Introduction

Biography

Burke emi­grat­ed to Am­er­ica in 1873, and af­ter reach­ing Chi­cago, Il­li­nois, was led to Dwight Moo­dy’s church, where he became a mem­ber.

Burke joined the Yoke­fel­lows’ Band, and taught Sun­day school. It was at this time he con­ceived the idea of sing­ing the Gos­pel. He led the sing­ing for the Young Men’s Chris­tian As­so­cia­tion, and had charge of their music for se­ver­al years.

He en­gaged in ev­an­gel­istic work for a num­ber of years with Dwight Moo­dy, Da­ni­el Whit­tle, B. Fay Mills, and oth­ers. In 1890, at the re­quest of Moo­dy and Ira San­key, he went to Scot­land and joined Scotch ev­an­gel­ist John Mc­Neill (1854–1933). He stayed a year and a half, work­ing through Bri­tain.

Burke al­so served as Min­is­ter of Mu­sic at the New York Gos­pel Ta­ber­na­cle for about a year around 1891.