COLLACE, August 30, 1844.
MY DEAR FRIEND,
—I am longing to hear of you. Are you better? and where are you? It is a sore trial to be laid aside, but it must be very sanctifying. It seems to be peculiarly a minister's furnace. Remember the Baptist. He preached in full health amid the breezes of the hills of Judea, and then at the waters of AEnon ; and as he preached he cried, 'He must increase, but I must decrease!' Well, he was soon laid up in the dungeon of Machaerus, and saw Herod's gay company riding out and in to the palace—while he could only mourn, 'Lord! art Thou He that should come?' Your own history resembles this—you ministered in the hilly country, and then by the waters of AEnon; and now you are learning John's lesson of trial. But perhaps you have more work yet—prepare for it by the deepening holiness of your soul. Tell me what you are learning in his school . . . . . .
Write me if you can, and believe me, dear brother, yours in the Lord,
ANDREW A. BONAR.
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KELSO, April 30th, 1846.
MY DEAR BROTHER,—I was appointed to furnish you with the annexed list of brethren in which is your own name, understanding that you were willing to join us in keeping one day every month as peculiarly set apart for fasting and prayer. Monday next is the day we mean to begin and the first Monday of every month thereafter. Your turn to give notice will not be for a year yet. Surely we need much to pray—and to sigh and cry for the land. How little fulness in our messages! How little of the love that is as a most vehement flame! How seldom we feel commissioned by God at the time! How rare the felt and evident presence of the Holy Ghost! Few are saved—our hearers float down the stream to the lake of fire, and we sit on the banks writing sermons and speaking words, instead of really rushing to their rescue, declaring the whole mind of God opened out at Calvary. O brother, let us go and put ourselves on Monday under the Holy Spirit's teaching anew—to be taught the Word—and how to preach the contents of the Word, not our thoughts upon it. One spark of lightning is worth a thousand of tame candle-flames—so, one sentence given us by the Holy Ghost is worth volumes of any other.
Join us, then, on Monday. May He Himself give us His power to wrestle.—Yours truly in the Lord,
ANDREW A. BONAR.
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GLASGOW, 16th Dec. 1864.
MY DEAR FRIEND,
—I should have replied at once to your very kind letter, but often just now there seems a strange indolence to creep over me, disinclining me for exertion and suggesting postponement for a time. . . .
My hands are full of work, which is good for me, for at home the blank does at times appear indescribably sad. But the Lord is not far off. He does at times pour over me the 'oil of gladness' from His own person and presence. . . . I hope your throat is really better. You must be moderate in your work though not in your creed. I am quite set on a visit to that private chapel of yours. (Mr. Manson had fitted up his green-house in Crossford as a meeting-place, and services were held in it till a church was built in 1873) May it be in a high sense 'the Porter's Lodge,' the Lodge of Him to whom 'the Porter openeth,' —and may the Divine Porter who welcomed the returning Shepherd that laid down His life for the sheep be ever there, ready to welcome returning sheep.
We are all well. 'He stayeth His rough wind in the day of His east wind.' —Yours truly in the Lord Jesus,
ANDREW A. BONAR.
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GLASGOW, 23rd Sept. 1889.
MY DEAR VENERABLE FRIEND,
—I have just come from the funeral of Dr. Somerville, our old and true-hearted friend. He was laid in the grave at the Western Necropolis, a little beyond Maryhill. Have you many memories of him? He was greatly blessed in his ministry, and for fifty-two years went on preaching the 'blood and the obedience of Christ' without once turning aside. It is difficult to believe that he is gone from among us. But we shall all soon meet together, for the 'coming of the Lord draweth nigh.'
I have Major Whittle in my church this week holding meetings. He is a most Scriptural and effective evangelist. Do you know that, on Sabbath last, I began the fifty-first year of my ministry! Were you with me on my Ordination-day, or Where were you? Dr. Candlish introduced me. O how many sins of commission and omission! I feel often ashamed when I read over my sermons of early date—so little in them —and so very little to remember in regard to their being useful. Do you ever groan at such retrospects? I do rejoice that it is written, 'Your sins and your iniquities I will remember no more!'
Pray for us and for our evangelistic meetings this week.—Yours affectionately, in much weakness, infirmity, stupidity, ANDREW A. BONAR.
P.S.—Your grapes were excellent. I wonder if Eshcol-clusters were better? Scarcely!
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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."