03.09.07

Andrew Bonar - Joshua of the Disruption

Posted in Lectures at 9:08 am by dowboy

Every generation has it’s heroes, but I wonder if Scotland will ever again be blessed again by the concentration of spiritual giants gracing the land in the mid to late 19th Century. The names of Thomas Chalmers, Willam Cunningham, Rabbi Duncan, Robert Murray McCheyne and Horatius Bonar stand out as stars in the darkness. But of no less brightness was the luminescence of another Bonar – Andrew Bonar. Bonar was the last of these heroes to pass into glory and in his long life achieved much, and yet I believe that his life and work have been largely unreported. Bonar was in the front rank of all that was remarkable about 19th Century Scottish Presbyterianism. It would seem then, that at the beginning of a new session of fraternals, that Andrew Bonar provides a perfect object of study and attention for all of us who would want to see the name of Jesus Christ glorified in Glasgow and Scotland.
Before I begin in my analysis of Bonar’s brilliance, I want to say two things by way of introduction:
First, nothing I will say today is overly complicated – it is not a particularly academic treatment. I have been heavily selective in what I have chosen to include and what I have chosen to discard. You may disagree with my choice of topics, but remember that my interest in Bonar’s life is first and foremost from a devotional perspective – for lessons for myself as a Christian and a minister. In some ways, this is more an insight into what drives me more than what drove Bonar. Another factor in selection of material is that I have consulted some original texts – for example his Bible and his Kirk Session records – and I want to focus on what I have found in them.
Secondly, I want to run through the significant times in his life, to give you a flavour of the days in which he lived. Andrew Bonar was born in 1810 in Edinburgh – one of seven children born to James and Marjory Bonar. His father was the Search Solicitor for Excise in Edinburgh. Bonar was from promising stock – one ancestor of his was John Bonar of Torphichen, who, as a faithful minister of Christ, witnessed the revivals at Kilsyth and Cambuslang. In 1821 Bonar went to Edinburgh High School, where in 1825 he won the dux gold medal – some achievement when you consider that two of his fellow pupils went on to become the Archbishop of Canterbury and President of the Court of Session respectively. Three years after Bonar’s birth, in 1813, another famous son of Edinburgh was born – Robert Murray McCheyne. The two became friends in their teens, together with two of Bonar’s other brothers Horatius and John. In 1830, by his own admission, Bonar was converted through the reading of Guthrie’s Saving Interest – he writes, “I have … a secret joyful hope that I really have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.” In 1831 he entered divinity hall in Edinburgh and on the 19th November, he, together with his friends and brothers commenced the early morning Exegetical Society, where members translating and exegeting from the original languages, met together to pray and study. In 1835 he began his pastoral work on trial in Jedburgh. Soon after, he became assistant to Dr. Robert Smith Candlish in St. George’s Edinburgh. In 1838 he accepted a call to become the assistant minister of Collace Parish Church in Perthshire.
Early in 1839 Bonar, together with his friend McCheyne and two eminent Church-men, Dr’s Wodrow (later replaced by Dr Keith) and Dr Black, were appointed to survey the Jewish population, and any Christian work that was being done among them, in Europe and Palestine. 3 years later, Bonar publishes his findings – “Narrative of a mission of enquiry to the Jews” – more on that later. Early in 1843, Bonar’s dear friend McCheyne died. Struck with grief, Bonar again picks up his pen and writes ‘Memoirs and Remains of R. M. McCheyne’ which was published in 1844. Bonar left the Established Church at the Disruption in 1843 and formed a new Free Church congregation at Kinrossie. In 1848 he married Isabella Dickson. In 1851, little Isabella was born, followed by more children in later years.
In 1856 Bonar was called to the newly formed congregation of Finnieston Free Church in the West-End of Glasgow – a charge he occupied until his death in 1892. His wife Isabella died through complications in childbirth in 1864. His kirk session records show a steady increase in membership and attendance at the means of grace over the years. In 1874 Bonar was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity by Glasgow University. That same year, D. L. Moody preached in Bonar’s Church – a friendship of mutual appreciation which was to continue till their respective deaths. In 1878, Bonar was granted the Moderator’s Chair at the Free Church General Assembly held in Glasgow. That same year, Finnieston Free Church opened a new building on Derby Street, over the door of which is set in concrete the words of Proverbs 11:30 – “He that winneth souls is wise.” In 1881, at Moody’s invitation, Bonar visited the United States and preached at Northfield. At that time, Bonar desperately wanted to visit sites associated with Jonathan Edwards – Bonar himself said “Edwards, more than any other man, had influenced the theology of Scotland.”
