The Life and Works of Horatius Bonar CD

Horatius Bonar February 7th, 2008

Reformation Heritage Books has recently released two new books by or about Horatius Bonar. We would highly recommend both of these volumes.

Horatius Bonar, a well-known nineteenth-century minister called “the prince of Scottish hymn-writers,” was also a prolific writer of scriptural, practical, and experiential Christian literature. Two of his books that bore considerable fruit and have often been reprinted were The Night of Weeping and The Morning of Joy, here reprinted under one cover. The Night of Weeping expounds compassionately and beautifully a biblical view of suffering, showing how it is an integral part of belonging to God’s family, how to cope with it, and how it benefits the believer. The chapters on the purifying and solemnizing fruits of suffering are themselves worth the price of the book. The Morning of Joy shows how God leads believers to rejoice in the present and future joys of the living church, particularly through fellowshipping with the resurrected Christ. The chapters on the majestic kingdom of Christ and the superlative joys of glory are most uplifting. By the Spirit’s grace, both books can be life-changing; they present us with a clear, powerful, profound, and balanced view of the Christian life and of God’s dealings with His people. This book can be ordered here.

Christ Is All: The Piety of Horatius Bonar highlights the life and work of this memorable Scottish minister and poet. There is very little biographical information available on Horatius Bonar as it was his own request that no biography be written of him. This book includes a warm account of Bonar’s life by church historian Michael A. G. Haykin that gives more than just a glimpse into a life that God used greatly in the preaching of the gospel and the saving of souls. This volume also includes 65 excerpts from Bonar’s writings that capture his ardent devotion to the glory of Christ. This book can be ordered here.

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Horatius Bonar December 19th, 2007

As the Christmas season approaches, and our focus turns to the coming of the Saviour, we would do well to remember the reason why He came. The incarnation of Jesus Christ is not the end of the story as Bonar aptly points out:

It is not by incarnation but by blood shedding that we are saved. The Christ of God is no mere expounder of wisdom; no mere deliverer or gracious benefactor; and they who think they have told the whole gospel, when they have spoken of Jesus revealing the love of God, do greatly err. If Christ be not the Substitute, he is nothing to the sinner. If he did not die as the Sin-bearer, he has died in vain. Let us not be deceived on this point, nor misled by those who, when they announce Christ as the Deliverer, think they have preached the gospel. If I throw a rope to a drowning man, I am a deliverer. But is Christ no more than that? If I cast myself into the sea, and risk my life to save another, I am a deliverer. But is Christ no more? Did he but risk his life? The very essence of Christ’s deliverance is the substitution of Himself for us, his life for ours. He did not come to risk his life; he came to die! He did not redeem us by a little loss, a little sacrifice, a little labour, a little suffering, “He redeemed us to God by his blood;” “the precious blood of Christ.” He gave all he had, even his life, for us. This is the kind of deliverance that awakens the happy song, “To him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.”

The tendency of the world’s religion just now is, to reject the blood; and to glory in a gospel which needs no sacrifice, no “Lamb slain.” Thus, they go “in the way of Cain.” Cain refused the blood, and came to God without it. He would not own himself a sinner, condemned to die, and needing the death of another to save him. This was man’s open rejection of God’s own way of life.

-From God’s Way of Peace, 1862.

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Horatius Bonar October 19th, 2007

It is to battle that we are summoned the moment that we believe. All at once we are translated, not to paradise, but to a battlefield, and there placed face to face with our hellish foes. “Fight the good fight of faith,” is the war note with which our Captain cheers us on.

For this battle strength is the first thing needed. But where is it to be found? Not in us, nor in the creature; not in human wisdom, or fleshly sufficiency. Only in Him who hath bought us, and called us, and washed us. “Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.” Here is the source and secret of our strength. Here is a fullness truly divine and heavenly, and yet as accessible, as much within our reach, and at our disposal, as if it were our own; for it is at the disposal of One who loves us better than we love ourselves.

But strength is not all we need. We require weapons and armour; for the battle is no common one, and the enemy is the leader of the principalities and powers of darkness, who himself needs no armour, seeing he is invisible and invulnerable; who is not only powerful and skilful, but has every kind of weapon at command—the snare, the wile, the sword, the dart, the fire. His object in the present day is to persuade us that he does not exist, that we have to fight no such battle, that we need no sword nor shield, that we can do without anything beyond our own human power and skill. But the divine warning assures us that our enemy still lives and rages and deceives; that he is most to be feared when most invisible; that his last delusions will be his worst, when, as an angel of light, he comes into the Church to mislead by falsehoods, so beautiful, so attractive, so intellectual, so like the truth—it may be, so evangelical—that, if it were possible, the elect shall be deceived.

We must not turn back in the day of battle. We have no armour for our back. We must face the foe. “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” And this must be to the end, however long the warfare may be. The prize is not to the conqueror in one field, but to the conqueror at last.

-From “The Armour and the Battle” in Light & Truth Vol. IV.

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Horatius Bonar September 4th, 2007

Religion is fashionable in our age. But is it that which sprang up, after centuries of darkness, among our fathers in Europe? Is it that of apostles and prophets? Is it the calm yet thorough religion which did such great deeds in other days? Has it gone deep into the conscience? Has it filled the heart? Has it pervaded the man? Or has it left the conscience unpacified, the heart unfilled, the man unchanged, save with some external appliances of religiousness, which leaves him hollow as before? There is at this moment many an aching spirit, bitterly conscious of this hollowness. The doctrine, the profession, the good report of others, the bustle of work, will not fill the soul. God Himself must be there, with His covering righteousness, His cleansing blood, His quickening Spirit. Without this, religion is but a shell: holy services are dull and irksome. Joy in God, which is the soul and essence of worship, is unknown. Sacraments, prayer-meetings, religious services, labours of charity, will not make up for the living God.

