GLASGOW, Sept 1st, 1888.
MY DEAR MISS MACPHUN,—We are to 'rejoice with those that do rejoice,' as well as to sympathise with those that weep, and so I wish to-day to join with you in praises and thanks. You have been getting much to gladden you, even in that one case you so kindly send me the details of. Yours is the joy of Luke 15:7, something peculiarly heavenly in it; and it cannot fail to help you in your work, for 'the joy of the Lord is your strength.'
We are always glad to hear of you and from you. Your Zenana work interests us all. The other evening (it was a Wednesday prayer-meeting) it was proposed to have special prayer for all who had gone out from among us to labour among the heathen and the Jews, and you were not forgotten in these prayers. Our Sabbath-school has been blessed since the beginning of the year in several ways, specially in the case of the older lads in the classes, some of them among the roughest and least likely. The Lord likes to remind us that 'His arm is not shortened that it cannot save, nor His ear heavy that it cannot hear,' and that the Cross has not lost its power for salvation. Do you not more and more find that the Holy Spirit uses nothing so much as the truth concerning the atoning blood for drawing souls? He said long ago, 'If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me,' and we at home here, as well as you abroad, are ourselves blessed every time we look to the Brazen Serpent, and are made from time to time to rejoice in seeing the Holy Spirit fixing the eye of the awakened sinner on this great sight!
I daresay I need not say 'Pray for us,' for I am sure you do. Nor need you wonder that we are covetous of prayer on our behalf, for was not Paul insatiable in this respect? always in his Epistles telling his friends how he prayed for them and how he expected them to 'continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving,' adding now and then, 'withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ.'
My daughters are all well, and join with me in sending kindest regards.
—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."