Robert Douglas, at that time
minister of Kirkcaldy, presiding at the ordination; and was the first who
was admitted by a presbytery, at that period, without regard to the
authority of the bishops. This, indeed, soon ceased to be a singularity;
but, it must be remembered, that though the attempt to impose the Liturgy
upon the Church had been successfully resisted, the ostensible government
of the Church was still held by the prelates, and continued to be held by
them, till they were all deposed by the famous General Assembly which met
in Glasgow on the 21st day of November, 1638. But their power had received
a fatal blow, and it could not fail to be highly gratifying to George
Gillespie, that the first free act of the Presbyterian Church, to the
recovery of whose liberty he had so signally contributed, should be his
own ordination to the ministerial office.

From that time forward, the life of George Gillespie was devoted to the
public service of the Church; and he was incessantly engaged in all the
great measures of that momentous period. He, however, was not the man of
the age. That man was Alexander Henderson, the acknowledged leader of the
Church of Scotland's Second Reformation. And, as it is not our purpose to
write a history of that period, we must confine ourselves chiefly to those
events in which Gillespie acted a prominent part.

The next intimation that we receive of Gillespie is in Baillie's account
of the Glasgow Assembly. "After a sermon of Mr Gillespie," says Baillie,
"wherein the youth very learnedly and judiciously, as they say, handled
the words, 'The King's heart is in the hand of the Lord,' yet did too much
encroach on the King's actions: he (Argyle) gave us a grave admonition, to
let authority alone, which the Moderator seconded, and we all religiously
observed, so long as the Assembly lasted." This proves, at least, that
Gillespie was highly esteemed by his brethren, who had selected him as one
to preach before that important Assembly, notwithstanding his youth. It
should be added, that on consulting the records of that Assembly's
proceedings, we do indeed find Argyle's grave admonition not to interfere
with the authority due to the King in his own province, and the
Moderator's answer; but nothing to lead us to think that it had any
reference to Gillespie's sermon. Baillie had not, at that time, learned to
know and appreciate Gillespie, as he did afterwards and, as he had been
somewhat startled by t