Men with their feet firmly set on Luther’s rock, “the righteousness of God,” filled with the Spirit, and pervaded with the peace of God, do the great things in the church; others do the little. The men of robust spiritual health are they who, like Luther, have made sure of their filial relationship to God. They shrink from no battle, nor succumb to any toil. The men who go to work with an unascertained relationship give way in the warfare, and faint under the labour: their life is not perhaps a failure or defeat; but it is not a victory, it is not a triumph…

…By faith we choose affliction with the people of God, and despise Egypt’s treasures. By faith we keep our passover; pass through the Red Sea; overthrow Jerichos; subdue kingdoms; work righteousness; stop the mouth of lions; quench the violence of fire; turn to flight the armies of the aliens, and refuse deliverance in the day of trial, that we may obtain a better resurrection (Hebrews 11:35).

It is “believing” from first to last. We begin, we go on, we end in faith. The faith that justifies is the faith that overcomes (1 John 5:4). By faith we obtain the “good report” both with God and man. By faith we receive forgiveness; by faith we live; by faith we work, and endure, and suffer; by faith we win the crown,—a crown of righteousness, which shall be ours in the day of the appearing of Him who is OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

-Taken from The Everlasting Righteousness by Horatius Bonar, 1873.

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Horatius Bonar July 11th, 2007

“O Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth?” –Jeremiah 5:3

The word “truth” in Scripture refers both to doctrine and practice. It points both to the “error” and the “lie.” It classes both together. It condemns both. False speaking, whether in reference to teaching or witness-bearing, is declared to be abominable to God. His eyes are upon the truth. They watch over it, to guard it and to maintain it.

The theory of many is that God’s eyes are not upon the truth, and that therefore a man may believe what he pleases, and say what he likes, without fearing God’s displeasure. It is only when the untrue thing which he thinks and says interferes with human rights, or social privileges that he is to be visited with punishment. Jehovah’s eyes, then, are upon the truth,–the truth as found on earth among the sons of men.

In this watchfulnesss, this discernment, this justice, there are some things specially to be observed.

1. There is but one standard of truth. God fixes the standard and acts on it, without caprice, or partiality, or compromise. Error is a thousandfold,–pliable, moveable, uncertain,–truth is ONE. On this God calls on us to act, on this he acts himself. So that man cannot excuse his error or his falsehood on the ground that there were more standards than one.

2. This one standard is definite. It is not vague or shadowy. It does not merely settle certain great principles, but smaller ones as well. It is so very definite and precise as to leave man without excuse. It lets man know explicitly God’s present estimate of truth and falsehood, as well as his future judgment on these. It is so distinct that no one with an open ear and eye can hesitate about it. In our day men call this narrowness, bigotry, littleness. But if we only insist on being of one mind with God, he that condemns us condemns God himself. Let us be as broad as he is, but no broader; that is enough, whatever the age may say.

3. That one standard is universal. It is for every age and clime. It never becomes obsolete. It is like God himself,–unchangeable; like the Christ of God,–the same yesterday, today, and forever. It was given to our fathers, it is given to us. It suited the East, it suits the West. It suited the Jew, it suits the Gentile also; barbarian, Scythian, bond, or free. It suited the Asian, it suits the European. It suits the Briton, it suits the Indian, and the African. It suits the unlearned, it suits the learned too. One standard for all! One universal test or measurement of truth.

4. That one standard is the Bible. It is no secret standard that He judges us by, or by which He tests truth and error. The test which He gives to us He acts upon himself. The Bible is His book of truth as well as ours. That book contains what God calls truth,–truth definite, fixed, certain, not moveable, nor waxing obsolete, nor falling behind the age. The Bible is the one book of the age, nay, of the ages,–of all ages and all climes. Man’s present unbelief seeks to loosen its authority, to dilute its statements, to render indefinite its doctrines. But the word of the Lord endureth forever. God is not a man that he should lie. His word is sure, his truth is everlasting, his book is like the sun in the firmament; a light for all ages and lands.

Thus God’s eyes are on the truth. It is truth that he delights in, it is error that he abhors. It is truth that he is seeking for among the sons of men. What a condemnation to the laxity of thought in the present day! As if man were at liberty to think as he pleases, irrespective of God and his book! God watches over the truth; he marks each error, each deviation from his one standard.

O man, hast thou received the very truth, and the whole truth of God? He has given man a book for a standard, not that he may speculate, but that he may not speculate, but believe. What God, in and by that book, demands of men is not criticism, opinion, speculation, but BELIEF. God’s eyes are on the truth, to see if men believe it.

The day is at hand, the great day of the Lord, when TRUTH only shall be set on high, and error put to shame. O man, God’s eyes are on the truth, let thine be on it too. Be true to truth; be true to thyself; be true to God.

-Taken from Light & Truth: Bible Thoughts and Themes, Vol. I, 1868.

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Horatius Bonar May 30th, 2007

A Christian, then, is a copy of Christ. His inner and outer man are to be copies of Christ. It is Christ’s footsteps he is to walk in. It is Christ’s image that he is to reflect. It is not Paul, nor Peter, nor Luther, nor Calvin, nor Rutherford that he is to copy, but Christ Himself. Other models may illustrate this, and so help in the imitation of Christ; but only as doing this are they useful; otherwise they are dangerous. What then is a Christian man?

I. He is a man of faith.—It was by giving credit to God’s word that he became a Christian man; for it is by faith that we become sons of God. And his whole life is to be a life of faith. As Christ lived by faith on the Father, so does he. Christ is his model as a believing man. The more that he understands of Christ’s life, the more will he see the faith that marks it, and will learn to copy it, to live, act, speak, and walk by faith.

