DURNESS, SUTHERLANDSHIRE, 11th August 1869.
MY DEAR HORACE,
—I am often thinking on you and Jane, and the past ways of our God. 'Even so, Father.' May we not apply Christ's words— 'Thou takest away the gift which we would have kept, and givest other gifts. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight.' Last night you were brought up to my thoughts by hearing a lady, at the house where we have spent an evening, telling of sinking very much as we saw Kitty sink. (H.Bonar's second daughter, Christian, who died of consumption on the 17th of July 1869). Many such things are with Him; but the mists shall one day rise (as so often we see in the scenery here) and reveal the whole plan in its grace and wisdom. Our journeyings (Dr. Bonar was one of a deputation from the Free Church Assembly to the congregations in Sutherlandshire) have been interesting in many ways. The scenery is all new and peculiar—rocks, lochs, and streams everywhere, as well as high mountains. . .
Last night . . . we came on to this place. It is just twelve miles from Cape Wrath. Our meetings hitherto have all been at mid-day. There are capital congregations of people, but the life is very low in both ministers and people. . . .
I have not read a newspaper for ten days.
—Your affectionate brother,
ANDREW A. BONAR.
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GLASGOW, Decr. 31, 1884.
MY DEAR HORACE,
—Last night your parcel came. All felt that it was very kind of you to remember us amidst your trials, (Mrs. Horatius Bonar died on the 3rd of December 1884) and when we began family worship, the passage in course was (2 Cor. 1: 4): 'Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble.' I thought of you as the latest instance of the kind; and then I looked a little way back and saw each of us four brothers, drinking, each of us in turn, the same cup of sorrow, and made to drink at the same time of the same cup of blessing, so as to be able to say, 'Our consolation aboundeth by Christ.'
I suppose Caroline is somewhat better. We have not heard for a few days. Remember me to her if you are seeing her, and tell her she is not to faint, 'If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small'— thou art not leaning on Almighty strength.
Give my kindest love to Mary and Lily and Emily, and all the young people; and to Horace Ninian, who must be ready to go with his King to any Flodden Field. (An ancestor, Sir Ninian Bonar, is said to have been one of those who fell on Flodden Field.)
—Your affectionate brother,
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."