Andrew Bonar

Andrew Alexander Bonar was born on May 29, 1810, in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was the younger brother of Horatius Bonar, the hymn writer, and the two grew up in a home that valued learning and faith. He studied at the University of Edinburgh and at the Divinity Hall, where he came under the influence of the great Thomas Chalmers. He had a keen mind and a tender heart, and he was drawn to the life of prayer.

At the university he formed a close friendship with Robert Murray M'Cheyne, a young preacher with a burning love for souls. The two men studied together and encouraged each other. In 1839 they were chosen, with two others, to go on a mission of inquiry to Palestine, to see the condition of the Jewish people and to consider the work of the gospel among them. Their journey took them across Europe and the Middle East. It deepened Bonar's compassion for Israel.

In 1838 he became minister of the parish of Collace, in Perthshire, a country congregation. In 1843, when the Church of Scotland divided, he joined the Free Church. He served at Collace until 1856, and then he became minister of Finnieston Free Church in Glasgow, a congregation in a poor and crowded district. He remained there for the rest of his life. He visited his people in their homes, and he kept a close record of those he prayed for. He believed that a minister should know his flock by name and bring each of them before God.

When M'Cheyne died in 1843 at the age of twenty-nine, Bonar wrote his biography. Memoir and Remains of Robert Murray M'Cheyne became one of the most widely read Christian biographies of the nineteenth century. It carried the life and letters of a man who lived close to God, and it has led many people to pray and to preach with new urgency. Bonar also wrote a long commentary on the book of Leviticus, which he treated as a picture of Christ and His work. He wrote with devout attention to the text.

He was a man of prayer, and his diary shows how often he fasted and how seriously he took his calling. He wrote that he longed to see souls saved and that he felt his own failures keenly. He was known for his great humility and gentleness. His diary and letters, which were published after his death, show his daily struggle to keep his heart close to the Lord.

He also felt the sorrows of life. He lost his wife and some of his children, and he went through seasons of grief. He faced them with the same trust he had urged on others. He held to the hope of the Lord's return and prayed often for the Jewish people.

He died on December 30, 1892, at the age of eighty-two. Those who knew him spoke of his gentle smile and of the peace of his face. His life reminds us that a faithful pastor in a poor parish, who prays and loves his people, can leave a mark that outlasts his own days.