II. He is a man of prayer.—In this too he follows Christ. Christ’s life was a life of prayer. In the morning we find Him praying, a great while before day. All night we find Him praying more. No one, we would say, less needed prayer; yet no one prayed more. And the disciple herein imitates the Master. He prays without ceasing. He is instant in supplication. His life is a life of prayer,—constant intercourse with God.

III. He is a man of hope.—Christ looked to the joy set before Him, and so endured the cross. He anticipated the glory, and so was a man of hope. There is the hope, the same glory, the same joy for us…Our prospects are bright, and we keep them ever in view. The kingdom, the crown, the city, the inheritance, these are before our eyes. They cheer, and sustain, and purify us. Were it not for the hope, what would become of us? What would this world be to us? Learn to hope as well as to believe.

IV. He is man of holiness.—He is the follower of a holy Master. He hears the voice, Be ye holy, for I am holy. He knows that he is redeemed to be holy, to do good works, to follow righteousness, to be one of a peculiar people. He is not content with being saved; he seeks to put off sin, lust, evil, vanity, and to put on righteousness, holiness, and every heavenly characteristic. He seeks to rise higher and higher; to grow more unlike this world,—more like the world to come. He marks Christ’s footsteps, and walks in them. He studies the Master’s mind, and seeks to possess it; mortifying his members and crucifying the flesh. He aims at shining as He shone, testifying as He testified.

V. He is a man of love.—He has known Christ’s love, and drunk it in, and found his joy in it. So he seeks to be like Him in love; to love the Father, to love the brethren, to love sinners, to show love at all times, in word and deed. His life is to be a life of love, his words the words of love, his daily doings the outflow of a heart of love. He is to be a living witness of the gospel of love. Love,—not hatred, nor coldness, nor malice, nor revenge, nor selfishness, nor indifference,—love such as was in Christ,—that he endeavors to embody and exhibit.

VI. He is to be a man of zeal.—’The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up,’ said Christ. His life was one of zeal for God,—zeal for His Father’s honour and His Father’s business. So is the disciple to be ‘zealous of good works.’ Zeal steady and fervent,—not by fits and starts; not according to convenience, but in season and out of season; prudent, yet warm and loving; willing to suffer and to sacrifice; no sparing self or the flesh, but ever burning; zeal for Jehovah’s glory, for Christ’s name, for the Church’s edification, for the salvation of lost men;—this is to give complexion and character to his life.

These things are to mark a Christian man. He is not to be content with less. He is to grow in all these things; not to be barren, not to stagnate, not to be lukewarm, but to increase in resemblance to his Lord; to be transformed daily into His likeness, that there may be no mistake about him as to who or what he is.

-Taken from Light & Truth: Bible Thoughts and Themes, Vol. V., The Revelation, The Model of a Holy Life, Horatius Bonar, 1872.

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Horatius Bonar May 8th, 2007

On Bible Study

Do not skim it or read it, but study it, every word of it; study the whole Bible, Old Testament and New; not your favourite chapters merely, but the complete Word of God from beginning to end. Do not trouble yourself with commentators; they may be of use if kept in their place, but they are not your guides; your guide is ‘the Interpreter,’ the one among a thousand (Job 33:23), who will lead you into all truth, and keep you from all error.

Not that you are to read no book but the Bible. All that is true and good is worth the reading, if you have time for it; and all, if properly used, will help you in your study of the Scriptures. A Christian does not shut his eyes to the natural scenes of beauty spread around him. He does not cease to admire the hills, or plains, or rivers, or forests of earth, because he has learned to love the God that made them; nor does he turn away from books of science or true poetry, because he has discovered one book truer, more precious, and more poetical than all the rest together.

In so far, then, as time allows or opportunity presents, let us ’seek and search out by word concerning all things that are done under heaven.’ But let the Bible be to us the book of books, the one book in all the world, whose every wisdom is truth, and whose every verse is wisdom. In studying it, be sure to take it for what it really is, the revelation of the thoughts of God given us in the words of God. Were it only the book of divine thoughts and human words, it would profit little, for we never could be sure whether the words really represented the thoughts; nay, we might be quite sure that man would fail in his words when attempting to embody divine thoughts; and that, therefore, if we have only man’s words, that is, man’s translation of the divine thoughts, we shall have one of the poorest and most incorrect of all books… But, knowing that we have divine thoughts embodied in divine words, through the inspiration of an unerring translator, we sit down to the study of the heavenly volume, assured that we shall find in all its teachings the perfection of wisdom, and in its language the most accurate expression of that wisdom that the finite speech of man can utter.

Every word of God is as perfect as it is pure (Psalm 19:7; 12:6). Let us read and re-read the Scriptures, meditating on them day and night. They never grow old, they never lose their sap, they never run dry. Though it is right and profitable, as I have said, to read other books, if they are true and good, yet beware of reading too many. Do not let man’s book thrust God’s book into a corner. Do not let commentaries smother the text; nor let the true and the good shut out the truer and the better.

On Book Reading

Specially beware of light reading. Shun novels; they are the literary curse of the age; they are to the soul what ardent spirits are to the body. If you be a parent, keep novels out of the way of your children. But whether you be a parent or not, neither read them yourself, nor set an example of novel-reading to others.

