions"
was not forgotten. "It was" (they averred) "like the licht o' anither
world to look on his face--just heeven itsel' to listen to him. Sirce
me, there are no such discourses to be heard now-a-days--not even from
_himsel'_!"

And be it remembered that our dear Doctor could unbend--that is, in
fitting time and place. From the seats of the mighty, from Holyrood and
the Moderator's chair our Cincinnatus returned to shepherd his quiet
flock among the bosky silences of Eden Valley. He wore his learning, all
his weight of honour lightly--with a smile, even with a slight shrug of
the shoulder. The smile, even the jest, rose continually to his lips,
especially when his wife was not present. But at all times he remembered
his office, and often halted with the ancient maxim at the sight of some
intruder, "Let us be sober--yonder comes a fool!" And many of his
visitors noticed this sudden sobriety without once suspecting its cause.

Even the Cameronians agreed that there was "unction" in the Doctor. For
his brave word's sake they forgave the heresies of his church about the
Civil Magistrate, and said freely among themselves that if in every
parish there was such a minister as Dr. Gillespie, the civil magistrate
would be compelled to take a very back seat indeed. But it was on
Communion Sabbath days that the Doctor be