⋙ PDF Andrew A Bonar DD Diary and Letters eBook Andrew A Bonar Marjory Bonar

Andrew A Bonar DD Diary and Letters eBook Andrew A Bonar Marjory Bonar

Download As PDF : Andrew A Bonar DD Diary and Letters eBook Andrew A Bonar Marjory Bonar

Andrew Alexander Bonar, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 29th May, 1810. His father James recorded the birth of this his seventh son in his diary with the hope that 'he may be spared to be a blessing to his friends, and a real member of the Church of Christ.' Indeed he was spared - to faithfully preach the Gospel for over fifty years throughout a notable period in Scottish Church history first in Jedburgh and Edinburgh; then in the parish of Collace, Perthshire where he ministered from 1838 until 1856; and finally in Finnieston Free Church, Glasgow.

His Diary was kept continuously from 1828, when he first resolved to enter into a study of divinity, until within a few weeks of his death in 1892. It is the diary of a man who believed 'prayer should be the main business of every day'. Its contents are best described by his daughter, Marjory (1854-1918), in her introduction to the book.-

'It has been said that Dr. Bonar's Diary takes us behind the wall in the Interpreter's House, to see the man with the vessel of oil in his hand, continually casting it upon the fire, so that it burned always higher and hotter. We saw how brightly the fire burned; now we know how it was sustained. It is the revelation of the life of one who prayed always, who prayed everywhere, who, the nearer he came to the other world, was every day more constantly enjoying closer intercourse with it. As he led his congregation in prayer at a Sabbath-day service, or an evening prayer-meeting, often it seemed as if he had forgotten the presence of any other, and were speaking with his unseen God and Saviour "face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend." '

Diary and Letters was first published in 1893 at the request of many of his congregation and friends with 'the belief that the voice now silent on earth will still be heard in these pages calling on us as from the other world to be "followers of them who through faith and patience are inheriting the promises." '