Don’t let novels lie on your table, or be seen in your hand, even in a railway carriage. The ‘light reading for the rail’ has done deep injury to many a young man and woman. The light literature of the day is working a world of harm; vitiating the taste of the young, enervating their minds, unfitting them for life’s plain work, eating out their love of the Bible, teaching them a false morality, and creating in the soul an unreal standard of truth, and beauty, and love. Don’t be too fond of the newspaper. Yet read it, that you may know both what man is doing and what God is doing; and extract out of all you read matter for thought and prayer. Avoid works which jest with what is right or wrong, lest you unconsciously adopt a false test of truth and duty, namely, ridicule, and so become afraid to do right for right’s sake alone; dreading the world’s sneer, and undervaluing a good conscience and the approving smile of God. Let your reading be always select; and whatever you read, begin with seeking God’s blessing on it. But see that your relish for the Bible be above every other enjoyment, and the moment you begin to feel greater relish for any other book, lay it down till you have sought deliverance from such a snare, and obtained from the Holy Spirit an intenser relish, a keener appetite for the Word of God (Jeremiah 15:16; Psalm 19:7-10).

-Edited from Chapter 6 of Follow the Lamb by Horatius Bonar, 1861.

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Horatius Bonar April 18th, 2007

WORLDLY people seem to be well aware that it is only in this life that they will be able to get vent to their worldliness. They quite count upon death putting an end to it all; and this is one of the main reasons for their dread of death, and their dislike even of the thoughts of it.

The character as well as the life of these men is undecided and feeble. They are not decided in their worldliness, and they are not decided in their religion. If they were compelled to choose between their two masters, the probability is that they would prefer the world; for their heart is not in their religion, and religion is not in their heart. Religion is irksome to them; it is a yoke, not a pleasant service. Their consciences would not allow them to throw it off; but it occupies a very small part of their thoughts and affections. They are, in fact, worldly men varnished over with religion; that is all. They are made up of two parts, a dead and a living; the living part is the world, the dead is religion.

These are the ambiguous disciples of our age, who belong to Christ but in name. These are the stony-ground or thorny-ground hearers; men who have a place at our communion tables, who figure at religious committees, who make speeches on religious platforms, yet are, after all, “wells without water,” “trees without root,” stars without either heat or light.

The religion of such is but a half-and-half religion; without depth, or decision, or vigour, or self-sacrifice. It is but a picture or a statue, not a living man.

The conversion of such has been but a half-and-half conversion; it has not gone down to the lowest depths of the man’s nature. I do not say it is a pretence or a hypocrisy; but still, I say it is an unreality. It has been a movement, a shaking, a change, but it has not been a being “begotten of God,” a being “born from above.”

Such a man’s whole religious life is one grand misconception; and every step he takes in it is a blunder, and a stumble, and a snare. Let such a man know that, in his present half-worldly, half-religious condition, he has no real religion at all. It is a fiction, a delusion. It will stand no test of law or gospel, of conscience or of discipline, of time or of eternity. It will go to pieces with the first touch. It is all hollow, and must be begun again, from the very first stone of the foundation.

O worldly formalist, thou wouldst make sure thy hope, and obtain a discipleship that will stand all tests, begin this day at the beginning. Count all the past but loss. Fling away thy vain hopes and self-righteous confidences. Give up thy fond idea of securing both earth and heaven. Go straight to Calvary; there be thou crucified to the world, and the world to thee, by the cross of Christ. Go at once to Him who died and rose again, and drink into his love. One draught, nay, one drop of that love will for ever quench your love of sin, and be the death of that worldliness which threatens to be your eternal ruin.

-Edited from the sermon, Christ and the World, Family Sermons, 1863.

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Horatius Bonar April 9th, 2007

“For I testify unto every man who hears the words of the prophecy of this book…If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book…and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” —Revelation 22:18, 19.

This warning in reference to the Book of Revelation is applicable to all Scripture, and carries us back to Deuteronomy 4:2: ‘You shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish from it;’ and also 12:32

It is given in the form of a testimony;—from the faithful and true witness, to show its importance, and its truth. To everyone who hears that testimony the warning comes. How great the responsibility of those who have the Bible in their hands! How solemnly they should look on it, and listen to it, and handle it! In this testimony, then there is declared to us:

I. The perfection of God’s word.—Man may not meddle with it,—either to add, or to take away. He may meddle with his own words, or doings, or plans,—to alter, to correct, to complete—but not with what is divine. The words and things of God are not for him to touch. They are perfect; perfect for the ends required; perfect for God’s purpose in speaking them to man. Can man improve the works of God?—the mountains, rivers, flowers?—the blue sky, the stars, the sun? Even so is the word of God too perfect for him to touch.

II. The honor God puts on it.—He has magnified it, even above His works; so that he who disparages the word of God is more guilty than he who disparages the works of God. Whether we see its perfection is not the question. We may be blind to it; but whether blind or seeing, God expects honour at our hands for His word. It is the fullest expression of His mind, the completest revelation of His character. It is such a declaration of the name of God as can be found nowhere else.

III. Our responsibilities in regard to it.—It is not given us for mere speculation or gratification; but for something far higher. We are responsible for the way we treat it, study it, profit by it. Its perfection makes our responsibility very great, and appeals to our consciences most powerfully. Were it not so perfect, we might deal with it as we deal with a human volume; were it not divine, we might forego the honour to it of which we speak. Hence the modern dislike to the idea of a perfect Bible; because the pressure upon the conscience is felt to be so solemn and so overpowering, with no possibility of evasion or escape. Definite Bible doctrine, the age hates, as trammelling its freedom,—specially doctrine defined by a divine revelation.

IV. The sin of tampering with it.—In regard to many of the things of God, the idea is, that while it is a misfortune to be in error, there is no sin in it. No sin in differing from God! No sin in trifling with His truth, or denying it! No sin in undervaluing His revelation! The sin of tampering with the Bible is one of which man is not easily persuaded; yet in the reckoning of God it is real and great. Every low thought about the Bible is sin. Every attempt to touch it, either in the way of addition or subtraction, is sin.

V. The danger of meddling with it.—The danger is exceeding great; and the punishment awarded to the intermeddlers is the declaration of the danger. God will not be mocked in this thing.