In 1891, David Martin Mc’Intyre was appointed assistant pastor – it may interest you to know that Mc’Intyre went on to become the first principal of Glasgow Bible College, or what is now called ICC. In December 1892, having felt under-the-weather all week, Bonar conducted a midweek meeting in the church and then retired to his bed. By the Saturday evening, he knew his hour-glass was empty, and so he called his family to him and conducted worship with them. Later that evening, Bonar died in his sleep. He is buried at Sighthill Cemetery, the gravestone looking over the whole North East of the city centre, but now covered in luminous graffiti and spray paint. To show how popular he had become in Glasgow, after his death, the shops in Glasgow sold out of portraits of Andrew Bonar.
Having dealt with these three introductory issues, I now want to propose an analysis of Bonar’s achievements under 3 headings: first, his discipleship, secondly, his ecclesiology and lastly, his interest in Jewish mission. I hope to conclude, using Bonar’s life and attitudes, by presenting some reasons why Jewish mission, which after all is the over-riding concern of today’s discussion, has become less popular among Reformed Christians in the past few years.
[A] His Discipleship
The first thing which drew me to Andrew Bonar was the reading of his diary – published by Banner of Truth, it allowed access into the discipleship of this remarkable man. Using this, as well as other sources where stated, I want to suggest three outstanding areas of Christian concern in his personal walk:
1. A Devoted Reader of Scripture – as I mentioned in my introduction, my sources for this lecture have been supplemented by the discovery of Bonar’s interleafed Bible. Although I managed to glean little from this about his passion for Jewish mission or for pre-millenialism, there were three things which are noticeable regarding his approach to the reading of the Scriptures from it:
a. He devoted himself to his bible – Bonar was given his Bible by his brother William on June 7th 1829, when he had just turned 19. I don’t know how long he had this particular Bible for – his hand-writing doesn’t seem to change throughout, so I would assume that he was working with it for only a few years. But in that time, he had read and made notes on the whole. His knowledge was breathtaking – he was able to weave verses from different parts of Scripture together to throw light on difficult texts. At the very least, it shows that he was a devoted reader of the Bible – not just limiting his studies to passages he intended to preach from, but including the whole vista of Scripture. On the front cover there is the handwritten apology, taken from the 56th Letter of Basil (I think), in Classical Greek, stating, “The Scriptures are my defence for the past and affording ground for a second greeting.” There are no empty pages, every one contains notes – the vast majority being merely explanatory of the text itself. The notes themselves are tightly packed and difficult to read, but many profitable days could be spent by someone with some time on his hands, sifting through them in detail. Clearly, this was a man of the book – and not just as a professional handbook, a compendium of texts for preaching, but a man who loved the revelation of God in Christ Jesus.
b. He devoted himself to the original languages – peppered throughout Bonar’s handwritten notes are evidence of his love for the original languages of Scripture – a point we shall return to later. Many of his notes are written in Hebrew and Greek. Interestingly, some of the Old Testament is referred to using the Septuagint. He often pauses to reflect on the meaning of a particular word – for example in Genesis 8:14, he devotes a line to the discussion of the lexicology of hyh tc – the fountain of life. Bonar also excelled in Latin. He was not only familiar with koine Greek, but also its Classical form – further evidence of his competence at Edinburgh High School. There is another language recorded in his Bible – I suspect it is not a real language, but merely shorthand – an assumption which is backed up by knowing that he wrote his diary in shorthand and what we have now is his daughter’s translation. Clearly, this is a man who believed that the original autographs of Scripture themselves were inspired of God and who worked tirelessly to hear the revelation of God through His Word. It would seem though, that his first port of call for his devotions, was his English Bible, and he only turned to the original languages where there was some ambiguity about the English text or where significant benefit could be gained from turning to the Hebrew or Greek.
