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- Letters: Miss Macphun, Zenana Mission, Benares, India (1)
Andrew Bonar
Andrew Alexander Bonar (1810–1892). Born on May 29, 1810, in Edinburgh, Scotland, Andrew Bonar was the youngest of seven brothers, including hymn-writer Horatius, in a devout Presbyterian family. Orphaned by his father at seven, he struggled with faith until finding assurance at 20 through William Guthrie’s Saving Interest of Christ. He studied divinity at Edinburgh University, was licensed to preach in 1835, and ordained in 1838 at Collace, Perthshire, serving 18 years. A friend of Robert Murray M’Cheyne, he co-wrote a mission report on Palestine’s Jews in 1839 and authored M’Cheyne’s memoir, a lasting Christian work. Joining the Free Church of Scotland after the 1843 Disruption, he preached in a tent until a church was built, fostering revival during the 1839–1840 Kilsyth movement. In 1856, he became minister at Finnieston Free Church, Glasgow, until his death on December 30, 1892. Married to Isabella Dickson in 1848, he was widowed in 1864 after having six children. Known for expository preaching and fervent prayer, Bonar’s ministry bore a guiding principle from Proverbs 11:30, as he wrote in his diary, “He that winneth souls is wise.”
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Andrew Bonar expresses joy and gratitude in his letter to Miss Macphun, celebrating the successes of her Zenana mission work in India. He emphasizes the importance of rejoicing with those who rejoice and highlights the strength that comes from the joy of the Lord. Bonar encourages prayer for those laboring in the mission field, reminding that the power of the Cross and the atoning blood of Christ are central to drawing souls to salvation. He shares the blessings experienced in their Sabbath school and the necessity of prayer in their ministry efforts.
Letters: Miss Macphun, Zenana Mission, Benares, India (1)
GLASGOW, Sept 1st, 1888. MY DEAR MISS MACPHUN,—We are to 'rejoice with those that do rejoice,' as well as to sympathise with those that weep, and so I wish to-day to join with you in praises and thanks. You have been getting much to gladden you, even in that one case you so kindly send me the details of. Yours is the joy of Luke 15:7, something peculiarly heavenly in it; and it cannot fail to help you in your work, for 'the joy of the Lord is your strength.' We are always glad to hear of you and from you. Your Zenana work interests us all. The other evening (it was a Wednesday prayer-meeting) it was proposed to have special prayer for all who had gone out from among us to labour among the heathen and the Jews, and you were not forgotten in these prayers. Our Sabbath-school has been blessed since the beginning of the year in several ways, specially in the case of the older lads in the classes, some of them among the roughest and least likely. The Lord likes to remind us that 'His arm is not shortened that it cannot save, nor His ear heavy that it cannot hear,' and that the Cross has not lost its power for salvation. Do you not more and more find that the Holy Spirit uses nothing so much as the truth concerning the atoning blood for drawing souls? He said long ago, 'If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me,' and we at home here, as well as you abroad, are ourselves blessed every time we look to the Brazen Serpent, and are made from time to time to rejoice in seeing the Holy Spirit fixing the eye of the awakened sinner on this great sight! I daresay I need not say 'Pray for us,' for I am sure you do. Nor need you wonder that we are covetous of prayer on our behalf, for was not Paul insatiable in this respect? always in his Epistles telling his friends how he prayed for them and how he expected them to 'continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving,' adding now and then, 'withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ.' My daughters are all well, and join with me in sending kindest regards. —Yours truly in the Lord, ANDREW A. BONAR.
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Andrew Alexander Bonar (1810–1892). Born on May 29, 1810, in Edinburgh, Scotland, Andrew Bonar was the youngest of seven brothers, including hymn-writer Horatius, in a devout Presbyterian family. Orphaned by his father at seven, he struggled with faith until finding assurance at 20 through William Guthrie’s Saving Interest of Christ. He studied divinity at Edinburgh University, was licensed to preach in 1835, and ordained in 1838 at Collace, Perthshire, serving 18 years. A friend of Robert Murray M’Cheyne, he co-wrote a mission report on Palestine’s Jews in 1839 and authored M’Cheyne’s memoir, a lasting Christian work. Joining the Free Church of Scotland after the 1843 Disruption, he preached in a tent until a church was built, fostering revival during the 1839–1840 Kilsyth movement. In 1856, he became minister at Finnieston Free Church, Glasgow, until his death on December 30, 1892. Married to Isabella Dickson in 1848, he was widowed in 1864 after having six children. Known for expository preaching and fervent prayer, Bonar’s ministry bore a guiding principle from Proverbs 11:30, as he wrote in his diary, “He that winneth souls is wise.”