There are two opposite ways in which men treat the Bible,—to add or to take away; and both these our text condemns in the most fearful way.

(1.) The doom of those who add.—’God shall add unto them the plagues written in this book.’ Those plagues are very fearful. Read the plagues of the seals, the trumpets, the vials. Are they not fearful? They are for this life, as well as for that which is to come. The very mention of them is appalling. Who in our day credits such things, or believes that God will execute such terrible vengeance upon all such as add to His word! The Pharisees added to it; the Romanists add to it; and we ourselves often add to it, by the way in which we enter on its perusal with unteachable hearts, with preconceived opinions, which would make the literalities of the word give way before them. Let us tremble at the word! Add not unto His word, lest He reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. God adds His plagues to the adders of His book.

(2.) The doom of those who take from it.—This is especially the sin of our age. We sit in judgment upon its verities; we tamper with its certainty; we trifle with its words. We take from it; we render it null and void; we deny its authority; we object to its inspiration; we cut off what books we please! But let us not be deceived. God is not mocked. He also can take away,—and He will! He will take away,

(a.) Our part of the book of life,—effacing our names, and inserting them in the book of death!

(b.) Our part in the holy city. No holy city, no new Jerusalem, for the deniers of His word!

(c.) Our part from the things written in this book. These are many: the promises to the seven conquerors, the first resurrection, the marriage supper! How much we lose! What a condemnation is there for those who reject or mutilate the divine word!

-Taken from Light & Truth: Bible Thoughts & Themes, Vol. V, The Revelation of St. John, 1872.

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Horatius Bonar April 2nd, 2007

Antichristian delusion had begun in the apostle’s days. Men were arising to deny Christ; to set up another Christ of their own,—a Christ of the intellect, a Christ of the sense, a Christ of the imagination. Long ere the first century closed there were many antichrists,—pretended Christs,—substitutes for the Son of God. Every age has produced its antichrists, all of them earnests of, and preparations for, the greater antichrist of the very last days, when perilous times shall come.

In and by all these antichrists Satan is working, not only to exalt himself, but to dishonour Christ,—working even by means of men who laugh at the existence of an evil spirit. He is working by means of error,—pure error; also by error in connection with truth, and truth in connection with error; exalting the natural at the expense of the supernatural; raising science above Scripture; denying human evil, upholding human goodness; setting creature-hood in opposition to Godhead, intellect against revelation, self-improvement against regeneration by the Holy Ghost, worldly refinement against the example of Christ. Everything in the shape of human ‘progress’ is welcomed, without considering what it is or whence it comes. But the progress of the natural man is, after all, an illusion. So long as humanity remains unregenerate, there can be no progress which God can recognize. The one true progress is that begun and consummated by the Holy Ghost,—a progress quite distinct from all that man calls by that name.

-Taken from Light & truth: Bible Thoughts and Themes, Vol. IV, The Lesser Epistles, 1870.

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Horatius Bonar March 26th, 2007

“Stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.” —1 Corinthians 16:13.

IN the last days many shall be as “clouds without water, carried about of winds.” And this is one of the special perils of these “perilous times.” The winds are let loose, and are now performing their awful work of tossing hither and thither these empty clouds.

Hence the instability that prevails. Men are “carried about with every wind of doctrine.” They are not “rooted and grounded in love;” and having never “tasted that the Lord is gracious,” nor rested their weary souls upon Him, they go about seeking they know not what. They want something that will fill them, but not going to the Divine fulness of the incarnate Word for it, they wander on in sadness of spirit, vainly trying to soothe their uneasy souls with every new doctrine or device that meets them in the way! All in vain. For what can be a substitute for God and His free love?

Amid all this instability, let us “stand fast in the faith.” Let us be “strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” Let us beware of novelties in religion. Let us guard against fickleness of opinion and hastiness of decision. Satan will let loose his blasts and call up his storms; let us only moor our vessel firmer, and keep faster hold of the anchor, which is sure and steadfast, “and which entereth into that which is within the veil.” Thus, in patience shall we possess our souls, for “he that believeth doth not make haste.”

-Taken from Words of Peace and Welcome, 1851.

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Horatius Bonar March 20th, 2007

Quit you like men.—Be men! In courage; not cowards, turning our back on the foe, or giving way in danger, or reproach, or evil days. In solidity; not shifting or shadowy, but immoveable as the rock. In strength. As the man is, so is his strength. Be strong! In wisdom. Foolishness is with childhood, wisdom with manhood. Speak and act with wisdom, as men. In ripeness. The faculties of men are ripe, both for thinking and working. They speak ripe words, think ripe thoughts, plan and execute ripe things. In understanding be men! In all things;—what you do, and what you refrain from doing, be men. Act the manly part;—let nothing effeminate, luxurious, sickly, childish, puny, little, narrow, be seen about you. Christianity makes men, not babes. Adorn the doctrine of Christ by your manliness. In the Church, in the world, in business, in conversation,—in prosperity and adversity,—quit you like men! Let no man despise thee; and let no man despise the Gospel because of thee.

-Taken from The Christian Treasury, Bible Thoughts on 1 Corinthians 16:13-14, 1864.

