Horatius
Bonar, a distinguished Presbyterian
divine, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, December 19, 1808; and was educated
at the high school and University of Edinburgh. He was ordained in 1837, and
became a minister of the Established Church of Scotland at Kelso. At the Disruption
in 1843 he became one of the founders of the Free Church of Scotland. The University
of Aberdeen gave him the doctorate in 1853. In 1866 he became the minister of
the Chalmers Memorial Church, in Edinburgh. Dr. Bonar died July 31, 1889. He
was a voluminous writer of sacred poetry, and more than one hundred of his hymns
are in common use. He published the following books, in which most of his hymns
are found: Songs of the Wilderness, 1843-44; The Bible Hymn Book,
1845; Hymns Original and Selected, 1846; Hymns of Faith and Hope,
first series, 1857 (second series, 1864; third series, 1867); Hymns of the Nativity,
1879; Communion Hymns, 1881. Dr. Bonar was an able, pious man and a
sweet singer, though as a premillenarian some of his poems are plaintive and
sad almost to pessimism. Twelve of his hymns are found in this book:
Hymns:
—A few more years shall roll
—Beyond the smiling and the weeping
—Go, labor on; spend and be spent
—Here, O my Lord, I see thee face to
—I heard the voice of Jesus say
—I lay my sins on Jesus
—I was a wandering sheep
—Make haste, O man, to live
—No, not despairingly come I to thee
—O Love of God, how strong and true
—Thy way, not mine, O Lord
—When the weary, seeking rest
From The Hymns and Hymn Writers of the Church: An Annotated Edition of the Methodist Hymnal by Charles S. Nutter and Wilbur F. Tillet. New York: Eaton & Main, 1911.
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