Great Revivals and Evangelists By JOHN H. HUNTER V. WILLIAM C. BURNS (Continued) Copyright, 1915, by John H. Hunter
and retired to a bedroom, there to pour out my heart for the' first time with many tears in a genuine heart-rending cry for mercy. From the first moment o f this won derful experience I had the inspiring hope o f being saved by a soyereigh and infinitely gracious God; and in the same instant, almost, I felt that I must leave my present occupation, and devote m3'self to Jesus in the, ministry o f that glorious gospel by which I had been .saved.” Several things here mentioned as enter ing into this conversion are especially worth our attention. There is, first, the element o f fear— fear o f death. Then there are the ties o f natural affection, the loving letters o f Christian sisters, the Gos pel faithfully preached, the habit o f church going, the printed page; all o f these used by God the Holy Spirit to bring about the desired result, and to answer the prayers that were being offered. From the time o f his conversion, Mr. Burns was filled with earnest desire for a walk o f close fellowship with his Savr iour, a desire that ceased only when he closed his eyes in this world and opened them in the glory to look upon Him whom he loved so passionately and served so devotedly. His letters were full o f exhor tation to a life o f separation from the world and to God. BACK TO COLLEGE In the fall after his conversion he re entered Aberdeen, having abandoned all thought o f a legal career, to complete his course o f preparation for the ministry o f the Gospel in the Church o f Scotland. His college friends noticed the decided change that had come over him, a new seriousness o f manner, and a concern for their spirit ual condition that led him to seize upon
\®| NFIN ITE and wonderful /** are the ways by which God reaches men to arouse them K B e , ^ from sin and bring them to __Himself. William C. Burns thus relates the facts o f his conversion, which took place in his seventeenth year, and which he announced to his mother and, sisters as told in the closing paragraph of our last article : “The means by which my change o f heart was brought about were these, I- think— Mr. Bruce’s preaching, which engaged me much, and the fear o f sudden death from the approach o f cholera, were preparatory. A letter from my sisters at home, in which they spoke in a single sentence o f going as pilgrims to Zion, and leaving me behind, proved a word in season and touched my natural feelings very deeply; for when sin had rendered me dead to every other feel ing, I could not think o f my Christian parents, and my godly home with all its sweet and solemn privileges, without an awful conflict o f soul at the thought of parting with them for ever. I could think o f parting with Christ, for I knew Him not—alas! do I yet know Him?—but to part with them was too much for me to bear. In this way the way was prepared, but as yet I am fully conscious that my heart was spiritually dead. However the set time came. I sat down with solemn impressions arising from the causes now mentioned, to read a part o f Pike’s Early Piety, whiph my dear father had given me at leaving home, and in one moment while gazing on a solemn passage in it, my inmost soul was pierced as with a dart. God had apprehended me. I felt the con viction o f my lost estate rushing through me with resistless power; I left the room
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