For there is some danger of falling into a soft and effeminate Christianity, under the plea of a lofty and ethereal theology. Christianity was born for endurance…It walks with firm step and erect frame; it is kindly, but firm; it is gentle, but honest; it is calm, but not facile; obliging, but not imbecile; decided, but not churlish. It does not fear to speak the stern word of condemnation against error, nor to raise its voice against surrounding evils, under the pretext that it is not of this world. It does not shrink from giving honest reproof lest it come under the charge of displaying an unchristian spirit. It calls sin ’sin,’ on whomsoever it is found, and would rather risk the accusation of being actuated by a bad spirit than not discharge an explicit duty. Let us not misjudge strong words used in honest controversy. Out of the heat a viper may come forth; but we shake it off and feel no harm. The religion of both Old and New Testaments is marked by fervent outspoken testimonies against evil. To speak smooth things in such a case may be sentimentalism, but it is not Christianity. It is a betrayal of the cause of truth and righteousness. If anyone should be frank, manly, honest, cheerful (I do not say blunt or rude, for a Christian must be courteous and polite), it is he who has tasted that the Lord is gracious, and is looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God. I know that charity covereth a multitude of sins; but it does not call evil good, because a good man has done it; it does not excuse inconsistencies, because the inconsistent brother has a high name and a fervent spirit. Crookedness and worldliness are still crookedness and worldliness, though exhibited in one who seems to have reached no common height of attainment.

-Taken from God’s Way of Holiness, 1864.

Do not be hangers on of the great, or rich, or influential, either in church or state. Do not be subservient to the leaders of party, or the representatives of public opinion, or the politicians of the day. Quit you like men. Be independent. Act on your own judgment, and follow out your own honest conclusions. Be not carried away with the excitement of controversy, or the enthusiasm of partisanship. Do not be obsequious, trimming, or facing both ways. Be upright before God and man. One is your Master, even Christ; follow Him. To follow others is to bring ourselves into bondage; to make ourselves servants of men. Be calm, be steadfast and unmovable, with your eye upon the great day of sifting, when the Judge shall reckon with you as to your fidelity to Himself. Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. Be not carried away either with the fear of the many. Be not overawed by the fear of man, which bringeth a snare, or influenced by the love of his approbation, which is no less ensnaring. To your own Master you stand or fall.

-Taken from Light & Truth: Bible Thoughts and Themes, Vol. III, The Acts and Larger Epistles, 1869.

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Horatius Bonar March 8th, 2007

The religious atmosphere of the present time is much changed from what it was in my younger days; and I may be allowed to note the difference. The theological crisis through which we are passing is a peculiar one, such as the men of fifty years ago would have thought very unlikely; and I wish to mark some of its more important characteristics.

These are becoming more and more distinct in outline and “pronounced” in character every year. A quarter of a century ago, it was not quite evident what they meant or whither they were tending. Now there is less of reserve, and the repulsion between Revelation and much of modern thought is expressing itself in many ways, and through many channels. Man is now thinking out a Bible for himself; framing a religion in harmony with the development of liberal thought; constructing a worship on the principles of taste and culture; shaping a god to suit the expanding aspirations of the age. The process of evolution on all these points is so satisfactory and so well advanced that disguise is no longer needful. Faith and certainty, in things outside our senses, are, in the meantime at least, not to be taken into account.

Whether the human mind was really made for such uncertainty is a question which each one must settle for himself; and whether there may not be a way of escape from uncertainties, into a region of absolute truth, in things of religion as well as in those of science, is certainly worth the consideration of the age.

Amid all this dazzling confusion, it is well to keep in mind that the way leading to life is narrow, the way leading to death is broad. The danger arising from want of spiritual discrimination between light and darkness is more serious than many think. For one authentic light there are a thousand spurious ones. The false Christs are many, the true Christ is but one; and whilst glorying in the vitality of truth we must stand in awe of the marvelous fecundity of error. Discrimination is not censoriousness.

Still, all the strength that won the battles of the olden time is at our disposal still, undiminished and unwithdrawn. That strength is supernatural and Divine. The power of Pentecost is not yet exhausted.

-Taken from Our Ministry: How It Touches The Questions Of The Age, 1883.

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Horatius Bonar February 28th, 2007

Small may be our strength in these last days. The tide of error, and sin, and worldliness may be running very strong. It may not be easy to confess Christ, or to hold fast His truth. But His grace is sufficient for us; and woe be to us if we give way to the errors of the age, or conform to its vanities, or seek to please its multitudes, either under the dread of public opinion, or the fear of not being reputed ‘men of progress,’ or the shrinking from more direct persecution and hatred! Faithfulness to Christ, and to His truth, is everything, especially in days when iniquity shall abound, and the love of many shall wax cold.

Fear not! The reward is glorious; the honour is beyond all earthly honours. The contempt and enmity are but for a day; the dignity and the blessedness are forever and ever.

Though men call you narrow-minded for cleaving to old truth,—now obsolete, as they say; for ‘worship of a book,’ or biblioatry, as they call it; for the stern refusal to lower our testimony to our glorified Lord and coming King? Let us be content to bear reproach for Him and His word. The glory to be given us at His appearing will more than compensate for all.

-Taken from Light & Truth: Bible Thoughts & Themes, Vol. V, 1872.

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Horatius Bonar February 22nd, 2007

Be discriminating. Do not call error truth for the sake of charity. Do not praise earnest men merely because they are earnest. To be earnest in truth is one thing; to be earnest in error is another. The first is blessed, not so much because of the earnestness, but because of the truth; the second is hateful to God, and ought to be shunned by you. Remember how the Lord Jesus from heaven spoke concerning error: ‘which thing I hate‘ (Revelation 2:6-15; 1 Timothy 6:4, 5). True spiritual discernment is much lost sight of as a real Christian grace; discernment between the evil and the good, the false and the true. ‘Beloved, believe not every spirit; but try the spirits whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world’ (1 John 4:1). This ‘discernment,’ which belongs to every one who is taught of God, is the very opposite of that which is called in our day by the boastful name of ‘liberality.’ Spiritual discernment and ‘liberal thought’ have little in common with each other. ‘Abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good’ (Romans 12:9). The ‘liberality which puts bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter’ (Isaiah 5:20), is a very different thing from the ‘charity which thinketh no evil’ (1 Corinthians 13:5). Truth is a mighty thing in the eyes of God, whatever it may be in those of men. All error is, more or less, whether directly or indirectly, a misrepresentation of God’s character, and a subversion of His revelation (Revelation 22:18, 19).