c. He devoted himself to the life and times of the bible – at regular intervals throughout Bonar’s Bible are handwritten tables and graphs delineating the timelines of various events in the Bible – the longevity of the Patriarchs, the Davidic Dynasty, the writing of the New Testament. Also, there are copious studies into the Old Testament festivals. Weights and measures, missionary journeys and other miscellaneous tables are included. Here was a man who worked hard to understand the life and times of the Bible – not interested merely in the syntax of a text, he wanted to know into what life situation it was written. Bonar walked in the shoes of the wandering Israelites, and felt the stones which killed Stephen. This enabled him to gain a greater perspective into God’s message. We shall speak about this again later.
These three things, and more, we may glean from a morning’s examination of Bonar’s interleaf Bible. By way of application to ourselves here, is it not self-evident that we, in the Reformed Tradition, must devote ourselves to Scripture? Just as our Lord considered man to be lifeless without the Word of God, should we not also give due diligence to our personal familiarity with the Bible? Furthermore, in a day when the original languages are discarded as obscurantist and unnecessary, can we not grasp a vision again for the original autographs of Scripture as being the God-breathed Word? And lastly, remember that whilst we live in 2007, the words of Scripture were written into specific cultures – cultures not our own – and if we want to make the Scriptures relevant in today’s culture, does it not require us to have a foot in the culture of Scripture and a foot in the culture of today? Scattered throughout Bonar’s Bible are newspaper clippings illustrating particular texts, showing that, like Karl Barth, he held a Bible in one hand, and a newspaper in the other. If we do not do all we can to have a foot in both camps, we will be satisfied with bland expositions of texts taken out of yesterday’s culture. By contrast, Bonar was steeped in Scripture – it wasn’t something He did – to put it using Spurgeon’s famous phrase, ‘his blood was Bibline’.
2. A Devoted Friend – I had originally planned to spend more time on this point, but the priorities of this study focussed more heavily on original material so I only want to comment on two things. The first thing is that Bonar was one of a circle of devoted friends – friends who were united by their common devotion to Christ. What would you give to have men like Alexander Somerville, Horatius Bonar and Robert Murray McCheyne as your spiritual contemporaries and your dear friends! Their friendship began before their entry into divinity hall, but the succeeding years only added to their love for each other. Alexander Somerville remained Bonar’s loyal friend for over 50 years, but it was Bonar’s friendship with McCheyne which shaped him most profoundly. The two prayed together, studied together, travelled together and learned together. On the occasion of McCheyne’s death Bonar wrote in his diary, “Life has lost half its joys, were it not the hope of saving souls. There was no friend whom I loved like him.” The spiritual quality of their friendship was of such quality in Bonar’s Christian development, and McCheyne’s close fellowship such an inspiration to him that he wrote for the 27th March 1843, “I must myself live nearer God and find what he found.” I wonder if we cherish such friendships with fellow Christians, and are the kinds of friends ourselves who build up, and do not tear down.
The second thing is that Bonar chose the best of mentors. For many years, during his divinity training, Bonar and his circle of friends spent Saturday afternoons in Thomas Chalmer’s office, praying and studying together. To the end of his life, Bonar held Chalmers in the highest regard – cherishing the time he had been allowed to spend with him. 3 years after Chalmers’ death, Bonar was in Collace, reading the biography of his mentor when a man from the community asked him to go and settle a quarrel between himself and his wife. Bonar wrote, “The Lord does not use me, like His servant Dr. Chalmers, for great things, but my way of serving the Lord is walking three or four miles to quiet a family dispute! The Lord shows me that He wishes me to be one of the common Levites who carry the pins.” Bonar’s example is one of humble submission to his mentor Chalmers.
