Horatius Bonar

He was the son of James Bonar (1758-1821), Solicitor of Excise for Scotland, and his wife Marjory Pyott Maitland.[1] The family lived in the Broughton district of Edinburgh.[2] He was educated in Edinburgh.

He came from a long line of ministers who served a total of 364 years in the Church of Scotland. One of eleven children, his brothers John James and Andrew Alexander were also ministers of the Free Church of Scotland He married Jane Catherine Lundie in 1843 and five of their young children died in succession. Towards the end of their lives, one of their surviving daughters was left a widow with five small children and she returned to live with her parents.

In 1853, Bonar received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from the University of Aberdeen.

He died at this home, 10 Palmerston Road[3] in the Grange, 31 July 1889. They are buried together in the Canongate Kirkyard in the lair of Alexander Bonar (and his parents), near the bottom of the eastern extension.

In 1843 he married Jane Catherine Lundie. She died in 1876.[4]

Their children included the Rev Horatius Ninian Bonar (b.1860).

He was brother to the Rev John James Bonar of Greenock (1803-1891).

He entered the Ministry of the Church of Scotland. At first he was put in charge of mission work at St. John's parish in Leith and settled at Kelso. He joined the Free Church at the time of the Disruption of 1843, and in 1867 was moved to Edinburgh to take over the Chalmers Memorial Church (named after his teacher at college, Dr. Thomas Chalmers). In 1883, he was elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland.

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 was a prolific hymnodist; many of his hymns, 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. A selection of these was published as Hymns of Faith and Hope (3 series). His last volume of poetry was My Old Letters. Bonar was also author of several biographies of ministers he had known, including "The Life of the Rev. John Milne of Perth" in 1869, and in 1884 "The Life and Works of the Rev. G. T. Dodds", who was married to Bonar's daughter and who died in 1882 while serving as a missionary in France.

His hymns, which number over 140, include:

• All Praise to Him Who Built the Hills
• All That I Was
• Fill thou my life, O Lord, my God
• I heard the Voice of Jesus say
• I Was a Wandering Sheep
• Thy way, not mine, O Lord
• Here, O my Lord, I see Thee face to face
• A few more years shall roll
• Come Lord and tarry not
• O love of God, how strong and true

Some of his books include:

• Words to Winners of Souls. Nabu Press. 2011. ISBN 978-1-24772-723-3.
• The Everlasting Righteousness. Banner of Truth. 1996. ISBN 978-0-85151-655-4.
• God's Way of Holiness. Christian Focus Publications. 1999. ISBN 978-1-85792-503-6.
• How Shall I Go to God. Baker Book House. 1977. ISBN 978-0-8010-0713-2.
• Night of Weeping. Christian Focus Publications. 1999. ISBN 978-1-85792-441-1.
• God's Way of Peace ISBN 1-4590-9630-4
• Follow the Lamb ISBN 0-906731-63-1
• Light & Truth: Bible Thoughts and Themes on The Acts & Larger Epistles – commentary on Acts, Romans, and 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians ASIN B002ZJRS9K
• Light & Truth: Bible Thoughts and Themes on Revelation - commentary on the Book of Revelation ASIN B002ZRQ55U

• "The Life and Works of Horatius Bonar CD-Rom". This contains virtually all the extant writings of this author, along with much biographical material. LUX Publications. Retrieved 23 July 2007.

• Julian, John (June 1907). A Dictionary of Hymnology. London: John Murray. pp. 161–162.

• Bailey, Albert Edward (1950). The Gospel in Hymns. New York: Charles Scribner's sons. pp. 451–455.

• "New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge". Retrieved 17 February 2007.

• Heath Christian Book Shop Charitable Trust. "Horatius Bonar 1808-1880". Archived from the original on 4 July 2007. Retrieved 17 February 2007.

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Horatius Bonar

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Bonar, Horatius.

• Works by or about Horatius Bonar at Internet Archive
• Works by Horatius Bonar at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• "I heard the voice of Jesus say" - words and score for Bonar's hymn
• "So Soon in the Morning", a song by Joan Baez and Bill Wood (1329) containing two lines from Bonar's "I heard the voice of Jesus say"
• The Hymns of Horatius Bonar

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons – via Wikisource.