Andrew Bonar Quotes on Christ, Holiness, Prayer and Ministry
Andrew Bonar was a Scottish pastor for more than fifty years, first at Collace in Perthshire and then at Finnieston in Glasgow. He was Robert Murray M'Cheyne's closest friend and his biographer, and the younger brother of Horatius Bonar. Bonar wrote simply. His sentences are short and plain, and nearly every one of them turns toward Christ.
A note on what's here. Bonar's biographies are full of other people's words: M'Cheyne's diary, Sandeman's letters, sayings of their friends. Many quotes passed around online as Andrew Bonar's are really M'Cheyne's. This page gives only Bonar's own writing, copied exactly from his books in TheWay Library, with the book and chapter for each. For his life, see who was Andrew Bonar. For a guide to his books, see Andrew Bonar books.
On God's love and grace
Bonar's commentaries keep coming back to the warmth of God's heart toward sinners. Writing on the burnt-offering in Leviticus, he exclaims:
The heart of our God, in the midst of all his own joy, yearning to pour itself out to man!
A Commentary on the Book of Leviticus, The Burnt-Offering
The love of our God is too full to be restrained from us one moment longer than is needful for the manifestation of his holiness.
A Commentary on the Book of Leviticus, Same Subject Continued
We are kept by the putting forth of God's perfections in our behalf, truth, mercy, love, power, wisdom, holiness.
Christ and His Church in the Book of Psalms, Psalm LIV
They tell that it is sovereign grace that ruleth over all — it is a sovereign God.
Christ and His Church in the Book of Psalms, Psalm CV
He opened his memoir of David Sandeman with the same truth:
Whatever a believing man is, he owes it all to the sovereign grace of his God, who made him a vessel of honour.
Memoir of the Life and Brief Ministry of the Rev. David Sandeman, His Conversion
On Christ in all the Scriptures
Bonar read the whole Old Testament with Christ in view. Of the Psalms he wrote:
And when we read all this as spoken of Christ, how much does every verse become enhanced.
Christ and His Church in the Book of Psalms, Psalm LXIII
The strongest plea which can rise from earth to heaven is drawn from the person and work of Jesus.
Christ and His Church in the Book of Psalms, Psalm XXVIII
The one shows us pardon of sin by Christ's death, the other shows us purification of heart by Christ's Spirit.
A Commentary on the Book of Leviticus, The Priesthood Entering on Their Office
Jesus cleansed away the guilt that there might be a fair tablet on which the Spirit might re-write his holy law.
A Commentary on the Book of Leviticus, The Leprosy Removed
And he believed Christians grow weak when they leave large parts of the Bible unread:
The unhealthy tone of many true Christians may be accounted for by the too plain fact that they do not meditate much on the whole counsel of God.
A Commentary on the Book of Leviticus, Preface
On sin and holiness
Whatever sin God's eye resteth on, that is the sin which the man of God abhors.
A Commentary on the Book of Leviticus, Sin-Offering for Sins of Inadvertency
The difference between sin and holiness is everlasting, not temporary; therefore, our protest against sin, and in favor of holiness, must be without interruption and without end.
A Commentary on the Book of Leviticus, Remembrances of the Broken Law: The Clean and the Unclean
If seraphim cover their feet and face before God, much more children of men must approach with holy reverence.
A Commentary on the Book of Leviticus, The Priesthood Entering on Their Office
The love that God felt to the guilty, is the love which we are to feel to our fellow-men.
A Commentary on the Book of Leviticus, Duties in the Every Day Relations of Life
On the life of the believer
His frames and feelings may vary, because his circumstances vary, but his heart's desire and affection toward God and his truth remain unvarying.
Christ and His Church in the Book of Psalms, Psalm CXIX
The forgiven man is hidden, instructed, taught, guided by God's tender care.
Christ and His Church in the Book of Psalms, Psalm XXXII
Man has taken the instrument of joy into his hand; but it is only to God's glory he strikes it.
Christ and His Church in the Book of Psalms, Psalm CL
On ministers and ministry
Bonar spent his life among pastors, and he wrote often about what makes a minister useful. Commenting on the priests who were not to drink wine before entering the tabernacle, he wrote:
A priest must have his soul calm, clear, steady.
A Commentary on the Book of Leviticus, The Fencing of the Priestly Ritual
What a baptism of the Holy Ghost ministers now need, in order to be free of every foreign aid and false excitement, and be able to minister calmly, holily, and according to the Lord's revealed message!
A Commentary on the Book of Leviticus, The Fencing of the Priestly Ritual
His memoir of M'Cheyne is full of lessons drawn from his friend's life:
If we are ever to preach with compassion for the perishing, we must ourselves be moved by those same views of sin and righteousness which moved the human soul of Jesus.
The Biography of Robert Murray M'Cheyne, His Labors in the Vineyard Before Ordination
In the case of a faithful ministry, success is the rule; want of it the exception.
The Biography of Robert Murray M'Cheyne, First Years of Labor in Dundee
He felt meditation and prayer to be the very sinews of his work.
The Biography of Robert Murray M'Cheyne, First Years of Labor in Dundee
All who find Christ for themselves are impelled, by the holy necessity of constraining love, to seek the salvation of others.
The Biography of Robert Murray M'Cheyne, His Youth, and Preparation for the Ministry
On early death
Both of the young men Bonar wrote about died before thirty. He didn't pretend to understand why, but he trusted the Lord of the harvest. Of David Sandeman's empty room in China:
The tent was there — the soldier was gone.
Memoir of the Life and Brief Ministry of the Rev. David Sandeman, His Brief Career in China
He employs the one, because He likes to honour His servants by using them as instruments; He sends home the other soon, because He would have us know that He does not need to use instruments any further than pleases Him.
Memoir of the Life and Brief Ministry of the Rev. David Sandeman, His Brief Career in China
What about "Live so as to be missed"?
That saying appears in Bonar's memoir of M'Cheyne, but Bonar is quoting his friend. He writes that M'Cheyne "himself used to say" it, and that the tears at his funeral showed he had lived that way. It's M'Cheyne's line, so it isn't counted above.
Reading Bonar for yourself
Start with The Biography of Robert Murray M'Cheyne, and then use Christ and His Church in the Book of Psalms as a companion to your daily reading. All five of his books are on the Andrew A. Bonar author page. His brother's best lines are in our Horatius Bonar quotes.