Hymn of the Month: “I heard the voice of Jesus say…”

     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 2^nd, 4^th and 6^th 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 19^th, 1808 and passed away on July 31^st, 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.”