Andrew Bonar: Diary & Life (Bonar)

Description

The Diary and Life of Andrew Bonar (1810-92) gives a panoramic view of one of the most fascinating periods of Scotland’s church history. But first and foremost it is the record of God’s work in the life of a man who represented all that was finest in the evangelical life of that country.

Pupil of Thomas Chalmers, friend of Robert Murray M’Cheyne, participant in the revivals of 1839 and 1859, faithful witness against the inroads of ‘Higher Criticism’, Bonar’s name because highly esteemed far beyond the borders of his own church. Yet his life-long concern was communion with God and his diary discloses that hidden yet most helpful aspect of his witness.

Convinced, like M’Cheyne, that ‘it is not great talents God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus’ and that ‘unholiness lies at the root of our little success’, Andrew Bonar sought to press further and further into the presence of God. He knew that ‘one of the gravest perils which besets the ministry is a restless scattering of energies over an amazing multiplicity of interests which leaves no margin of time and of strength for receptive and absorbing communion with God’. Consequently prayer, meditation, and Bible study were for him the chief work of every day.

Contents

Introduction
Preface

Diary

1. Conversion and College Life, 1828–1834
2. Work in Jedburgh and Edinburgh, 1835–1838
3. Collace, 1838–1856
4. Early Years in Finnieston, 1857–1863
5. Ministry in Glasgow, 1864–1875
6. Labours More Abundant, 1876–1888
7. Closing Years, 1889-1892

Reminiscences of His Life

8. A Minister of Christ
9. The Good Pastor
10. In the City
11. Echoes of Spoken Words
12. A Basket of Fragments
13. Among His People
14. Manse Memories
15. Nearing the Goal
16. Faith and Doctrine

Appendix: Andrew Bonar's Introduction to
Nettleton and his Labours

Index

Endorsements

‘Andrew Bonar’s name will forever be associated with his moving biography of his great friend Robert Murray M’Cheyne. His Diary and Life breathes the same spirit. It is one of the most helpful accounts in all Christian literature of a man who lived in communion with God. There are so many valuable books to read, but I wish every minister of the gospel in the world would read this one.’
—Sinclair B. Ferguson

‘Best known as the biographer of M’Cheyne, Bonar’s own life and ministry, bathed in prayer and blessed with recurring revivals, deserve to be known in their own right. The volume cannot but stir devotion to Christ and zeal to serve him.’
—Evangelical Times

About the Author

Born in Scotland, Andrew Alexander Bonar was ordained in 1838, where he communed with God and served as minister to congregations. In 1839, he traveled to Palestine with Robert Murray M’Cheyne, a gifted preacher in his own right. Not surprisingly, then, perhaps the best known of Andrew Bonar books is Memoir & Remains of Robert Murray M’Cheyne. In this now-treasured volume, Bonar shares the inspiring and faith-filled life story of M’Cheyne, who died at the age of 29. Initially published in 1844, this book went through 116 English editions in just the first 25 years. By 1910, at least half a million copies were in circulation. And, in The Diary and Life of Andrew Bonar, readers can discover how God worked in the life of this preacher-writer, one who highlighted the best of evangelism during one of the most intriguing periods in the history of Scotland’s churches.