3. A Devoted Author – although there is nothing original about it, it would be remiss of me not to briefly mention Bonar, the author. He was not prodigious in his output, but quality took the place of quantity. Three books in particular stand out for comment on the basis of their sheer impact upon the Christian world: first, his biography of Robert Murray McCheyne. Written in 1844, a year after McCheyne’s death, Bonar has been responsible, more than anyone else for McCheyne’s protestant canonization. The book itself has been responsible for thousands of conversions and is a true Christian classic in every sense of the word. Secondly, his narrative of the mission of enquiry to the Jews. This book was largely responsible for the stirring of the conscience of Scotland towards their responsible for God’s ancient people. Scotland became the heart of a worldwide mission to the Jewish people. By 1847 Bonar could write “Never since the apostolic days was there anything like the present care for Israel.” Through such a stirring came the work in Budapest and all over Europe and Palestine. Lastly, his editorship of the Letters of Samuel Rutherford. These letters allow us access into the most profound of Scottish Presbyterian piety. It has been an inestimably precious compilation to generations of Christians and should be an integral part of the book collection of every Reformed home.
Take what you will from these last two points – Bonar was a faithful friend to his contemporaries, and he has been a faithful friend to thousands of other Christians through his books. Such was the man – faithful to God, faithful to His Word and faithful to His people – all in all, a faithful disciple.
[B] His Ecclesiology
In this paper, my interest is not in denominational issue, thus I have nothing to say today about his views on Presbyterian Union or the Establishment Principle. My interest in Bonar’s ecclesiology is from a congregational perspective. I want to mention 4 areas of interest, some of which I will only give a passing reference to, others I will pause and reflect over:
1. His Emphasis on Hard Work – whatever else Bonar was, you could never accuse him of being lazy. His first report to the Free Church Committee on Glasgow Evangelization for the year 1858 reads, “Above 600 families of this population have been visited by the minister personally in the course of last year.” As well as his punishing visiting schedule, Bonar presided over meetings of the Sunday School teachers, the tract association (which incidentally visited 1030 homes in Finnieston monthly) and conducted a weekly Bible Class for young men and young women (separately). On his jubilee in 1888, it was recorded that he had been absent for no more than one Sunday consecutive over his 32 years ministering in Finnieston. When asked the secret of his good health, Bonar always attributed it to his hard work. He didn’t waste a moment – if he had 5 minutes to wait for public transport, he would use it to knock on the door of someone he knew nearby, even if it was just to shake their hand and give them his greetings.
2. His Emphasis on Prayer – some time ago, we were privileged to hear Derek Prime talking about the life of Bonar’s dear friend Robert Murray McCheyne – and the most important thing I took away with me from that lecture was how devoted McCheyne was to prayer. Bonar was no different. The difference between the two was that Bonar had longer both to develop his own prayer life and the prayer life of his congregation. What we see in germ form in McCheyne and St. Peters, we see fully developed in Bonar and Finnieston. I want to access Bonar’s emphasis on prayer at three levels:
a. His Personal Devotion to Prayer – I was going to include this in the first section on his personal discipleship, but it seemed to fit better in here. From the very start of his Christian journey, Bonar was a man devoted to prayer. In the preface to his diary, his daughter writes of him, “The Diary is the revelation of the life of one who prayed always, who prayed everywhere, who, the nearer he came to the other world, was every day more constantly enjoying closer intercourse with it.” There is much we could say about Bonar’s prayer life, but I want to confine myself to just four observations:

  • Bonar did not find praying easy – it would be hagiography to represent Bonar as a Christian who found it easy to sustain his prayer life. He writes for Sept 6th 1838 – “I purpose (and yet I cannot effect even this unless I get help from the Lord) to go earlier to bed and rise at six; and spend from six to eight in prayer for myself, my parish, and the cause of God through the world. Oh, if I could do this all the days of my life while I have health, for I have never yet succeeded in such resolutions, and never yet have I given much time to prayer daily.” Surely this encourages all who struggle in a similar fashion with prayer.
  • Bonar saw prayer as crucial to success – as we have learned, Bonar was a driven workaholic; and yet he was not driven by a worldly desire for reputation, but a desire to see the name of Jesus Christ glorified. As such, he recognised that his labour was useless unless it received the divine imprimatur. For April 9th 1842 he writes, “much labour, but learned by experience that much prayer is the only means to success.” I think he was a little hard on himself sometimes, attributing as he did the failures in his congregation’s life and witness to his own lack of prayer. For September 21st 1843 he writes, “I am now persuaded that one grand reason for the unholy bitterness among some of the people towards each other, and the harshness of temper in some Christians among us, is greatly to be attributed to my failure in prayer for them, and my not dealing with God about them”.
