Selected From: A Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen, Vol. 3 (Edinburgh: Blackie & Son, 1870), 580.
When the directors of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway resolved to run trains on the Lord’s Day, William Burns announced his intention of holding open-air services at the Haymarket (the Edinburgh terminus in those days), at the hours of departure and arrival of the trains. On one of these occasions, he was interrupted by a tall, strong-looking man, who was slightly intoxicated. Turning to him, the preacher addressed him in the following impressive words: “You are tall and strong; but you are not too tall for a coffin, nor too strong for the worms! You are tall and strong; but not too tall for the grave, nor too strong for death! You are tall and strong; but you will soon have to stand forth, one of the crowd, before the great white throne; and how will you face the Judge of the whole earth? Tall and strong as you are, you cannot be hid from God; the rocks and the mountains will not cover you; his all-seeing eye is on you now.” These words fell like a sentence of doom on the ears of the poor trifler—that sentence about the great white throne, and the eye that even then was upon him, seemed to bring the day of final reckoning near to him, and he and his fellow listeners stood awestruck as they heard the words, with calm deliberation, fall from the lips of the preacher.
