Horatius Bonar was born in Edinburgh on December 19th, 1808. He was one
of seven boys, three of which entered upon gospel ministry (John James,
Horatius, and Andrew) in their early years. He was ordained a minister
in the Church of Scotland on November 30th, 1837, and was later given
charge over the North Parish Church in Kelso. Bonar was counted among
the dissenting ministers who left the Established Church to form the
Free Church of Scotland in what was known as the Disruption of 1843. In
1866 he accepted a call to pastor in Edinburgh at the newly erected
Chalmers Memorial Church. He was one in a long line of ministers in the
Bonar family. In the May 1908 edition of The Scotsman magazine, they
estimated that the Bonar descendants (John Bonar 1671-1747) served a
total of 364 years in the pulpits of Scottish churches. From the
pulpit, Bonar’s message was simple and clear: he preached a crucified
and risen Christ, whose righteousness alone was the only hope of
sinners. He was adept in the exposition of a free gospel through the
necessary sovereign workings of the Holy Spirit. His presentation always
placed an emphasis on the urgent and immediate necessity of leaving
one’s sin and coming to Christ; and this as the only means of
reconciliation between man and God. In a rare autobiographical piece,
Dr. Bonar wrote of his theology: “Righteousness without works to the
sinner, simply on his acceptance of the Divine message concerning Jesus
and His sufficiency,–this has been the burden of our good news…It is one
message, one gospel, one cross, one sacrifice, from which nothing can
be taken and to which nothing can be added. This is the…beginning and
the ending of our ministry.”
Horatius Bonar was born at Old Broughton, Edinburgh, Scotland, whose
brother was Andrew Bonar. Following his education at the University of
Edinburgh, he maintained an active and powerful ministry for more than
half a century pastoring churches in that area until his death.
Throughout his life Bonar avoided all sensationalism and was calm,
patient, sincere, solemn and a steady writer. His tracts and books are
well-received and well-read in all Christian circles. He wrote well over
600 hymns of which more than 100 are still in use. Bonar has been
described as "the prince of Scottish hymn-writers."
He was a voluminous and highly popular author. He also served as the
editor for "The Quarterly journal of Prophecy" from 1848 to 1873 and for
the "Christian Treasury" from 1859 to 1879. In addition to many books
and tracts wrote a number of hymns, many of which, e.g., "I heard the
voice of Jesus say" and "Blessing and Honour and Glory and Power,"
became known all over the English-speaking world.
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