GLASGOW, 20 INDIA STREET, 21st October 1873.
MY DEAR WALTER,
—I wonder how your soul prospers? You know we can go on busily with work, and all the more busily, when enjoying the sunshine round us—it makes all so cheerful. It is even thus with us in our souls when realising the presence of God in Christ, when we know that He is 'beholding us with a pleasant countenance' (Ps. 11:7, the metre version), whether we are sitting in the house, or walking by the way, or studying a lesson, or writing a letter.
'Continue ye in My love '(John xv. 9); 'Keep yourselves in the love of God' (Jude 21). And if you say 'How am I to keep myself in His love?' the answer is, by keeping near the Cross, never suffering anything to intercept the view of that glorious, gracious, infinitely great manifestation of God's holy love to sinners. And again, it is said in John 15:10, 'If ye keep My commandments ye shall abide in My love.' The Holy Spirit will assuredly keep you in that sunshine if you are in the path of duty, though you may not be directly meditating on divine things. When you are giving diligence to get on in study, and are very busy writing exercises or the like, this is 'keeping His commandments' if done as part of duty, and so you go on from hour to hour of your work with a light and happy heart, 'continuing in His love.' 'May the God of peace give you peace always by all means.' dia pantos en panti tropoi (2 Thess.3: 16).
—Yours truly in the Lord,
ANDREW A. BONAR.
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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."