  • Bonar valued praying in different contexts – having begun his ministry with a relentless drive towards what we would call an extended quiet time, (and he never gave up trying) Bonar developed as the years went by into a minister who prayed always and everywhere. His entry for September 19th 1840 records his discovery that walking and journeying time can usefully be spent in prayer. His entry for December 4th 1839 also records his routine of reserving Saturday evening and Monday morning to special times of prayer for the Word he was preaching on the Sunday to sink in to his listener’s hearts.
  • Bonar joined his prayers with fasting – Bonar recognised and valued the impact fasting made upon his prayer life. For 1st January 1833 he writes, “I began last year the custom of private fasts and never have I found more answers to direct petitions since then.”

Many more gems can be gleaned from his diary as to the uniqueness of Andrew Bonar in prayer – these are but a primer. But the impression you get is of an Elijah – a man who recognised his failures but saw the importance of the spiritual work of prayer both for his own spiritual growth in grace, and for the success of the spiritual work of his ministry.
b. His Leadership’s Devotion to Prayer – The Kirk Session and Deacons Court minute books of Finnieston Free Church are full of references to the community prayer life of the leadership of the congregation. Bonar saw prayer as being the sine qua non of the spiritual heads of God’s people. As such, his officebearers met for prayer frequently, most often regularly, but at times, when the need arose for a special season of prayer. Let me just highlight three occasions on which these men got together to pray:

  • They gathered to pray before each Lord’s Day Morning Service – at 10am each Lord’s Day morning, the elders and deacons of the church would meet with Bonar in the Session room to pray for the preaching of the Word.
  • They gathered together to pray for spiritual renewal and an outpouring of the Holy Spirit –  they had devoted times of prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the congregation and upon Glasgow.
  • They gathered together to pray when there was a crisis in the Church – 2 years after the congregation had moved into their new building in Derby Street, a large debt still remained unpaid. Rather than merely seeking financial redress, it is minuted in the Deacons’ Court records for the 13th December 1880 that “before finally deciding on any scheme for the liquidation of the debt, the court should have a special diet for prayer that they might confess past sins and failures and seek for divine guidance in the present important state of their affairs. And the court fixed Wednesday evening 22nd at 7 o’clock as a diet for prayer accordingly.”

Here is a leadership which truly takes responsibility before God for the spiritual and temporal condition of the congregation. And it was Bonar, more than anybody else, who set the tone of his leadership. What a challenge to us as ministers of the Gospel, to similarly model and impress upon the hearts of our fellow leaders, the need for complete dependence upon the Lord.
c. His Congregation’s Devotion to Prayer – many things strike you when you read the Kirk Session records for the period of Bonar’s ministry in Finnieston – not least how difficult it is to read the Clerk’s handwriting. However the most remarkable thing is how many prayer meetings were taking place in the congregation additional to the regular weekly prayer meeting in the church building. As we shall see in a moment, Bonar divided his congregation up into districts, and by a mere two years after the congregation had been sanctioned, there were six prayer meetings taking place in various districts weekly. By 1867, the Kirk Session sanctioned a weekly Thursday night prayer meeting, and I quote, ‘for prayer to Almighty God for the outpouring of His Holy Spirit … looking for a gracious answer according to the Lord’s promise.’ By 1870, the congregation held an annual week of prayer from 8 to 9 every evening, and again I quote, “for thanksgiving, humiliation and prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.” Districts (of which by 1890 there were 20) each had a weekly prayer meeting; groups within the congregation, for example the Sunday School teachers, the Young Men’s Literary Association and others, also held meetings for prayer – the congregation prayed together and in parts. But the amazing thing which comes across in the session minutes is that these meetings for prayer were not top-down dictates – the Kirk Session did not organise these meetings. Rather, these meetings sprang up and then requested Kirk Session approval and participation. Surely this was a sign that God’s Holy Spirit was already being poured out when so many members of Bonar’s congregation had a real burden for prayer.
