Isabella, his daughter
Tuesday, 2nd April 1867.
MY DEAR ISABELLA,--. . . This is a week of many interruptions of course, people calling about the Communion, etc. . . . No news here. The stream of life glides on, and we are on its banks. It will take many turns and windings, and then, some day, what a view bursts upon us! Eternity! Dr. Livingstone's death seems to us s ...read
Sermon
Jethro
Exodus 18
Preached on November 24th 1839 at Collace.
I. Jethro's name. - His personal name was Reuel or Raguel, 'God's Shepherd.' His father must have been a good man, not an idolater. Jethro is his official title, meaning his highness, or 'his excellency.' So this man was at once a priest of God and a man of high standing. He was a godly ...read
Article
Jonathan and his Armour-bearer
1 Samuel 14
I would like to have known the name of the Armour-bearer, but we are not told his name. There are a great many cases of useful persons whose names are hid. Sometimes God puts honour upon them before the church; sometimes He says, 'never mind, you are remembered before the Lord.' We shall hear the Armour-bearer's name read out at the ...read
Article
Kept by the Power of God.
1 Peter 1:5
ARE there any believers here who are afraid that they will some day bring disgrace on their profession ? Let them study these words. 'Kept' is the whole history of a believer's life. It tells us we are very weak, for we need to be kept; but, at the same time, it is a most comforting word, for it tells us we are worth keeping. God c ...read
Article
Leaning on the Beloved.
'Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved ?' Song 8: 5
Leaning on the Beloved is faith - faith which looks out to Christ, as distinguished from feeling, which looks in to self. Faith has regard to what the Lord has done and spoken, both in respect of justification and sanctification.
I. There are many cases ...read
Sermon
Meeting as a Congregation
"For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matt. 18. 20).
NOTES OF A SERMON DELIVERED IN FINNIESTON FREE CHURCH, GLASGOW, ON SUNDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 1, 1889.
I believe you will find the origin of public worship in the book of Genesis, that book of beginnings (4. 26).
Enos, the son of Se ...read
Letter
Miss Anne Whittit
GLASGOW, 19th March 1873.
DEAR MISS ANNE,
--Many thanks for your narrative of the Lord's doings. I was so interested that I just told all over at my prayer-meeting, with a few remarks as I went along. You see the Master has not cast you aside. You are not treated as even Jonathan (holy, humble Jonathan) was treated; for after he had been used ...read
Letter
Miss Clarke, Edinburgh
CRAIGNURE, ISLE OF MULL, 18th August 1882.
DEAR MISS C.,
--It was very kind in you to let me know of your sister's illness. She is safe in any case in 'the everlasting arms'. During all her time of trial and pain, the same Holy Spirit who upheld and comforted Christ our Head, even on the Cross and its agonies, will assuredly uphold and comfor ...read
Letter
Miss Macphun, Zenana Mission, Benares, India
GLASGOW, Sept 1st, 1888.
MY DEAR MISS MACPHUN,--We are to 'rejoice with those that do rejoice,' as well as to sympathise with those that weep, and so I wish to-day to join with you in praises and thanks. You have been getting much to gladden you, even in that one case you so kindly send me the details of. Yours is the joy of Luke 15:7, something ...read
Letter
Mr. and Mrs. James Bonar, Hampstead
GLASGOW, 29th May 1889.
Very many thanks to my son and daughter for their congratulations to me on my birthday! And let me say specially to Mary that the sweet fragrance of both words and flowers is filling my study to-day, and from time to time sending my thoughts away to Hampstead. My prayers also go up for both of you from time to time, perha ...read
Letter
Mr. D. Maclagan
This letter was written to Mr. Maclagan, who was compiling the 'History of St.George's,' in 1874, and is included in this.
These excerpts have been taken from 'Memorials of Robert Smith Candlish,' D.D., by William Wilson, D.D. (1880)
5th March, 1874
"It was November 1836 that I came from Jedburgh (where I had been for eighteen months partl ...read
Letter
Mr. David Dickson, his brother-in-law
ABERNYTE, Saturday, 3rd August 1867.
MY DEAR DAVID,--Your note was another cloud in our sky. I thought you had got better accounts of your dear boy. But if the Lord is indeed threatening to let him continue with you only for a short time, be assured that all the while 'He doth not willingly afflict.' There must be some real and special blessing ...read
Letter
Mr. James Mudie, Montrose
Collace, May 31st, 1844.
MY DEAR BROTHER,
--. . . I did not observe that there were five Sabbaths in June. I suppose therefore I that our Communion will be the last day of June. Now this would leave me the interval of one Sabbath to come to Dr. Brewster. . . . But I find that to be absent that Sabbath would not be possible without risking som ...read
Letter
Mr. Lewis Grant, his nephew, Kirkcaldy
GLASGOW, 16th January 1880.
MY DEAR LEWIS,
--Your note has just come with its burden of heavy tidings. I had written an hour ago to Uncle William, whose letter expressed anxious alarm, but we were not prepared for your announcement, for Willie's note of yesterday was rather encouraging and hopeful.
You know, and we all know, that as to you ...read
Letter
Mr. Robert Noble, Clapham
GLASGOW, 14th Dec. 1891.
MY DEAR MR. NOBLE,--You sympathise with us, I know, though far off; and so I write to tell you of another stroke on our congregation. Last week George Jackson, (an elder in Finniston Church for many years) who to the last was always with us in spirit, if not in presence, was laid in the grave; but we did not think that a ...read
Letter
Mr. Robert Young Edinburgh
AFTER MRS. BONAR'S DEATH
GLASGOW, 17th Oct. 1864.
MY DEAR MR. YOUNG,
--This has been an awfully sudden and solemn stroke. All went well till the afternoon of Friday--nothing indeed to startle us till about six o'clock, and in three hours all was over. . . . During the three hours she was at last only half-conscious--no pain at all--but rap ...read
Letter
Mr. Wikinson at the Mildmay Mission to the Jews
GLASGOW, November 8th 1881
MY DEAR MR. WILKINSON,
Last night I was present with Mr. Baron at a most interesting meeting of Jews, fifteen in number, and could at once see that the stagnant waters had been stirred by Mr. Baron's visit. I am very thankful that you have been able to make an impression and a good beginning.
Yours be the blessin ...read
Letter
Mr. William Bonar, his brother
Collace, Tuesday Morning. (probably written about 1845)
MY DEAR WILLIAM,
--Here is a neat plan of Jerusalem and the country round, to which I have added a few names. By means of it you may 'walk about Zion and tell the towers thereof,' just as you do at Morningside to the towers of Edinburgh Castle. As you come up from Bethlehem and go in at ...read
Letter
Mr. William Dickson Edinburgh
Collace, Oct. 6th, 1846.
MY DEAR FRIEND,
--I have this moment got a refreshing word which being a piece of the Bread of Life I may share with you. It is Ruth 1:21: 'The Almighty hath afflicted me.' The word 'Almighty' is John Bunyan's word 'Shaddai,' the 'All-sufficient One.' Now, see, Naomi feels smitten down by His right hand and upheld by ...read
Letter
Mrs. Grant his sister-in-law
ON THE DEATH OF HER HUSBAND, THE REV. WM. GRANT OF CAVERS.
Collace, Oct. 18th, 1853.
MY DEAR JEANIE,
-- 'The heart knoweth its own bitterness.' You have felt this and have experienced how powerless are words, however well-meant and kind, to relieve such affliction as yours. It is only the Lord that can so speak to the heart as to comfort. ...read
Andrew Bonar