JAMES BODEN. 1757-1841. THE REV. JAMES BODEN was born at Chester, England, April 13, 1757, in the house where Matthew Henry wrote his justly-renowned Commentary on the Bible. Under the ministry of the Rev. M. J. Armitage, he became, at fourteen, a serious Christian, and at sixteen a member of the Congregational church, worshipping in an upper room, Common Hall St., Chester. Full of zeal and devotion, he sought the ministry of the Gospel. Four years (1779–1783) were spent at Homerton College. In 1784 he was installed the pastor of the Congregational church of Hanley, a village of potteries in Staffordshire. In November, 1796, he became the successor of the Rev. Josiah Brewer, in the pastorate of the Independent church, Queen Street, Sheffield. More than forty-two years he served this church with great ability and fidelity. At the age of eighty-two years (1839) he resigned his charge, and retired to Chesterfield, in Derbyshire, where, full of peace and joyful hope, he passed away, June 4, 1841, in the 85th year of his age,— one of the very last survivors of the Founders of the London Missionary Society. He was an eminently godly man, and a most useful minister of Christ. He contributed to the February number of The Gospel Magazine for 1777 the hymn, written to be sung after a charity sermon; and to the August number of the London Evangelical Magazine for 1798, "Bright Source of Everlasting love." In the compilation, "A Collection of above Six Hundred Hymns, designed as a New Supplement to Dr. Watts' Psalms and Hymns. Doncaster, 1801," he was associated with the Rev. Edward Williams, D.D., of Rotherham Col lege. Seven of the hymns were from his own pen. The compilation, for that period, was one of great merit. Among his earlier productions, the following stanzas, being part of a hymn contributed to the August number of The Gospel Magazine for 1777, fairly exhibit his style: "High in the shining courts above Reigns God, the sovereign King, "He sees where youthful hearts unite, And Jesus ever takes delight "Their conversation and their prayers His smiles dispel their gloomy cares, "Oh! how they scorn these sordid charms The shining of Jehovah's grace, HORATIUS BONAR. 1808 THE REV. HORATIUS BONAR, D.D., the poet of the modern sanctuary, is the son of James Bonar, and was born, December 19, 1808, at Edinburgh, Scotland. He comes of a godly and clerical ancestry. His grandfather, the Rev. John Bonar, was the author of several hymns published in 1765. The grandson was educated at the High-School, and the University, Edinburgh. In the study of theology he was a pupil of the Rev. Dr. Chalmers. In 1837 he was ordained the pastor of the Presbyterian church of Kelso, on the Tweed, near the English border,-previously under the charge of the Rev. Robert Lundie, whose daughter, Jane Catharine, sister of Mary Lundie Duncan, he married. Two years after his settlement he began the publication and circulation of the famous "Kelso Tracts," of one of which, "Believe and Live," nearly or quite a million of copies have been issued. In the early days of his ministry, he and his brother, Rev. Andrew A. Bonar, now of Glasgow, were intimately associated with that burning and shining light, Robert Murray McCheyne, pastor of St. Peter's church, Dundee. They were men of like spirit, and Horatius labored at Kelso much as McCheyne did in Dundee. The great revival of religion, that began at Kilsyth in 1839, spread to Dundee and Kelso, and was greatly promoted by the "Tracts" as well as the preaching of Horatius Bonar. At the disruption of the Church of Scotland in May, 1843, he freely and heartily cast in his lot with the Free Church, of which he has ever since been one of the most ardent and faithful supporters. Since 1866 he has been the pastor of the Grange, or "Chalmers Memorial," Presbyterian Church of Edinburgh. The publications of Dr. Bonar are characterized by intense spirituality and ardent devotion to the cause of Christ. "Truth and Error" appeared in 1846; "The Night of Weeping," in 1846; "The Coming and Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ," in 1849; "The Morning of Joy," in 1850; "The Blood of the Cross" followed. Then "Man, his Religion and his World" (1854); "Prophetical Landmarks" (1854); "The Desert of Sinai" (1857); "The Land of Promise" (1858); "Earth's Thirst and Heaven's Water Springs" (1860); "God's Way of Peace" (1862); “God's Way of Holiness" (1864); and, the same year, "The Word of Promise," "The Eternal Day," "A Stranger Here," "Fifty-two Short Sermons for Family Reading" followed. "Light and Truth-Bible Thoughts and Themes" appeared in 1868. He has edited for a long period The Journal of Prophecy, and succeeded the Rev. Andrew Cameron as editor of The Christian Treasury. He has made numerous contributions to other religious periodicals. He is, however, better known as the author of many of the sweetest hymns commonly used in the service of God. His hymnological publications are "Songs for the Wilderness," two series (1843-4); "The Bible Hymn-Book" (1845); "Hymns Original and Selected" (1850); "Hymns of Faith and Hope," first series (1857), second series (1861), third series (1866). In 1852 he published "The New Jerusalem, a Hymn of the Olden Time." Some of his hymns "were written in Kelso, some in Edinburgh, some in railway trains. No note was taken of the dates of their composition." His appearance in the pulpit is "grand, massive, almost imposing, but thoroughly genial and tender in every line and movement of face and eye." The following stanzas, from the third series of his "Hymns of Faith and Hope," are quite characteristic of his muse: "Upward, where the stars are burning, Silent, silent, in their turning Round the never-changing pole: 'Far above that arch of gladness, Are the many mansions fair; I would find my mansion there. "Where the glory brightly dwelleth, That must be the home of homes." JANE CATHARINE [LUNDIE] BONAR. MRS. BONAR is the daughter of the late Rev. Robert Lundie, in whose delightful manse at Kelso, Scotland, the Rev. Matthias Bruen, of New York, found such a pleasant and genial home. "I have acquired at Kelso," says Bruen, September 22, 1817, "at least one of the kindest friends, which, so long as sin is in this world, we can hope God will give us to comfort us in our state of pilgrimage." Mrs. Lundie, the excellent mother of Mrs. Bonar, compiled the Memoirs of Mr. Bruen; but she is far better known as the mother of "Mary Lundie Duncan," whose Memoir, also, she so lovingly wrote. From that exquisite story of a lovely life may be learned something of the charms of that home, "Where Tweed flows on in silver sheen, where the younger sister, Jane, was born, and passed her youthful days. In April, 1832, she was deprived of her godly father, and in the autumn, with her widowed mother, her elder sister, and brother, she found a home in Edinburgh. In 1835, she was sent to a school in London, and found a kind friend in Mrs. Evans, the endeared friend of her sister Mary. On her return, she was much with her sister at the manse in Cleish, until 1840, when Mary died. She now became the wife of the Rev. Horatius Bonar, and an occupant, as mistress of the manse of Kelso, of the place of her birth and infantile life. Here she continued to reside until her husband's removal, in 1869, to Edinburgh,-her present home. Like her gifted sister, Mrs. Bonar not unfrequently gives expression to her thoughts in sacred verse. The hymn, "Pass away, earthly joy!" etc., It first appeared (1843) in "Songs for the Wilderness." found a place, also, two years after, in "The Bible Hymn Book," compiled by her husband. |