GLASGOW, 14th Feby. 1873.
MY DEAR JAMES,
—I have this week been lighting upon some passages in the poets that seemed to me to illustrate, or, rather, to put in a good setting, some truths that are usually stated in Bible language. Reading a little of Carey's 'Dante' (which is not always free from obscurity), I found these lines that seemed to me to describe well the first indistinct discovery of Christ's grace to a soul:
'Call to remembrance, reader, if thou e'er
Hast on a mountain-top been ta'en by cloud,
Through which thou saw'st no better than the mole
Doth through opacous membrane; then whene'er
The watery vapours dense began to melt
Into thin air, how faintly the sun's sphere
Seemed wading through them. So thy nimble thought
May image how at first I re-beheld
The sun.'
And here is Byron's way of putting 'the end of such mirth is sadness'—
‘Joy's recollection is no longer joy' ;
and then he adds, in his own tone of sadness—
'But sorrow's memories are sorrows still.'
Well, these are scraps of a literary kind in return for your interesting account of Stirling's book and your conversation with Kahnis. . . . Now, I must away to my studies for Sabbath. When you are reading a letter from home, or when your mind has been interested in the book before you, you have felt what Dante says when he checked his eager listening and proceeded onward in his survey-
'I drew the sponge yet thirsty from the wave.'
. . Every blessing be yours for time and eternity.
— Your affectionate father,
ANDREW A. BONAR.
'Vespera jam venit; nobiscum, Christe, maneto,
Extingui lucem nec patiare tuam.' - (Old Latin Hymn.)
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GLASGOW, 22nd Feb.1881.
MY DEAR JAMES,
—I have perused with considerable care your Parson Malthus, and I like it much. Your style is striking in its epigrammatic brevity. There is at times a want of clearness perhaps, arising from your condensing too much, and at other times from your evidently trusting to your reader's previous knowledge of the subject. On the whole, it seems to me likely to help you on in the judgment of those who can appreciate the subject. I found it interesting as well as able.
You will be much gratified by the notice of it in The Mail. . . . We are all well. To-night I have my annual tea- meeting of my Bible classes.—
Your affectionate father,
ANDREW A. BONAR.
P. S.—What do you mean by 'having a Herodotean fear of nemesis' ? This is a heathenish fear. Faith in Him who giveth without upbraiding knows nothing of it.
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Andrew Bonar (1810 - 1892)
He was a well-known pastor in Scotland with the Free Church. His brother Horatius was another well-known minister who was contemporary with Robert Murray Mchyene and others in those days. They saw a move of revival in their churches where the Spirit brought many immediate conversations in a short period of time.He is best known for his work on compiling the life of the prophet of Dundee: Robert Murray Mchyene: "Memoir and Remains of Robert Murray McCheyne." One cannot read this volume and feel the sobriety of eternity and the fear of the Lord. He also wrote a wonderful volume on Leviticus.
Andrew Alexander Bonar was a minister of the Free Church of Scotland, and the youngest brother of Horatius Bonar.
He studied at Edinburgh; was minister at Collace, Perthshire, 1838 - 1856 (both in the Church of Scotland and the Free Church); and of Finnieston Free Church, Glasgow, 1856 till his death.
He was identified with evangelical and revival movements and adhered to the doctrine of premillennialism. With Robert Murray McCheyne he visited Palestine in 1839 to inquire into the condition of the Jews there. During the visit of Dwight L. Moody to Britain in 1874 and 1875, Moody was warmly welcomed by Bonar, despite the latter receiving considerable criticism from other Calvinist ministers in the Free Church.
Andrew Bonar preached from the whole Bible, the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation. When one of his friends remarked on his originality in finding subjects for preaching, and wondered where he got all his texts, he just lifted up his Bible. He did not ignore any part of it, but explained it all. He did not shy away from any passages that might be seen as unpopular or unpleasant. Even the first chapters of Chronicles became 'God calling the roll of mankind.' He made it come alive as a history of men and women, living in their time, as we live in ours, accountable to God.
Christ and Him crucified was at the centre of all his preaching, in all parts of the Bible. He declared 'the whole counsel of God', and was deeply aware of his responsibility as a man of God. He spent hours every day in prayer and meditation of the Scriptures, and asking for the Holy Spirit to show the truth to him, so that he might pass it on to his flock. He wrote in a letter: "Persevering prayerfulness is harder for the flesh than preaching."
Above all, he was aware that his personal holiness would be of crucial importance to his preaching, as his remark shows: "Sins of teachers are teachers of sins."