"William
Chalmers Burns, born in Dun, Scotland in 1815 died at the port of New Chwang,
China in 1868. His life was characterised by a deeply-felt devotion to Jesus
Christ wherever he was led. Licensed as a minister of the gospel in 1839 by
the Church of Scotland, his anticipated departure to the East was delayed for
several years while his remarkable gifts in evangelism were employed in
Scotland and beyond. He was one of the group of young men God raised up in the
days of M'Cheyne and the Bonar brothers whose only concern was for the
universal triumph of the Cross. From the limelight of revival, he sailed to
the obscurity of China in 1847, and laboured incessantly there, taking little
rest, until on April 4 1868, he breathed his last words: 'Thine is the
kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever.' In few lives have these
words been more eloquently portrayed."
(Introductory
paragraph from the Banner of Truth edition of Burns' sermons entitled "Revival
Sermons")
[The
affection with which Mr Burns was regarded, wherever he went, by those who
attended his ministry, was doubly manifested towards him by the ardent
Highlanders. From the Highland districts which he visited, as from his other
scenes of labour, he received so many letters of gratitude and of inquiry,
that it was impossible for him to reply to them. He would sometimes write a
letter to be read by the ministers to the people, who would at once have it
printed, that each might possess a copy. His last visit to the
Highlands
was paid in the 1854, when, having
returned from
China for a
few months, he went north from
Perth
by
Blair-Atholl and
Tummel Bridge
in the
first week of December. He reminded his hearers of his deep regret, while
among them formerly, that he could not address them in the Gaelic tongue; but
said he could now at least read to them a chapter in it, having learned as
much in Canada from the
Highlanders there.]
MY
DEAR
FRIENDS,
I
have often thought of writing to you, but have been hitherto prevented by
various causes; and I now take up my pen in great haste to send you a few
hurried lines, praying that Jehovah, the God of all grace, may enable me to
say a word in season to each of your precious and dearly beloved souls.
It
has given me unfeigned joy to hear that those appearances of spiritual
concern, which I was privileged of God to witness among you, have not proved in every case as the morning cloud, and as the earthly
dew; but that some among you who seemed, when I was among you, to be entering
in at the strait gate, are still following on to know the Lord. It is a sweet
and sure consolation to me to think that the work is Jehovah’s, and his
alone; that he will have mercy on
whom he will have mercy; and that, though many, alas! may, and actually do,
abuse their privileges, and grieve away the Holy Ghost, and are left, in
righteous judgement, to follow their own ways and perish, yet the Lord will
pluck his own chosen ones as brands from the burning, and will put his fear in
their hearts, so that they shall not
depart from him.
I.
Blessed indeed are those among you whom
God has called by his grace to the fellowship of his Son. Your
blessedness, believers in Jesus, is infinitely greater than the tongue of
archangel can express. Now are we
the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that
when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All
things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life,
or death, all are yours; and ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s! True it
is, my dear brethren in the Lord, that you must, through much tribulation,
enter the Kingdom. All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution. You will be hated by an unrighteous and ungodly world; assaulted
and buffeted by a cunning and malicious devil; and, above all, deceived, and
in danger of being destroyed by a desperately wicked heart. But be encouraged,
fainting believer, he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Then
shall the battle be over, the victory be gained, the crown of glory be
bestowed by the hand of Jesus! Then we shall see face to face that adorable
and matchless One whom, not having seen, we love. Then shall we join the
blood-washed throng in crying, ‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, who hath
redeemed us to God with his blood, and hath made us kings and priests to God
and the Father’, and we shall ‘reign for ever and ever!’
How
sweet the trials of a Christian are when he meets with Jesus in them, and
feels that the Lord is making them a means of purging away his dross, and
taking away all his sin. The believer’s trials are like the fiery furnace to
the three children of
Israel at Babylon, which burned off their bands, but touched not a hair of their heads. Seek,
dear followers of the despised Immanuel, to obtain glimpses of his divine
glory and grace, through the power of the indwelling Spirit, and these will
make you to see such a surpassing beauty and glory in Jesus, that you will
count all things loss that you may win him, and be found in him. If you find
the way to glory hard and rugged, oh! think what it cost the Son of God to
open up that way! Remember also that, wherever you are called to go, in
following the Lamb, you may see, by faith, the prints of Immanuel’s feet on
the path before you. He does lead
his people through fire and through water, but it is to a wealthy
place. Soon will he come to call us home to the place prepared for us
above. Soon he will offer up for us the prayer, ‘Father, I will that they
whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my
glory,’ and then shall we depart and be with Jesus! To them that look for
him, he will appear the second time without sin unto salvation! Now the just
shall live by faith; but, if any man draw back, my soul, saith God, shall have
no pleasure in him. May none of you be of them that draw back unto perdition;
may you all be of those who believe unto the saving of the soul.
Let
me exhort you, beloved, with a view to your perseverance in the good ways of
the Lord, to feed continually upon Jesus Christ and him crucified, as he is
made known in the holy Word of God, and by the Holy Ghost. For this purpose
read the Bible much, and pray continually over it for the saving illumination
of the Spirit. Examine your hearts frequently in regard to your acquaintance
with sin, and your knowledge of the Lord Jesus. See that you be wholly
dedicated to God in Christ; that his holy, heart-searching law be written on
your hearts; and that you be aiming habitually with a single eye at the
advancement of the divine glory. It was the common saying of an eminent saint
(Brainerd), that nothing else made him content to remain in this world for a
single day, but that God could be seen and could be served in it. This is the
language of the heart of every true saint; though, alas! few can say it with
such emphasis as he.
