William Chalmers Burns
William Chalmers Burns - A Famous Scottish Evangelist and Missionary
William Chalmers Burns (1815-68) was born on April 1st, 1815, in Dun, Angus, son of the local church minister, William Hamilton Burns and Elizabeth Chalmers. His early childhood was in Kilsyth, North Lanarkshire.
He studied at Marischal College in Aberdeen, and at the University of Glasgow's Divinity. Following his studies, Burns dedicated himself to organizing revival campaigns.
During the attendance of a Revival meeting William was moved by God, and, by 1839, he had obtained the license to preach from the Glasgow Presbytery. He preached at St. Peter's in Dundee while Robert Murray M'Cheyne was away on a mission to the Jews in Palestine and continued after his return.
The preaching of William Chalmers Burns in Scotland was well received but when he preached elsewhere the reception was often less favourable. Once, when preaching in Newcastle, he was pelted with dung and at another meeting, in Ireland, he was lucky to escape with his life.
As a member of the Evangelical Party in the Church of Scotland, Burns sided with Thomas Chalmers during the Disruption of 1843, joining Chalmers in his new Free Church of Scotland. In 1845 he went to Canada, to spread the word of the free Church, with his uncle who remained there to become minister at Knox Church, Toronto.
In 1847 Burns was ordained in Sunderland as first missionary of the English Presbyterian Church to China. While on the long journey Burns studied the Chinese language and, upon arrival, began his ministry in British Hong Kong and then into China. Burns preached in Shantou, Xiamen and Beijing, and , in 1855, he met the British Protestant missionary Hudson Taylor and the two progressed further inland. It was Hudson Taylor's preference to wear Chinese clothing that inspired Burns to do the same (as pictured above).
William Chalmers Burns died, in Niú Zhuāng, China, on April 4 1868.
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