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 became, as it were, transfigured, the face of him shining, though he wist not of it. Something of the spirit of the Crucified was poured forth that day upon men and women humbly bowing their heads over the consecrated memorials of His love. A silence of a rare and peculiar sanctity filled the little bare, deep-windowed kirk. The odour of the flowering lilacs came in like Nature's own incense, and the plain folk of Eden Valley got a foretaste, faint and dim, but sufficient, of the Land where the tables shall never be withdrawn. Better preachers than the Doctor?--We grant it you, though there are many in the Valley who will not agree, but not one more fitted to break the bread of communion before the white-spread tables. It was Agnes Anne who opened the door of Marnhoul, and stood a moment astonished at the sight of the Doctor all in black and silver--hat, coat, knee-breeches, silken hose and leathern shoes of the first, locks, studs, knee-buckles, shoe-buckles all of the second.