Caring for the Flock of God

Many a biography I read of a well known pastor of yester-year yields great spiritual treasure and is of great personal spiritual stimulus. The little known biography of Andrew Bonar subtitled The Good Pastor proved to be yet another repository of great blessing. Written by his daughter, Marjory Bonar in 1895, this work has been reprinted in 1999 by Ambassador press.

Bonar was born in Edinburgh in 1810 to Christian parents who attempted to raise him to love the Lord. He lost his father at eleven years of age and as a result developed a very deep bond with his older brothers that would last all of their lives. He came to know Christ at the age of twenty shortly before beginning his theological training. His first pastorate was in the little village of Collace where he ministered for 18 years. He was very instrumental in the great Revival of 1839-1840 and shortly after this time of spiritual renewal, he along with 400 other worthy pastors separated from the Established Church of Scotland to form the Free Church in the great Disruption of1843. He married in 1848 and fathered five children. Mrs. Bonar died in 1848 leaving him to raise his children alone – he never remarried. In 1856 he left his little flock in Collace and assumed the pastorate of a larger ministry in Glasgow where he would remain until his “jubilee” in 1888. He ministered with Moody in the Northfield conferences held in near Chicago when he was well into his 70's. Bonar died peacfully in his sleep on December 30, 1892 at 82 years of age.

Bonar is as well known for his writing ability as for his preaching and pastoral ministry. He wrote a commentary on Leviticus and a smaller work entitled Christ and His Church in the Book of Psalms both of which were highly commended by his contemporary in London, C. H. Spurgeon. Bonar is best known however for his biography of the life and ministry of his best friend, Robert Murray M’Cheyne. So powerful was this work that scores of people over the years have come to a saving knowledge of the Lord as a result of reading it. Many of them made their conversion known to Bonnar during his lifetime.

As wonderful as was his writing ministry, Bonar’s true call and chief love was the pastorate. When he arrived at his first church in Collace, there were hardly six believing families in the whole parish. After almost two decades under his ministry the believers at Collace had been deeply stirred by God. One of these individuals gave this testimony at Bonar’s Jubilee in 1888. “When you came among us in 1839, Collace, as regards spiritual life, was comparatively a desert. When you left, it was like a watered garden – a field that the Lord has blessed. The effects of your faithful testimony remain to this day, both in living souls and in the social and religious habits of the people.” One of the most spiritually invigorating times of his ministry there came during the Revival of 1839. So powerful were the effects of this visitation from God that many were converted – some even at their jobs. One man, a sawyer, was busy at his work when he was overcome with conviction. Upon his conversion he began to cry out, “Lord, Keep back some of the light, for this poor vessel is not able to contain it!”

As Bonar’s fame expanded, he was constantly barraged with calls to larger and more influential works. His own words, reveal his great love for this small and obscure place where God had placed him. “Many an upbraiding do I meet with for what they count the folly and absurdity of continuing to feed a few sheep at Collace rather than agree to plunge into the mass of misery among souls here (upon a call to London). But, nevertheless, I am not moved from my belief that the Lord may mean to work more in a very small spot than in a great city, while, at the same time, He may use country shepherds to go up now and then to the city, and tell what things the Lord has made known to them. . . .As to London, I shall be slow to move in such a matter. I sometimes think that Satan may occasionally try in such ways to extrude a minister – it is not always the moving of the cloudy pillar.” His approach to ministerial wandering is refreshingly different than that of many modern ministers. It is no surprise that his ministry was both deep and lasting.

During his ministry at Glasgow, he would see hundreds of converts and scores of men called into the ministry. As a minister of the Free Church, one is not surprised to learn that Bonar practiced infant baptism. While we may deplore his lack of understanding in terms of infant baptism, we can rejoice in that he used these occasions to remind the parents of the urgency of their responsibility to bring their child to saving knowledge of Christ. “Remember, parents, to tell your children that on the day of baptism they were presented to the Three Persons, and the water was meant to be a sign and seal that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit offered salvation to them. Ask them, have you accepted the gift offered?” He went on to add on another occasion, “How solemn it is for you to look on that child and wonder, ‘will that head ever wear a crown of glory? And will these lips ever sing His praises? And will these eyes ever see the King in his beauty?”

He was well known for a well-turned phrase in almost every message such as, “Lot would not give up Christ, but he would not give up much for Christ.” “Look into the Fountain, and the very looking will make you thirsty.” “We do not need new swords, new spears, new arms. We only need more eye-salve to see Who is on our side.” His assessment of the generation that followed him was given on an occasion in 1878 while he served as the moderator of the Free Church. “We need not be very much surprised that those young ‘sons of the prophets’ are rather prone to question the positive conclusions of older men. . . . There were schools, if not colleges at Bethel and Jericho: and you may remember how the youthful disciples there, not satisfied in regard to Elijah’s translation, insisted that fifty of the best and most gifted of their number should go and search hill and valley for themselves. Again and again did the prophet assure them that it would prove only a waste of time and labor; and when at length he yielded and they went forth with all the confidence of youth, how did it end? They came back to report that the old prophet was right after all. No doubt he smiled with mild satisfaction as he reminded them, “Did I not say unto you, Go not!”

One of his best known sayings was “See that your last days are your best days.” He certainly lived up to his words. One of the last entries in his dairy was as follows, “I have been thinking tonight that perhaps my next great undertaking may be this: appearing at the judgement seat of Christ, when I give an account of my trading with my talents.” That great day came on December 30, 1892. No doubt he heard, “Well done, Good and Faithful Servant!”

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