Let
me press upon you, also, to make the truly godly your only companions, and to
seek that God may greatly bless to you the fellowship of the saints. Avoid, I
beseech you, in all things the very appearance
of evil; and make it manifest, by your holy, pure, humble, meek, spiritual,
consistent walk, that you are no more of the world, but have been born of God,
and are preparing to enter into the holy kingdom of your Father who is in
heaven. Finally, let me exhort you to keep the conscience always clean and
peaceful, by beholding the bleeding Lamb of God as your Surety and Saviour, to
put on the divine righteousness of Jesus as the only covering of the guilty,
naked soul, at the bar of diving justice, and to be filled with the Holy
Ghost, who quickens, sanctifies, comforts, supports, and at last glorifies the
soul in which he dwells!
2.
But what shall I say to those among you who have neither part nor lot in the matter of
salvation? Alas! your case, dear fellow-sinners, is awful indeed, little
as it now affects your own blinded souls. My heart is ready to break for you,
when I think that, after all the solemn warnings you have received, and after
all the pressing offers of Jesus that have been made to you in the name of
God, you still remain in a state of heart-ungodliness, or of open sin! Others
around you can this day say with joy, ‘Now is our salvation nearer than when
we believed:’ but of you it is written in the Word of the holy and
unchangeable God: ‘Their judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and
their damnation slumbereth not!’ Oh! dear fellow-sinner, is it not the
height of madness to go on any longer in a Christless state? You know well
that except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God; that the
time is at hand when the Lord Jesus will appear in the clouds of heaven, with
his mighty angels, taking vengeance on all that know not God and that obey not
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that these shall be punished with
everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his
power! You may go on a little
longer without being cast into hell; but oh, how soon
will death, the king of terrors, come and drag you to the bar of God! You may
avoid the Throne of Grace, but you cannot
escape the Throne of Judgment! You may
despise Jesus as a Saviour; you cannot
but tremble before him as a Judge! You may
reject him as the Lamb of God; but, alas, you must
endure his consuming wrath as the Lion of the tribe of Judah! You will not weep for sin now,
but you must weep for it hereafter! You shall mourn
for sin in hell, if you do not mourn for it on earth! Ah! tell me why you
reject the Lord? What fault can you find in Jesus? Have you found any other
Saviour? Oh! dear fellow-sinner, it is high time for you to awake out of
sleep!
Arise
and come to Jesus now. He is crying,
Come unto me, I will in no wise cast you out. The Father is ready to receive
you into his family. The Spirit is striving with you, did you not resist him
and grieve him away. Halt no longer between two opinions. Sin and Satan are
ruining you; knowledge cannot save you, decency cannot save you, profession
cannot save you, conviction cannot save you; you may go to hell with the
arrows of the Almighty festering in the conscience; nothing will avail but the
blood and the Spirit of Jesus. Yield yourself, then, to the Lord as a lost
sinner, and he will not cast you out. You have seen individuals around you,
perhaps some of your own friends or companions, fleeing to Jesus; why did you
not follow them? Are you resolved to be left behind in Sodom and to perish in the flames!
Do
I seem to you, dear fellow-sinner, as one
that mocks, when I thus warn you. Ah! remember it was so in the days of Noah.
The old world thought him, no doubt, a self-righteous fool, when he warned
them that the world was about to be devoured by the floods of God’s
vengeance; but they saw that he was divinely wise, when he entered into the
ark and the flood came and destroyed them all! Soon will the deluge of
everlasting wrath roll over this guilty, sin-stained earth, and sweep away, in
its devouring, relentless waves, the whole world of the ungodly! Then will the
penitent followers of Jesus rest upon the Rock of Ages, and look down without
fear upon the horrific floods below! Ah, sinner! what joy will the pleasures
of sin give you then? will you laugh, and dance, and drink with your
companions then? Ah, no, you will rue the day that you were born! you will
curse the day that you heard the gospel and despised the Saviour! Yea, you
will even hear the words that I am now writing to you ringing in your ears,
and adding new anguish to your un-utterable torment! Do not, I beseech you,
leave the place where you are now until you have given yourself up to the
Lord, who still waiteth to be gracious. Will you yet delay? Oh! it is the
suggestion of Satan, your murderer; yield at last to the love of God, put the
crown upon Immanuel, save your soul, disappoint the devil, and give the angels
a song of joy in heaven. May the Holy Ghost descend in His almighty power and
prevail with you. May you now escape from that miserable company, the
unregenerate, against whom the Lord’s messengers, and I among the rest, must
stand as witnesses at the judgement-seat of Christ, to condemn them to the
second death.
Unworthy as these lines
are of appearing in print, they will at least serve to put many of you in mind
of those glorious days of the power and grace of the God which we enjoyed
together last autumn, days which we shall all remember, either with grief or
joy, throughout an endless eternity. Oh, that these days were now to return
among you with tenfold greater glory, and that multitudes who have hitherto
withstood every call of God that has been made to them by their own ministers
and by strangers, were at last persuaded to repent and turn to God through
Jesus Christ! Oh, that the Holy Ghost were now poured out upon many thousands
among you in his convincing, converting, sanctifying, and comforting power!
Plead, dear fellow-sinners, for this infinite promise of the Father, which we
have heard of Jesus. Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give
him no rest, until he arise and make Jerusalem a praise among you, and
throughout the whole earth.
Commending you all to the
infinite, free, sovereign, and everlasting grace of Jehovah, and desiring an
interest in the prayers of the Lord’s children among you,
I remain, Your affectionate and
humble servant in the Lord,
WM.
C Burns.
GRANDTULLY,
June
11, 1841.
Reference
William
C Burns, Revival Sermons (pp. 198-205). First published 1869. This
edition, Banner of Truth Trust, 1980.
