Horatius
Bonar has 16 hymns in the Believers Hymn Book, including our choice for this
month, #90:
I
heard the voice of Jesus say,
“Come unto
Me and rest;
Lay down,
thou weary one, lay down
Thy head
upon My breast.”
2. I came
to Jesus as I was,
Weary, and
worn, and sad;
I found in
Him a resting-place,
And He has
made me glad.
3. I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“Behold, I
freely give
The living
water: Thirsty one,
Stoop
down, and drink, and live.”
4. I came
to Jesus, and I drank
Of that
life-giving stream;
My thirst
was quenched, my soul revived,
And now I
live in Him.
5. I heard
the voice of Jesus say,
“I am this
dark world’s Light;
Look unto
Me, thy morn shall rise,
And all
thy days be bright.”
6. I looked to Jesus, and I found
In Him my
Star, my Sun;
And in
that light of life I’ll walk
Till
trav’lling days are done.
This hymn was published under the
title, “The Voice from Galilee”, and it does indeed have the words of Jesus
deeply embedded in it. Verse 1 quotes
Jesus from Matthew 11:28 [“I will give you rest”], verse 3 is His words in John
4 to the woman at the well of Sychar [“I will give a spring of water welling up
to eternal life”], and verse 5 is from John 8:12 [“I am the light of the
world.”] The 2nd, 4th and 6th verses expand
beautifully on each of these themes.
The church in Scotland in Bonar’s early
days was made of stern stuff. The only hymnal was the metrical version of the
Psalms. But after he was ordained in the
Church of Scotland at Kelso in 1837, Bonar began writing hymns, many especially
for the children in his flock.
“Later, in his church in Edinburgh
where only the Scottish versions of the Psalms were sung, only the children
were allowed to sing his hymns. On one occasion in the adult services, two of
his church leaders stormed out in protest when a hymn was announced. But the
children never protested. They loved his visits to Sunday School when he would
lead them in exuberant singing.” [from Then
Sings My Soul, by Robert J. Morgan]
“You had to take life, work, and verse
together, so much was poetry part of himself”—in all he produced about 600
hymns. “The hymns of Horatius Bonar are intensely scriptural and often deeply
personal. They include hymns that give a clear vision of Christ as Saviour,
hymns that touch upon the blessedness of communion at the Lord’s supper and
hymns that point onward to the glorious hope of Christ’s second advent.” [from Hymns and Their Writers, by Jack
Strahan]
Bonar’s list of hymns includes Blessed be God, our God; Done is the work that saves; For the bread and for the wine; Here, O our Lord, we see Thee face to face;
and one of my personal favourites, No
blood, no altar now:
No blood, no altar now,
The sacrifice is o’er;
No flame, no smoke ascends on high,
The lamb is slain no more;
But richer blood has flowed from nobler veins
To purge the soul from guilt, and cleanse the reddest
stains.
Horatius Bonar was born in Edinburgh on
December 19th, 1808 and passed away on July 31st, 1889,
back in Edinburgh again. From an internship in Leith (1833-1837), he moved to
Kelso (1837-1866), then to Chalmer’s Memorial Church in Edinburgh from
1866-1889.
There are many tributes to
Bonar’s life and work but an ordered record of his life doesn’t seem to be had.
“Among his last requests was that no biography of him be written. He wanted all the glory to be Christ’s alone.”
