Horatius Bonar

1808-1889

Courtesy of Free Church of Scotland

Born: December 19, 1808, Old Broughton, Edinburgh, Scotland. Died: July 31, 1889, Edinburgh, Scotland. Buried: Canongate churchyard.

Bonar has been called “the prince of Scottish hymn writers.” After graduating from the University of Edinburgh, he was ordained in 1838, and became pastor of the North Parish, Kelso. He joined the Free Church of Scotland after the “Disruption” of 1843, and for a while edited the church’s The Border Watch. Bonar remained in Kelso for 28 years, after which he moved to the Chalmers Memorial church in Edinburgh, where he served the rest of his life. Bonar wrote more than 600 hymns. At a memorial service following his death, his friend, Rev. E. H. Lundie, said:

His hymns were written in very varied circumstances, sometimes timed by the tinkling brook that babbled near him; sometimes attuned to the ordered tramp of the ocean, whose crested waves broke on the beach by which he wandered; sometimes set to the rude music of the railway train that hurried him to the scene of duty; sometimes measured by the silent rhythm of the midnight stars that shone above him.

Hymns:

1. Blessing and Honor and Glory and Power
2. By the Cross of Jesus Standing
3. Church Has Waited Long, The
4. Come, Lord, and Tarry Not
5. Few More Years Shall Roll, A
6. Fill Thou My Life
7. For Thee We Long and Pray
8. Glory Be to God the Father
9. Go, Labor On: Spend, and Be Spent
10. Great Master, Touch Us
11. He Has Come, the Christ of God
12. He Is Near (I Know Not When the Lord Will Come)
13. Here, O My Lord, I See Thee
14. Holy Father, Hear My Cry
15. Ho, Ye Thirsty, Parched and Fainting
16. I Bless the Christ of God
17. I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say
18. I Lay My Sins on Jesus
19. I Thought upon My Sins
20. I Was a Wandering Sheep
21. Jesus, My Sorrow Lies Too Deep
22. Light of the World! Forever, Ever Shining
23. No, Not Despairingly
24. Not What My Hands Have Done
25. O Love of God, How Strong and True
26. O Love That Casts Out Fear
27. O ’Tis Not What We Fancied It
28. Peace to the World
29. Sing Them, My Children
30. Spirit of Everlasting Grace
31. Through Good Report and Evil, Lord
32. Thy Way, Not Mine, O Lord
33. Time’s Sun is Fast Setting
34. Weep, Pilgrim, Weep
35. Yes, for Me He Careth
36. Yet There Is Room