I am in no doubt that the prayer life of minister, leadership and membership of Finnieston Free Church, accounted for the remarkable growth of the congregation and the concurrent impact it had upon the city of Glasgow. Forget how-to-grow-the-church manuals – the secret is no secret at all – it’s not psychobabble – it’s prayer, pure and simple. On the occasion of his jubilee in 1888, Bonar himself said, “All our blessings are the fruit of prayer.”
3. His Emphasis on Mission – Everything Bonar did was with an eye to the conversion of the lost. The Finnieston he came to was far less civil than it is today, and far poorer. One of the first things he did was to institute a Clothing Society, which later branched out into providing coal for the poor. They set aside a bursary for educating the destitute children of the district and used the surplus of the collections at Communion time to alleviate cases of poverty. In 1858, the congregation instituted a penny savings bank for the community. The church became the centre of the life of the community. At the commencement of Bonar’s ministry, he split his congregation up into geographical districts and placed an elder and a deacon over each district. Each district met for prayer during the week, and during the winter months, met for Bible Study on the evening of the Lord’s Day. In 1859, the Kirk Session appointed its first District Missionary. His job was basically evangelistic visitation but he also preached in a school house at which many non-Church goers attended. A Bible woman soon followed and at the height of the congregation’s efforts, two district missionaries and a Bible woman were working. The fruit was evident. The Kirk Session minutes for the 4th October 1869 record, “The moderator stated that 16 out of the 37 attending his communicants class were adults and married persons, almost all of them fruits of the missionary and Bible woman’s labours, in cooperation with those who held district meetings.” The whole congregation was involved, and the leadership structured in such a way, as to promote mission and evangelism. The present moderator of the Free Church General Assembly called on us to return to the model of missional churches – but let us remember that this is no new thing – Bonar was doing it in Finnieston 150 years ago. Finally here, in 1865, the church building in Finnieston had to be closed for repairs, during which time the congregation worshipped for two months in a local school. Numbers grew so rapidly while the congregation worshipped on ‘neutral ground’ that for many years afterwards, Sunday evening services were continued in that school. It would seem that ecclesiastical buildings put people off then as much as they perhaps do today.
4. His Emphasis on Preaching – by his own admission, Bonar was not an eloquent, nor an intellectual preacher. His academic record is second to none, and yet his hearers were not primarily impressed with his intellect, but with his meekness and gentleness. He wrote, “You know I never try to be an intellectual preacher, nor did I try to be eloquent – it was not in my power. I sought to be a Bible expositor.” Bonar would ensure that before he went into the pulpit he was prepared spiritually, through prayer, and mentally, through being able to repeat in Hebrew or Greek the text from which he was to preach. Although Bonar did not claim any eloquence for himself, it was said of him by his hearers that whereas his brother Horatius was talented at putting poetry into verse, Andrew was talented at putting poetry into prose. It was said of Bonar’s preaching that, “He had genius. In his happier efforts this element was always present, and sometimes its effect was magical. It was not brilliance or eloquence; it was quiet and pawky. But he could make the quaintest and most unexpected meanings peep out of a text or an incident of Scripture, while over his audience passed shock after shock of delighted surprise and waves of silent and sunny internal laughter.” At times, Bonar adopted a cantillating chant in his public preaching and prayer. But his Gospel calls were keenly delivered – his Kirk Session write in eulogy, “The sound of the voice now silent can never cease to vibrate in our hearts as we remember how he used to plead with the unsaved to flee from the wrath to come, beseeching them to be reconciled to God.”
These, and many other aspects of Bonar’s life, including his ecumenicity and his craving for Christian fellowship for the good of the Gospel, reveal a man who believed that the bridegroom works primarily through his bride to bring souls to himself. In a day when the Church is disparaged, does Bonar’s example not give us strength and courage to go on loving the Bride of Christ?
