Bonar, Horatius

(1808-1889)

   Scottish Presbyterian, evangelical minister, who for many years was in charge of the Chalmers Memorial Church in Edinburgh. He was awarded the honorary degree of D.D. from Aberdeen University in 1853. He wrote several evangelistic books; God's Way of Peace (1862) was reprinted in 1993 as The Everlasting Righteousness. He also wrote more than 600 hymns and published several volumes of hymns, particularly Hymns of Faith and Hope (three series, 1857-1866). He was dubbed "the prince of Scottish hymn writers." The current Methodist hymnbook, Psalms and Hymns, includes seven of Bonar's hymns. Possibly the one hymn in every hymnbook is "I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say, 'Come unto Me and rest....'" Some of his other poems and hymns: "A Churchyard by the Sea," "Be True," "Beyond the Smiling and the Weeping," "Blessing, and Honor," "For the Coming of the Bridegroom," "Life a Span," "Love is of God," "My Old Letters," "My Prayer," "Shepherd's Plain," "Sunrise," "The Flight of Time," "This Do in Remembrance of Me."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). Reformed University Fellowship, Hymnbook Online. Hymn Resource, Belmont University (http:// igracemusic.com/igracemusic/hymnbook/home.html). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Speaker's Treasury of 400 Quotable Poems. Croft M. Pentz, ed. Zondervan,