William Chalmers Burns (1815–1868) was a great Scottish preacher, evangelist and missionary.
This marks the 175th year of his appointment as the English Presbyterian Church’s first missionary to China.
He was born April 1, 1815, to William and Elizabeth Burns in Duns, Scotland, where his father was a local minister.
After his conversion to Christ in 1832, Burns earned a master of arts degree from Aberdeen University in 1834. At a revival meeting he felt God calling him into the ministry and studied at Glasgow University’s divinity school.
At the age of 24, Burns received a license to preach from the Glasgow Presbytery. In 1843, along with 450 other evangelical preachers, Burns left the Church of Scotland and joined the Free Church of Scotland. The next year he went to Canada where he preached for two years.
China
Sent to China in 1847 as the first missionary of the English Presbyterian Church, Burns studied the Chinese language on his long journey. His first stop was Hong Kong, where he trained Chinese Christians to be evangelists.
In 1850, Burns set out for Canton and then Xiamen, continuing to learn dialects and translating “Pilgrim’s Progress” and hymns into Chinese.
Burns and two Chinese assistants went to Pechua on a preaching tour in 1854. They rented a house, and the locals crowded the ground floor every night for two months listening to the gospel. As people accepted Christ, Burns left them with the Chinese Christians, believing God had called him to be an evangelist. He would sow and others would reap the harvest.
Partnership
Arriving in Shanghai in August 1855, he met Hudson Taylor, who founded the China Inland Mission and ministered in China for 51 years. The two became close friends — Taylor wore Chinese clothes, and soon Burns did also.
They went to Shantou where robbers stole everything they had, and Taylor returned to Shanghai. But Burns stayed to preach in the villages, remaining two more years. In 1858, he returned to Xiamen and labored five years.
He went to Beijing and lived alone translating “Pilgrim’s Progress” into Mandarin, then at Nieu-chwang Burns caught a cold and died April 4, 1868. He was buried in the city.
Hudson Taylor said after Burns’ death that he led a “holy, reverential life.”
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