On William Burns...

Below are a few quotes describing William Burns, an awesome man of God and an early companion and mentor to Hudson Taylor:

"He did not consider that he had a warrant to proceed in any sacred duty without a consciousness of that Divine presence. Without it, he could not speak even to a handful of little children in a Sunday School; with it he could stand unabashed before the mightiest and wisest in the land."

"Prayer was a natural to him as breathing, and the word of God as necessary as daily food."

"He enjoyed quietness and the luxury of having few things to take care of, and thought the happiest state on earth for a Christian was that he should have few wants."

"'If a man have Christ in his heart' he used to say, 'Heaven before his eyes, and only as much of temporal blessing as is just needful to carry him safely through life, then pain and sorrow have little to shoot at'."

Biography of James Hudson Taylor, p160.