John Milne (1807-68) became minister of St Leonard's, Perth, in 1839, and was almost immediately caught up in an awakening shared by an outstanding circle of preachers. Among them were his close friends William Burns, Robert M'Cheyne and Horatius Bonar.

Bonar, author and hymn writer, was at his best in this Life of John Milne, published in 1869 from first-hand knowledge of the man. The result is one of Scotland's finest evangelical biographies, written by one of her foremost leaders about a friend rather than a subject. For readers of the M'Cheyne circle and the awakening of 1839.