[C] His Interest in Jewish Mission
Bonar was one of a group of friends whose passion for, prayer for, and work for God’s ancient people led to an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Why though was Bonar so passionate about the Jews? In one sense, you could say that it was the fruit of his Mission of Inquiry to the Jews, a mission Bonar fell into by happenstance. But I think there was another reason, a more fundamental reason, which leads us to believe that Bonar’s interest in the Jewish people went back 10 years before he, McCheyne and the others left for Palestine. The reason is bound up with Bonar’s belief in the pre-millenial advent of Christ. The Bonar brothers and McCheyne became pre-millenialists in 1829. Edward Irving did a series of early morning lectures at the General Assembly that year at which the circle of friends became convinced Pre-millenialists. Late in his life, Bonar divulged the roots of his belief in sermon he preached called ‘The Hope of the Lord’s Return’. Irving’s lectures, together which what Bonar calls, ‘the calm reading of Matthew 24’ combined to take him to the office of his mentor Thomas Chalmers asking for his views. Chalmers said to him, “Oh gentlemen, there is no harm in studying that subject; go on, and make up your mind. I have not arrived at a conclusion yet; I am looking into it.” Interestingly enough, Bonar reports that before he died, Chalmers ‘ranged himself with the premillenialists’. Bonar and his friends’ views on the second advent earned for them, from their colleagues, the titles ‘the babies’ and ‘the infantry’. His views also tarnished the opinions of vacancy committees, resulting in him not being considered for many congregations.
In 1847 Bonar wrote a book entitled, “Redemption Drawing Nigh: A Defence of the Premillenial Advent”. One of his chapters is devoted to what the signs of the Lord’s second coming will be. He suggests that before the Lord’s advent, Israel will return and be converted. He adduces various texts from Old and New Testament to support his assertion. My proposal, although I cannot find any more evidence to support my view, is that Bonar believed that by proclaiming Christ to the Jews, he would hasten the Second Coming. He longed for the appearing of Christ and deprecated the lack of preaching on the second coming. He writes, the second coming of the Lord “has been left, like an old sword, looked at and its properties occasionally decanted upon, but unused by Christ’s soldiers in battle.” Again he writes of the Second Advent, “It ought to be used (by preachers) to compel them (his hearers) to an immediate decision.” The crux of Bonar’s defence of his premillenial views can be gleaned from a hermeneutical axiom he presents in Redemption Drawing Nigh – one which he must have absorbed from Edward Irving. The axiom is as follows, “Let unfulfilled prophecy be interpreted with the same literality, and no more, that we find borne out by fulfilled prophecy.” Time is too short to delve into what he means by that, simply that in his closely argued masterpiece on classic Pre-millenialism, Bonar carefully exegetes passages in both Testaments, using his hermeneutical principle, to show that the Lord’s Coming will occur before the millennium.
However, I believe that it was his premillenialism which drove his passion for the Jews. In 1839 Bonar wrote a short tract for the children of Collace entitled ‘The Jews’. Although the tract is written for children, taken together with others of Bonar’s writings, it still contains Bonar’s raw passion and conviction that work amongst the Jews is biblical, merciful and profitable.
First, he was convinced that the evangelism of the Jews was Biblical. In Acts 1:8 our risen Lord gave His disciples that after the Spirit came upon them ‘you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ We tend to read that passage through a redemptive historical matrix, but for Bonar, nothing has changed about the Lord’s call to his church. The Gospel must first and always be preached in Jerusalem. Bonar differentiated between Jewish and Gentile mission and saw the foundation for blessing in Gentile mission as being in the faithful pursuit of Jewish mission. His reading of Scripture also led him to believe that ‘there is a day coming when God will bless the Jews more than he has done the Gentiles.’
Second, he was convinced that the evangelism of the Jews was merciful. Through his travels in 1839 on the mission of enquiry, Bonar became acquaint with the lives and deaths of the Jewish people. More than any other people on earth, they have been subjected to hardship, xenophobia and persecution. They live unhappy lives, but even worse after they die, if they have not acknowledged their Messiah – and so Bonar writes, “Jews are miserable enough in life, but yet more so in death.”
Thirdly, was convinced that the evangelism of the Jews was profitable. Bonar’s interest in Jewish mission undergirded his belief in the success of Gentile mission – particularly in his own congregation. He writes, “All those who love Zion are made to prosper.” On the occasion of his jubilee celebrations in 1888, Bonar told a packed audience of fellow ministers and sundry, “It is something for any minister to have his hand in Jewish work. If you want a blessing put your hand to the Jewish work. It will not encumber you or hinder you but it will greatly bless you.” Can the roots of Bonar’s success in Finnieston be attributed not just to prayer, but also to his interest in Jewish mission? Such a conclusion does no violence to Paul’s teachings in Romans 9-11.
