Horatius Bonar

19 December 1808–31 July 1889

HORATIUS BONAR (1808–1889), Scottish divine, second son of James Bonar, second solicitor of excise, Edinburgh, was born in Edinburgh on 19 Dec. 1808. Educated at the high school and the university of Edinburgh, he had among his fellow students Robert Murray McCheyne and others, afterwards notable as evangelists. Licensed as a preacher, he did mission work in Leith for a time, and in November 1837 he settled at Kelso as minister of the new North Church founded in connection with Thomas Chalmers’s scheme of church extension. He became exceedingly popular as a preacher, and was soon well known throughout Scotland.

In his early years at Kelso, he anticipated the methods of the evangelical alliance by frequently arranging for eight days or more of united prayer. He began the publication of pamphlets supplementary to his ministerial work, and he gradually produced evangelical books, such as God’s Way of Peace and The Night of Weeping, the sale of the former almost immediately disposing of two hundred and eighty-five thousand copies, while of the latter an issue of fifty-nine thousand was speedily exhausted. For the advancement of his work in his congregation and his Sunday-school classes, he began in Leith the composition of hymns, continuing the practice in Kelso and afterwards. He joined the Free Church [of Scotland] in 1843. On 9 April 1853, he received the honorary degree of D.D. from Aberdeen University. He was appointed minister of Chalmers Memorial Church, Edinburgh, on 7 June 1866. He was moderator of the general assembly of the Free Church in May 1883. A man of extraordinary energy and versatility, Bonar was one of the last among notable Edinburgh preachers to conduct services in the open air, and this he frequently did on a Sunday in addition to the regular work for his congregation. He died in Edinburgh on 31 July 1889.

Bonar married in 1843 Jane Katherine, third daughter of Robert Lundie (d. 1832), minister of Kelso. She sympathised fully with his work, and is herself said to have written religious verse. She predeceased him, as did also several members of his family. He was survived by three daughters and a son, who became a Free Church minister.

As a hymn writer, Bonar was able to consecrate a passing mood by giving it a tangible expression in verse. His best hymns are spontaneous, fluent, melodious, and devotional. Occasionally they are genuine lyrical poems, as e.g. “When the weary seeking rest” and “I heard the voice of Jesus say,” which Bishop Fraser of Manchester thought the best hymn in the language. His Hymns of Faith and Hope were soon sold to the number of 140,729 copies. The standard value of his work is illustrated in the Scottish Church Hymnary [1898]—used in common by the three Scottish presbyterian churches and the Irish presbyterians— in which eighteen of his hymns occur, along with devotional lyrics drawn from all possible sources.

Early influenced by Edward Irving, who delivered in Edinburgh three series of lectures on the Apocalypse (1828–29–30), Bonar steadily adhered through life to the belief in the Second Advent, urging his views in Prophetic Landmarks (1847) and the Coming and Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ (1849), as well as in the Journal of Prophecy, which he edited.

Bonar published numerous religious tracts and sermons; edited Kelso Tracts, many of which he wrote; and contributed to the Imperial Bible Dictionary and Smith’s Bible Dictionary. He was for a time editor of The Presbyterian Review, The Quarterly Journal of Prophecy, The Christian Treasury, and The Border Watch. He selected devotional readings, which he furnished in some cases with prefaces and notes.

Dictionary of National Biography (1901)
Edited by Sidney Lee

Featured Hymns:

Give ye to Jehovah, O sons of the mighty (Ps. 29)
I heard the voice of Jesus say

Publications of Hymns:

Songs for the Wilderness

No. 1 (1843): WorldCat
Nos. 1 & 2 (1844): WorldCat
3rd Ed. (1850): PDF

The Bible Hymn-Book (1845): PDF

Hymns Original and Selected (1850): WorldCat

The New Jerusalem (1852): PDF

Hymns of Faith and Hope

First Series (1857): Archive.org
Second Series (1861): Archive.org
Third Series (1866): Archive.org

Lyra Consolationis (1866): Archive.org

Treasury Hymnal

Pt. 1 (1865): PDF
Pt. 2 (1866)
Pt. 3 (1867)
Pt. 4 (1868)
Selected Hymns (1874): Archive.org

The Song of the New Creation (1872): Archive.org

Hymns of the Nativity (1879): PDF

Communion Hymns (1881): PDF

Until the Day Break (1890): Archive.org

see also:

The Christian Treasury: HathiTrust

Manuscripts:

University of Edinburgh, New College Library, Archives & Manuscripts, MS Box 14.2–14.3: PDF

National Library of Scotland, Archives and Manuscripts: http://manuscripts.nls.uk/

Related Resources:

Josiah Miller, “Horatius Bonar,” Singers and Songs of the Church (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1869), pp. 500–501: Archive.org

Edwin Hatfield, “Horatius Bonar,” The Poets of the Church (NY: A.D.F. Randolph, 1884): Archive.org

Horatius Bonar: A Memorial (NY: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1889): Archive.org

James Bonar, “Horatius Bonar,” A Dictionary of Hymnology, ed. John Julian (London: J. Murray, 1892), pp. 161–162: Google Books

“Horatius Bonar,” Dictionary of National Biography, ed. Sidney Lee, Suppl. Vol. 1 (NY: Macmillan, 1901), pp. 231–232: Google Books

H.N. Bonar, Hymns by Horatius Bonar (1904): PDF

Graham L. Gibb, Horatius Bonar and His Hymns (Edinburgh: St Catherine’s Argyle Church, 1989).

Faith Cook, “Horatius Bonar (1808-1889): Prince of Scottish Hymn Writers,” Our Hymn Writers and Their Hymns (Webster, NY: Evangelical Press, 2005), pp. 289–308.

Ian Campbell Bradley, “Horatius Bonar,” Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology:
http://www.hymnology.co.uk/h/horatius-bonar

Rosemary Mitchell, “Horatius Bonar,” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography:
https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/2814

Horatius Bonar, Hymnary.org:
https://hymnary.org/person/Bonar_Horatius