The Pastor of Kilsyth
The Testimony of Islay Burns
“The nearest approach that I know of in the history of the Church universal to apostolic conditions of faith and living was what was to be seen in the Free Church of Scotland in its early days under the stewardship of Thomas Chalmers.” C.H. Waller
“When Chalmers was born in 1780 it was about the deadest time in the history of the Church of Scotland since the Reformation. When he died in 1847 it was about the alivest. The difference was almost entirely attributable to the Spirit’s work through him.” Iain Murray
The story told in the little book, The Pastor of Kilsyth, is more than a little remarkable. It is remarkable precisely because it tells the story of a very ordinary pastor of a small church in a remote community. He never wrote a book. He never taught in a seminary. He never led a movement. He never attained fame. But the influence he wielded in his little village and in his own family with his two sons would send ripple effects across the ages and across the world. It is a helpful reminder to us that the swirl of events that led to the transformation of the Scottish church in the first decades of the 19thcentury reached into the most obscure corners of the land.
The years surrounding the Scottish Disruption produced some of the most remarkable servants of God in the history of the church. That galaxy of brilliant, Reformed Scots preachers, writers, and missionaries included Robert Murray McCheyne, John Milne, Alexander Moody Stuart, John Urquhart, Robert Nesbit, Alexander Somerville, Rabbi John Duncan, David Ewart, Alexander Duff, William Sinclair Mackay, the Bonar brothers, Andrew, John, James, and Horatius, and the extraordinary Burns family, father W.H., and sons William and Islay. They were all bound together by a common cause, in a common time, with a common vision, by a common love.
“When Chalmers was born in 1780 it was about the deadest time in the history of the Church of Scotland since the Reformation. When he died in 1847 it was about the alivest. The difference was almost entirely attributable to the Spirit’s work through him.” Iain Murray
The story told in the little book, The Pastor of Kilsyth, is more than a little remarkable. It is remarkable precisely because it tells the story of a very ordinary pastor of a small church in a remote community. He never wrote a book. He never taught in a seminary. He never led a movement. He never attained fame. But the influence he wielded in his little village and in his own family with his two sons would send ripple effects across the ages and across the world. It is a helpful reminder to us that the swirl of events that led to the transformation of the Scottish church in the first decades of the 19thcentury reached into the most obscure corners of the land.
The years surrounding the Scottish Disruption produced some of the most remarkable servants of God in the history of the church. That galaxy of brilliant, Reformed Scots preachers, writers, and missionaries included Robert Murray McCheyne, John Milne, Alexander Moody Stuart, John Urquhart, Robert Nesbit, Alexander Somerville, Rabbi John Duncan, David Ewart, Alexander Duff, William Sinclair Mackay, the Bonar brothers, Andrew, John, James, and Horatius, and the extraordinary Burns family, father W.H., and sons William and Islay. They were all bound together by a common cause, in a common time, with a common vision, by a common love.
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