William Chalmers Burns

William Chalmers Burns ( born April 1, 1815 in Dunnichen, † April 4, 1868 in Yingkou ) was a Scottish -born missionary. He came from a well-off parents. His father was a pastor. William Burns was known because he just like Karl Gützlaff and later James Hudson Taylor worked in China in Chinese clothing. At age 17, he had come to faith. He then began a theological education. In a meeting, he had an experience through which he concluded that God had called him specifically in his service.

1839, at age 24, he received in the Church of Scotland, the license to preach. He lived here in Scotland, along with the preacher Robert Murray M'Cheyne, genuine revival meetings. He was one of the tools by which the revival in Kilsyth was born.

In 1847 he then travels to China. The long voyage he used to learn the Chinese language. Here began his successful service as a missionary.

In 1855 he met James Hudson Taylor, and a time long working with him. Both had the courage to venture into the interior of China. Taylor looked Burns as one of his spiritual fathers, who had marked him for missionary work. Burns moved for 20 years preaching through China and also went to the prisons, etc. Dreiundfünfzigjährig he died after a brief illness.