Lord Kames in his "Elements of Criticism" suggests, as our ideas come in trains, that it is not often a popular speaker makes a good statesman. He thinks brilliant oratorical powers are not associated with a logical mind. This is not true in the case of Mr. Burnham. He is a statesman as well as a popular preacher. He has shown conspicuous ability in his management of the American Christian Missionary Society.

      Frederick William Burnham was born in Chapin, Illinois, in 1871, the son of New England parents. His father, a physician, died when Frederick was eleven years old. After finishing the public school young Burnham became a telegraph operator to earn the necessary money to take him to college. After a year at Illinois College, Jacksonville, he entered Eureka College from which he graduated in 1895. Later he took some postgraduate work in the University of Chicago.

      Immediately after graduation from Eureka he became pastor of the church at Carbondale, Illinois, where he had the rare comradeship and counsel of H. W. Everest. The splendid church at Charleston, Illinois, with its new building challenged his strength and there he spent five years of happy useful ministry. In 1901 he was called to Decatur, Illinois, where he spent six more years, built up a strong congregation and erected a new church. Scarcely had that task been completed when the First church of the Capitol City, Springfield, Illinois, called him to a similar task