PREFATORY NOTE AND AUTHOR’S PREFACE - Burns, William Chalmers
Memoir of the rev. Wm. C. Burns, m. A. , missionary to china from the English Presbyterian church
by the late rev. Islay burns, D. D. ,
Watch thou in all things, endure afflictions (or hardships), do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. ” (2 timothy 4:5)
1873
Prefatory note
This edition of the “memoir, ” as the title-page indicates is a posthumous one. Its loved and lamented author has passed within the veil, to be the sharer, we may not doubt, of his sainted brother’s joy, as he had been the follower of his faith, and the loving, like-minded memorialize of his work, as a servant of the lord Jesus. He has not been spared to complete, as he had begun, the revival of the volume, or to see it in its new form. He continued at work upon it as long as he was able; and he had made considerable progress, when at last his strength failed him, his master’s summons came, and the pen dropped from his hand. The remaining part had to be provided for otherwise, and it was in compliance with a wish expressed by him a day or two before his death, that i undertook to do what he left undone, aided by the suggestions of those nearest to him, with whom he was wont to take counsel, and who knew his mind best. The disadvantage attending a publication, thus posthumous to so very limited an extent, will not, i trust, be found to be considerable. His endeavor was, and mine has been, while diminishing as much as possible the size of the volume so as to bring it within the reach of a wide circle of readers, to whom the possession of it, at least, has hitherto been unattainable, to diminish as little as possible its value, or its interest; perhaps even to increase the latter, by abridging those parts of it which are least personal to its subject, and so rendering it even more distinctively than it was, a biography of william burns. The details of his work in china, as well as the statements of his missionary brethren in regard to it (in which there has been most abridgment), are no doubt, in the estimation of some, superior in interest to anything else, and to the value of the information thus supplied the strongest testimony has been borne from many quarters; but that class of readers is not, comparatively, a large one; and the pain of excision in those parts of the volume has been greatly lessened by the consideration that in its unabridged form it is still accessible, and is intended to be kept in circulation, as heretofore. It was even more painful to be under the necessity of curtailing the extracts from his journal of mission work at home, at Dundee, in Edinburgh, in the highlands, and elsewhere, in which home readers will naturally take the deepest interest, all the more, in the knowledge of what a mass of equally interesting matter remains behind, almost untouched. But this has been done also as sparingly as might be, the best parts have all been retained, while the samples given are such as to convey a faithful, if not a full idea of the whole. What the author says (in his preface to the first edition) was his “single aim, ” he did, by common consent, to a wonderful degree succeed in accomplishing, viz. “to present a true and life-like portrait of him whose footsteps he had undertaken to trace ; ” and what was true of the work before, will be found scarcely, if at all, less true of the work still, “so that being dead he may yet speak, just as he spoke while he was with us, to the praise of that divine grace which he so greatly magnified, and by which alone, as he so profoundly felt, he was what he was.
J. C. B.
Free church manse, kirkliston, 1873.
AUTHOR’S PREFACE.
The difficulty i anticipated in writing the biography of one so nearly related to me was very soon forgotten as i proceeded with my task, and felt more and more deeply how utterly insignificant are all such earthly ties, in presence of the higher relations of that eternal kingdom in which my lamented brother so entirely lived. If, while he was still with us, it was possible for those most closely connected with him in some measure to know him “after the flesh, ” one instantly felt so soon as he had passed within the veil that henceforth we could know him so no more.
The materials from which the narrative has been drawn are 1st, my own personal recollections and those of other intimate friends; 2nd, private letters addressed chiefly to members of his own family; and 3rd, copious journals, extending over the whole period of his home ministry, and continued, though in a briefer and more fragmentary manner, during the early years of his residence in china. From these last i have quoted very largely, but not more so i believe than those who are really interested in his work would wish me to have done. Indeed, the difficulty often was merely to extract from a document, which many readers doubtless would have wished to possess entire.
To the many friends to whom i have been indebted for valuable materials, i have made acknowledgment in the course of the work at the places where their communications have been used; but i would here specially mention the names of the late rev. Dr. Burns, of toronto, who contributed the tenth chapter; the rev. Duncan m’gregor, m. A. , of dundee, and the rev. Dr. Kirkpatrick, of dublin, who furnished the graphic sketches of my brother’s labours in edinburgh and dublin; and the rev. Carstairs douglas, m. A. Of amoy, to whose loving and painstaking endeavours i am indebted for almost all the precious memorials from china which enrich the closing chapters.
My single aim has been to present a true and life-like picture of him whose footsteps i had undertaken to trace; and that thus being dead he may yet speak, just as he spoke while he was with us, to the praise of that divine grace which he so greatly magnified, and by which alone, as he so profoundly felt, he was what he was.
Free church college, Glasgow,
December 6th, 1869.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I -Early Years
CHAPTER II – Preparation for the Ministry
CHAPTER III – Opening Ministry
CHAPTER IV – Revival Scenes
CHAPTER V – St. Peter’s, Dundee
CHAPTER VI – St. Andrew’s, Perth, &c.
CHAPTER VII – Labours at Aberdeen
CHAPTER VIII – Work among the Mountains
CHAPTER IX – Newcastle, Edinburgh, Dublin
CHAPTER X- Canada
CHAPTER XI – Call to the Chinese Field
CHAPTER XII – Departure for China
CHAPTER XIII – The Field and its Pioneers
CHAPTER XIV – Breaking Ground
CHAPTER XV -Canton
CHAPTER XVI -Amory
CHAPTER XVII -First-fruits
CHAPTER XVIII – Shanghae, Swatow, &c
CHAPTER XIX – Old Scenes and New
CHAPTER XX – Peking and Nieu-chwang
CHAPTER XXI -Conclusion
APPENDIX
MEMOIR OF THE REV. WILLIAM C. BURNS, M.A.