Free church
He was ordained in 1843 to the charge of St. Peter's Free church, Dundee, in succession to Robert Murray M'Cheyne, a man of eminent spirituality and power. In 1863 he received an honorary degree of D.D. from the University of Aberdeen, and in 1864 was chosen as Professor of Apologetics and Systematic Theology in the theological college of the Free Church, at Lynedoch Place in Glasgow. In this office he remained during the rest of his life. Burns was remarkable for a combination of evangelical fervour with width of culture and sympathy, a strong æsthetic faculty and a highly charitable spirit. To the diligent and successful discharge of his duties, first as a minister of the gospel and then as a professor, he added considerable literary activity.