Revival Sermons by William C. Burns. Price £1.75.
William Chalmers Burns was born in Duns, Scotland, in 1815; he departed this life at the port of New Chwang, China, in 1868. He was licensed to preach the Gospel by the Church of Scotland in 1839. We are told that his life was characterised by a deeply-felt devotion to Jesus Christ. He was one of a group of young men whom God raised up in the days of the eminent, holy MacCheyne.
When he left for China in 1847 there was a true revival of religion in the south of Scotland. In China he laboured incessantly until on the 4th April 1868 he breathed his last words: “Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever”.
Burns’ sermons preached at a time of revival in Scotland are very precious and suited for these present times. In reading these sermons one feels that there was earnestness, unction and power with the young minister in his twenties. Let us pray that God would give us times of revival such as those when Burns said, “And, ah! what a sweet change has taken place on many! The high looks of the proud have been brought low; dead formalists have become living Christians; worshippers of Mammon have been changed into lovers of God; the blasphemous tongues of the profane have been made to sing God’s praise; drunkards have cast from them the cup of devils, and have taken the cup of salvation; unclean persons, who used to be the slaves of lust, the dredges of the devil, the very dregs of human kind are now sitting at the feet of Jesus; and some, who were ringleaders in every form of sin, are now bold and open, and unflinching in the service of Christ, even as they were shameless, brazen-faced, and steel-hearted in the service of the Wicked One. Many, who were formerly dead in sin, are now living in the grace of Jesus, in the love of God, in the communion of the Spirit, and in the hope of heaven”.
We are indebted to the Banner of Truth for these sermons — most appropriate for the present times of apathy and ungodliness in Scotland.
A. McK.