-Taken from Follow the Lamb, 1861.

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Horatius Bonar February 9th, 2007

Is the Christianity of our day of the lofty kind of which apostolic men have left us so bright an example? Is it not feeble, indolent, self-indulgent, second-rate? Is there in it anything of the presentation of ‘living sacrifices’ to God, which is our acceptable and reasonable service? Are we not seeking our own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s? Are we not feasting when the world is starving? Are we not at ease in Zion? Are we not sitting still and in luxurious comfort, when many noble and self-sacrificing ones amongst us are rushing into the toil or the war, and, for want of being supported by their fellow Christians, are sinking under the burden and heat of the day?

O easy, luxurious, comfortable Christian! While you are lolling on your couch the sinner is going down to woe! While you are soothing your conscience with the opiates of religious routine; or pampering the flesh; or killing time in mirth and music, at the concert, or oratorio, or social party; or idling days in sport; or talking politics; or drinking in the applause of public opinion; or sunning yourself in the blaze of the ballroom; or absorbed in the latest novel; or engrossed with the unmeaningness of the card table;—men are dying, the present scene is passing, the eternal world is hastening on, and the Judge is at the door!

Rouse thyself from thy indulgence, and work! Do it with thy might. Spend and be spent. Give thy money to the Master; give thy strength and thy life to Him. For He is at hand. He may be nearer than thou thinkest. And how shouldst thou like to be caught by Him lounging on thy soft couch, or feasting at thy well-spread table, when thou shouldst have been working for Him, or fighting His battles,—visiting His brethren, soothing His sorrowing children, ministering to His poor disciples, grudging no weariness or hardship for a Master like Him?

-Taken from Light & Truth: Bible Thoughts and Themes, Vol. IV, The Lesser Epistles, by Horatius Bonar, 1870.

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Horatius Bonar January 31st, 2007

That there are marks by which a Christian is known to be a Christian, is most certain. That there are characteristics which evidence the real state of the heart, both to ourselves and to others, is not a thing called in question by any. Where there is living religion in the soul, it will infallibly attest its existence and vitality by “marks and evidences.” If a man walk in sin, is it not plain that he is not a Christian? If a man follow the world and love its pleasures, is it not plain that he is not a saint? If a man be covetous, or unclean, or a blasphemer, or a talebearer, or a drunkard, can he be a Christian? If he be prayerless, praiseless, lifeless, is it not clear that he is also Christless…

Let no one take the great matter of religion easily or lightly, but let him regard it with all earnestness and solemnity. Let him see it with reference to his own personal welfare for eternity…

1. A believing man will be a holy man. Nor can anything said by the author against the improper use of evidences be understood as in the very slightest degree giving countenance to the opposite of this; as if it were possible that the freeness of the gospel could give liberty to sin, or grace be the encourager of licentiousness.

2. A believing man will be a praying man. To say, “I believe,” and make this supposed faith an excuse for unprayerfulness, is to deny the very end and object for which we believe, viz. that we may come into the presence of God and have unceasing fellowship with Him.

3. A believing man will be a zealous man. Faith makes a man zealous. Faith shews itself by zeal. Not by zeal for a party or a system, or an opinion; but by zeal for Christ,—zeal for his church,—zeal for the carrying on of his work on earth.

4. A believing man will be a consistent man. He will seek to abound in all good works,—to bring forth all the fruits of the Spirit,—to follow in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus Christ. Where there are inconsistencies,—evil tempers,—covetousness,—selfishness,—levity,—flippancy,–carnality,—worldliness,—pride, and such like, there is but too sufficient reason to conclude that the man has not yet believed. He says that he believes; but that is not believing. He speaks much about believing; but that is not believing. He vaunts loudly of his assurance, and scorns every one that will not use his language; but this is not believing. He professes great zeal for the freeness and simplicity of the gospel; but that is not believing. He that has really believed will be too much in earnest, too much engrossed with the object before him, to be always telling others of his faith and his assurance, and his zeal for a free gospel.

5. A believing man will be a humble man. He will think little and speak little about himself. True faith carries us above this pride and self-esteem and vain-glory. If he be a minister, he will shrink from proclaiming himself, and his own feelings, and his own doings; and if God has given him success, he will be the last to speak of it. Or if he be not a minister, he will still refrain from giving prominence to self in any of his proceedings. His great object will be to hide self; and not only to forget it himself, but to make others forget it too. The man that is still proud, boastful, vain-glorious, self-confident, has good reason to suppose that he has never yet believed.

6. A believing man will be always jealous of himself. He will walk continually with a most watchful eye upon himself, upon the state of his heart, the state of his life, his growth in grace, his conformity to the image of the Lord Jesus. Knowing that self-jealousy is quite consistent with simple faith and entire peace with God, he is not afraid to cherish it. He is far more jealous of himself than others,—far more given to sit in judgment on himself than on others; though holding fast the blessed truth of a saint’s assurance, he is not afraid to search himself most thoroughly, saying, like Paul, “lest by any means I should run or had run in vain.” And though grasping most firmly, as amongst the surest and most fundamental doctrines of the Bible, the truths of God’s eternal election and predestination unto life, as also the truth of the saint’s perseverance unto the end, he does not hesitate to say with the same Apostle “I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway” (1 Corinthians 9:27).

Thus, then, we are to walk “as becometh saints.” Nothing in the gospel can, save by man’s perversion, in the very least encourage inconsistency or unholy walking. Christ is not the minister of sin. The grace of God cannot lead to licentiousness or unrighteousness.

Nay, the more fully and simply we realize the glad tidings, the more we shall be constrained to a course in conformity with him who hath called to us. We shall feel as if committed to a holy life. Just in proportion as we reject marks and evidences from the grounds of our peace, in that proportion we shall seek to give evidence that we have believed, by bringing forth the fruits of righteousness.

Our light must shine. It must diffuse itself around, making men to feel that we are children of the most High God. In word, in look, in life, in daily deportment, our character as men redeemed by blood and dwelt in by the Spirit, must be made apparent. All things that are lovely and of good report must be seen in us; so shall it be known “whose we are and whom we serve.”

-Taken from Looking to the Cross; Or, The Right Use of Marks and Evidences by William Cudworth, Preface by Horatius Bonar, 1851.

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Horatius Bonar January 30th, 2007

Horatius Bonar often wrote against the worldliness that he perceived was creeping into the church. If he was concerned about it in his day, how much more should we be on guard in a day when the difference between the Church and the world is hardly noticeable. It is important for those who profess a love for Christ to understand that the friendship of the world is enmity with God.

Bonar published this little piece in The Christian Treasury as a help for his readers to remember the importance of our fight against the world and to remain diligent in our watch for worldliness.

Love Not The World.—Why?

1. Because the gain of it is the loss of the soul.—Matthew 16:25.
2. Because its friendship is enmity to God.—James 4:4.
3. Because it did not know Christ.—John 1:10; 17:25.
4. Because it hates Christ.—John 7:7; 15:18.
5. Because the Holy Spirit has forbidden us.—1 John 2:15.
6. Because Christ did not pray for it.—John 17:9.
7. Because Christ’s people do not belong to it.—John 17:16.
8. Because it will not receive the Spirit.—John 14:27.
9. Because its Prince is Satan.—John 13:31; 16:11.
10. Because Christ’s kingdom is not of it.—John 18:36.
11. Because its wisdom is foolishness.—1 Corinthians 1:20.
12. Because its wisdom is ignorance.—1 Corinthians 1:21.
13. Because Christ does not belong to it.—John 8:23.
14. Because it is condemned.—1 Corinthians 11:32.
15. Because the fashion of it passeth away.—1 Corinthians 7:31 .
16. Because it slew Christ.—James 5:6; Matthew 21:39.
17. Because it is crucified to us.—Galatians 6:14.
18. Because we are crucified to it.—Galatians 6:14.
19. Because it is the seat of wickedness.—2 Peter 1:4; 1 John 5:19.
20. Because its God is the evil one.—2 Corinthians 4:4.

‘Love not the world! It cannot be your home,
Thy fatherland must be the world to come;
There lay up treasures for eternity;
And where thy treasure is thy heart shall be.’
—H.B.

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Horatius Bonar January 30th, 2007

My Dear Friend,

You seem bewildered amid the opinions of the day, almost as much as you would be in the midst of a company where each spoke in a different tongue. The difficulty of judging what is truth seems increasing, instead of disappearing. You know not what to think, nor which way to turn, in order to discover who is right, or where certainty is to be found; so many novelties stagger and amaze you. There seem to be good men on both sides, and that perplexes you still more.

You long for peace amid the jar of these unruly elements, and for stability amid these shifting sands. Yet rest comes not. There is no end of change. One novelty begets another, and that, in its turn, becomes equally productive. One error requires another to maintain it, this second must have a third or fourth to lean upon. One false step leads to twenty, or perhaps a hundred more. Who knows where all this is to end?

The changes are numerous. Every month produces some new doctrine, or at least some modification of the old. Fickle minds lie in wait for something new. As the edge of one novelty wears down, another must be provided in its place to keep up the unhealthy excitement. Thus fickleness becomes doubly fickle by being gratified; novelties multiply, and the sore evil spreads. Men do not tremble at the thought of falling into error. To change opinions upon some casual impulse, or some shallow catch of an argument, is thought but a light thing; as if the falling into error were no great matter, instead of being a fearful calamity; or as if the entrance upon truth were an indifferent occurrence, instead of being the occasion of deep and solemn joy. Many who but lately were high Calvinists are now Arminians of the lowest grade, passing through the different levels with the most singular facility and flippancy, as easily and airily as the musician runs up and down the scale with the finger or the voice…

Nothing is more needed in our inquiries after truth, than the watchful jealousy of a tender conscience. Yet how little is there of conscience at all in these last days! There is what is called independence of mind, or thinking for one’s self; but that is not conscience. There is a spurning of creeds, and catechisms, and all olden theology, but that is not conscience. It is not waiting upon God for teaching. It is trusting our own heart, and taking the guidance of our own eyes. It is not “ceasing from man,” but the mere pretence of it. It is ceasing from one man in order to trust in another, from one age to trust in another, from one book to trust in another, from one heart to trust in another, and that other perhaps the most deceitful of all,—our own. Hence there is such running after novelty, such readiness to receive any plausible error, such instability of opinion and fickleness of spirit; such self-willedness and headstrong precipitancy of judgment; such high-mindedness, pride, and censoriousness of others; so little thought of our own foolishness and fallibility; so slender a sense of the awful responsibility we are under to God, for what we believe for ourselves, and propagate among others, as his precious and eternal truth.

Yet be not amazed. Jehovah changes not; neither does his word. It abideth forever, firm as the rocks of earth, undimmed as the azure of the heavens. Seek unto God for light, and to his Word for wisdom. Take his Holy Spirit as your teacher. Heed not the jar of men’s warring opinions. Let God be true, and every man a liar. The Bible is the Bible still. If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God. Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.

-Taken from Truth & Error, 1845.

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