Horatius Bonar (1808-1889) was a Scottish hymn writer, poet, and preacher who wrote over 600 hymns including "I Heard the Voice of Je...
Horatius Bonar (1808-1889) was a Scottish hymn writer, poet,
and preacher who wrote over 600 hymns including "I Heard the Voice of
Jesus Say" and "Hallelujah for the Cross."
Horatius Bonar, a distinguished Presbyterian divine, was
born in Edinburgh, Scotland, December 19, 1808; and was educated at the high
school and University of Edinburgh. He was ordained in 1837, and became a
minister of the Established Church of Scotland at Kelso. At the Disruption in
1843 he became one of the founders of the Free Church of Scotland. The
University of Aberdeen gave him the doctorate in 1853. In 1866 he became the
minister of the Chalmers Memorial Church, in Edinburgh. Dr. Bonar died July 31,
1889. He was a voluminous writer of sacred poetry, and more than one hundred of
his hymns are in common use. He published the following books, in which most of
his hymns are found: Songs of the Wilderness, 1843-44; The Bible Hymn Book,
1845; Hymns Original and Selected, 1846; Hymns of Faith and Hope, first series,
1857 (second series, 1864; third series, 1867); Hymns of the Nativity, 1879;
Communion
Hymns, 1881. Dr. Bonar was an able, pious man and a sweet singer,
though as a premillenarian some of his poems are plaintive and sad almost to
pessimism. Twelve of his hymns are found in this book:
Hymns:
—A few more years shall roll
—Beyond the smiling and the weeping
—Go, labor on; spend and be spent
—Here, O my Lord, I see thee face to
—I heard the voice of Jesus say
—I lay my sins on Jesus
—I was a wandering sheep
—Make haste, O man, to live
—No, not despairingly come I to thee
—O Love of God, how strong and true
—Thy way, not mine, O Lord
—When the weary, seeking rest
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