Rev. Andrew Alexander Bonar


1810 - 1892

Clergyman and author. Born in Edinburgh, the younger brother of hymn-writer Horatius Bonar (1808-89), Bonar was educated at the High School in the city. He went on to read theology at the University of Edinburgh, before first preaching in Jedburgh. In 1836, he became assistant to Rev. Robert Candlish (1806-73) in Edinburgh and took over the parish of Collace (Perth and Kinross) in 1838. He was appointed to a committee to examine the plight of the Jews along with his close friend of the noted Dundee evangelist Robert McCheyne (1813-43) and spent time in the Holy Land in 1839.

Shaken by McCheyne's early death shortly before the momentous General Assembly of 1843 which marked the Disruption, Bonar wrote the deeply spiritual Memoir and Remains of Rev R. M. M'Cheyne, published in 1844. Both Bonar and his brother left the Established Church at the Disruption; Bonar left the church at Collace with many of his parishioners and built a Free Church at nearby Kinrossie with the help of unsung scientist cum joiner James Croll (1821-90). In 1856 Bonar moved to Glasgow. He served as Moderator of the Free Church in 1877-78 and spent three months in America in 1881.

Among his works were A Commentary on Leviticus (1846), Christ and His Church in the Book of Psalms (1859) and The Gospel pointing to the Person of Christ (1868).

He died in Glasgow and was buried in Sighthill Cemetery.


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