“Yet there is room”: the Lamb’s bright hall of song,
With its fair glory, beckons thee along;
Room, room, still room! O enter, enter now.
Day is declining, and the sun is low;
The shadows lengthen, light makes haste to go;
Room, room, still room! O enter, enter now.
The bridal hall is filling for the feast;
Pass in, pass in, and be the Bridegroom’s guest;
Room, room, still room! O enter, enter now.
It fills, it fills, that hall of jubilee!
Make haste, make haste; ’tis not too full for thee;
Room, room, still room! O enter, enter now.
O enter in; that banquet is for thee;
That cup of everlasting joy is free;
Room, room, still room! O enter, enter now.
All heaven is there, all joy! Go in, go in;
The angels beckon thee the prize to win:
Room, room, still room! O enter, enter now.
Louder and sweeter sounds the loving call;
Come, lingerer, come; enter that festal hall;
Room, room, still room! O enter, enter now.
Ere night that gate may close, and seal thy doom;
Then the last low, long cry, “No room, no room!”
No room, no room! O woeful cry, “No room!”
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The son of James Bonar, Solicitor of Excise for Scotland, he was born and educated in Edinburgh. He comes from a long line of ministers who have served a total of 364 years in the Church of Scotland. One of eleven children, his brothers John James and Andrew Alexander were also ministers of the Free Church of Scotland. He had married Jane Catherine Lundie in 1843 and five of their young children died in succession. Towards the end of their lives, one of their surviving daughters was left a widow with five small children and she returned to live with her parents. Bonar's wife, Jane, died in 1876. He is buried in the Canongate Kirkyard.
In 1853 Bonar earned the Doctor of Divinity degree at the University of Aberdeen.
He entered the Ministry of the Church of Scotland. At first he was put in charge of mission work at St. John's parish in Leith and settled at Kelso. He joined the Free Church at the time of the Disruption of 1843, and in 1867 was moved to Edinburgh to take over the Chalmers Memorial Church (named after his teacher at college, Dr. Thomas Chalmers). In 1883, he was elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland.