This week in Christian history: ‘Chariots of Fire,’ first Christian Reformed church plant

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, March 26, 2023

W.C. Burns receives license to preach – March 27, 1839

William Chalmers Burns (1815-1868), a Scottish missionary to China. | Wikimedia Commons

This week marks the anniversary of when William Chalmers Burns, a Scottish itinerant preacher and missionary best known for his evangelistic efforts in China, received his license to preach.

Burns received the license from the Glasgow Presbytery and took to the pulpit a couple of weeks later for the first time at St. Peter’s Church of Dundee, shortly after he turned 24.

“Almost everywhere he went, an indelible gospel mark was left. His ministry was not, however, without opposition,” noted Tabletalk magazine in a 2017 article. “[Scottish Church leader] Horatius Bonar remembered how the walls of one church where Burns preached were covered in graffiti, with caricatures and ‘abusive and vile’ comments.”

“From 1839 to 1844, Burns served as an unsalaried itinerant preacher in Scotland, England, and Ireland. He spent an extended period of time in Canada. Then, never having forgotten God’s call to serve overseas, he bade farewell to his brother and set sail for China.”