John Milne (1807-68) became minister of St Leonard’s, Perth, in 1839, and was almost immediately associated with an awakening in which an outstanding circle of preachers shared. Among them were his close friends, William Burns, Robert M’Cheyne, and Horatius Bonar. Bonar, author and hymn writer, was at his best in his Life of John Milne (1869). From first-hand knowledge of the revival period, and from original documents, he has preserved an account of Milne and the evangelicals who, in the words of Alexander Whyte, ‘had an immense influence on the religious life of Scotland’.