In conclusion, I want to suggest a number of reasons why, amongst Reformed Christians, especially Presbyterians, our interest in Jewish mission has waned. There are other reasons why, in Christendom as a whole, Jewish mission has waned, but I’m ignoring those and focussing on why Reformed Christians are no longer friends of Israel.

  1. Dogmatic A-Millenialism – it may be that most of you here are amillenial in your eschatology. But concerning Jewish work, the hazard with amillenialism is that we no longer believe there is a special place in the redemption of the world for God’s ancient people. To believe that is to go against everything historic Scottish Presbyterianism ever stood for. And if we ministers, who are the preachers of the Word and those who mould our peoples’ minds, do not believe that there is a Jew/Gentile distinction in the covenant of grace, what chance do our people have? Thus, I am not blaming our people so much for the decline in interest in Jewish mission as much as I am taking the blame for ourselves as preachers.
  2. Lack of Biblical Reflection – if we are being honest, most of the people we know who are still passionate about Jewish mission are older and deeper. That is because they have had a lifetime to reflect upon the teachings of the Bible on this matter. Most of us are nowhere near as close to the Scriptures as Bonar and McCheyne were, and although we may take issue with their premillenial views, we cannot but admire their devotion to the Bible. Are we, or our people, so devoted to the Scriptures? Do we not wonder then, how it is that in not carefully studying the Scriptures, we do not arrive at its clear teaching on the special place of the Jew?
  3. The Lack of a Biblical Grounding – this follows on from my previous point, but what I am saying here is that whereas Bonar and his contemporaries walked in the footsteps of Scripture so much so that they could feel the heat of the fires of Mount Sinai, and they could experience the solemnity of the Passover feast, our people have forgotten that the Bible was written into a definite context amongst definite people. Jesus was a Jew –so what did that mean for him? Although you may not like me mentioning his name, I would highly recommend the series of expositions on the Gospels given by Bishop N.T. Wright entitled, “Matthew for everyone”, “Mark for everyone” and so on. Wright embeds the teachings of the Gospels not in the sermons of Spurgeon or in the times of Victoriana, but in the life situations of the Bible.
  4. A Disinterest in Church History – people are no longer interested in history – they think they have better methods and better ways of growing the church and being successful other than reading the likes of Bonar and McCheyne. And so folk will read the latest American church-growth garbage and see it as being superior to anything Scotland has done in the past. But one of the reasons for the prosperity of the mid-19th Century Free Church of Scotland was its passion for Jewish mission. God blesses those who bless his people – it’s as simple as that. I’m not saying that we should engage in Jewish mission for that reason, but simply that loving the Jews will result in the blessing of all our work.
  5. Politics – could it be that the formation of the Jewish state in Israel, combined with its poor international policies, has clouded the minds of Reformed Christians, so that somehow they think that to support Jewish mission means total support for the politics of a nation state.
  6. The Poor Image of Jewish Mission – as a whole, young people do not connect with Jewish Mission. They don’t hear at missionary meetings of mass conversions, rather of sober and sometimes depressing stories of hardness and blindness. The speakers at missionary meetings, who most often are of a different generation from them, and there isn’t the same romance associated with Jewish mission as there is with Gentile mission. I believe that Reformed Missionary organisations working amongst the Jews need to change their image to engage the interest of young Presbyterians again. And they need to reiterate that Jewish mission is the only form of mission to a people group that is guaranteed divine blessing. Perhaps the missions need to target ministers more – change the ministers’ minds, and they will change their peoples’ minds.

I hope you have found these reflections on Bonar interesting and stimulating. I will post up this seminar on my church web-site if you have missed anything. But can I make this one impassioned plea as a young minister to older ministers – because we are the preachers of the Word, we can lead our people into the Scriptures – please be a friend to the Jews! It will call down the blessing of God upon you and your congregation. You will not be the loser for loving Zion.

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