Scottish Presbyterian minister and professor in Toronto (1789–1869)
Robert Burns (1789–1869) was a Scottish theological writer and church leader.
Biography.
Burns was born at Bo'ness in 1789. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh, licensed as a probationer of the Church of Scotland in 1810, and ordained minister of the Low church, Paisley, in 1811. He was a man of great energy and activity, a popular preacher, a laborious worker in his parish and town, a strenuous supporter of the evangelical party in the church, and one of the foremost opponents of lay patronage. In 1815, impressed with the spiritual wants of his countrymen in the colonies, he helped to form a colonial society for supplying them with ministers, and of this society he continued the mainspring for fifteen years. Joining the Free Church of Scotland in 1843, he was sent by the general assembly in 1844 to the United States, to cultivate fraternal relations with the churches there, and in 1845 he accepted an invitation to be minister of Knox Presbyterian Church (Toronto), in which charge he remained till 1856, when he was appointed professor of church history and apologetics in Knox College (Toronto), a theological institution of the presbyterian church. Burns took a most lively interest in his church, moving about with great activity over the whole colony, and becoming acquainted with almost every congregation. He died in 1869.
Works.
He was the author of several works. These include "A Historical Dissertation on the Law and Practice of Great Britain with regard to the Poor" (1819), "On Pluralities" (1824), "The Gareloch Heresy tried" (1830), "Life of Stevenson Macgill, D.D."
(1842). Besides writing these works, he edited in 1828 a new edition of Wodrow's "History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland, from the Restoration to the Revolution", in 4 volumes, contributing a life of the author; and for three years (1838–1840) he edited and contributed many papers to the "Edinburgh Christian Instructor", which had been a powerful organ of the evangelical party in the church when edited by Andrew Mitchell Thomson.
Family.
He married
References.
Citations.
 ;templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" / ;
External links.
 incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: 