The Gospel in the Prophets

Horatius Bonar (1808 – 1889) was a Scottish pastor, poet, and devotional writer.

This book contains the following meditations on the Old Testament prophets:

1. The Vision of the Glory (Isaiah 6:1-13)
2. Man’s Extremity and Satan’s Opportunity (Isaiah 8:19-22)
3. The Day of Clear Vision to the Dim Eyes (Isaiah 32:3)
4. The Unfainting Creator and the Fainting Creature (Isaiah 40:28-31)
5. The Knowledge That Justifies (Isaiah 53:11)
6. The Heritage and Its Title-Deeds (Isaiah 54:17)
7. The Meeting Between the Sinner and God (Isaiah 64:5)
8. God’s Love and God’s Way of Blessing (Jeremiah 3:12,13)
9. Divine Jealousy for the Truth (Jeremiah 5:3)
10. Divine Love and Human Rejection of It (Jeremiah 8:6,7)
11. God’s Desire to Bless the Sinner (Jeremiah 13:27)
12. The Resting-Place Forgotten (Jeremiah 50:6)
13. The Day That Will Right All Wrongs (Lamentations 1:21)
14. The Glory and the Love (Ezekiel 1:28)
15. False Religion and Its Doom (Ezekiel 6:5)
16. No Breath No Life (Ezekiel 37:8)
17. Every Christian a Teacher (Daniel 11:33)
18. Work, Rest, and Recompence (Daniel 12:13)
19. Human Heedlessness and Divine Remembrance (Hosea 7:2)
20. Lies the Food of Man (Hosea 10:13)
21. The Love and the Calling (Hosea 11:1)
22. The Anger and the Goodness (Nahum 1:6,7)
23. Darkness Pursuing the Sinner (Nahum 1:8)
24. Jerusalem the Centre of the World’s Peace (Haggai 2:9)
25. Jerusalem and Her King (Zechariah 9:9,10)
26. Looking to the Pierced One (Zechariah 12:10)
27. The Holiness of Common Things (Zechariah 14:20,21)
28. Wearying Jehovah With Our Words (Malachi 2:17)
29. Dies Irae (Malachi 4:1-6)

"The time is at hand when these eyes shall not be dim," writes Bonar. "There are many partial removals of this dimness even now; times when we see farther and more clearly. At Pentecost this was the case. At the Reformation also. In times of revival it has been so. In individual cases this has been known. Paul was a man that saw clearly. Augustine, Wycliffe, Luther, Calvin, Knox, Rutherford, Edwards; these were clear-sighted men, from whom the Holy Spirit had purged the scales and the dimness. But the reference here is prophetical. The prophet points to a coming; era of perfection, when we shall see Him as he is; see as we are seen, know as we are known. No dimness then; no defective vision; no cloudy atmosphere; no diseased organ of sight. All brightness and distinctness. The cross clear and bright. The light and love unclouded. Christ seen face to face, no longer in a glass darkly. Every ray of glory coming freshly from his revealed countenance; every feature fair and perfect; Himself the chief among ten thousand; His kingdom infinitely glorious. No doubting either as to the things of Christ, or our interest in them. No unbelief; no error; no mist. All the perfection of vision, and the perfection of light. O day of brightness and true vision, dawn! O Morning-star, arise! O Prince of light, light of the world, make haste, end the long darkness of humanity, and cover earth with celestial sunshine!"