A Change of Heart

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6: 19-21)

William Burns, the son of a Scottish minister, was determined not to follow in his father’s footsteps. He graduated from the University of Aberdeen in 1831 and began studying for his law career. His father, wanting so much for his son to follow after him, began praying fervently for William to have a change of heart.

Late one night he heard his father praying for him and said, “There can be no doubt where his heart is and where he is going.” Not long after that, God changed him. It was January 7, 1832, that “first the Spirit of God shone with full light upon the glory of Jesus as a Savior for such as I was.” With William’s faith came a loss of interest in law, and in its place a desire to share the Gospel with those who have never heard the gospel.

William later became a missionary in India, followed by eight years preaching revivals in Scotland, England, Ireland, and Canada. In 1847, at age thirty-two, Burns traveled to China as the first missionary of the Presbyterian Church of England. He ministered in many port cities, but always with a desire of reaching the people of inland China. He became so dedicated to his work that, when receiving furlough, he only spent one month away, then went back to work deeper in China.

He became terminally ill in December 1867 and wrote this farewell letter to his mother on January 15, 1868:

At the end of last year I got a severe chill which has not yet left the system, producing chilliness and fever every night and for the last two nights this has been followed by perspiration, which rapidly diminished the strength. Unless it should please God to rebuke the disease, it is evident what the end must soon be, and I write these lines beforehand to say that I am happy and ready through the abounding grace of God either to live or to die. May the God of all consolation comfort you when the tidings of my decease shall reach you, and through the redeeming blood of Jesus may we meet with joy before the throne above.

When William Burns became a Christian, he replaced his desire to make money with a passion to make men and women rich in faith. In your life has God ever replaced a desire for wealth with a spiritual one? Jesus said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth.” If our desire is to store up for heaven, then we must measure our passion for the “here and now.” May God grant us a change of heart for all things that are non-eternal.

Until Next Week,

Derek