This book contains two parts. The first is an updated and abriged version of Horatius Bonar's book The Everlasting Righteousness, first published in 1874. Its central theme is the substitutionary work of Jesus Christ. Bonar shows that, in Jesus Christ, God has provided the only way to deal with the problem of our sin. Because Jesus is the perfect substitute, anyone who believes in him receives a legal pardon from God, and the perfect righteousness of Jesus becomes theirs. This truth has enormous consequences for believers, and Bonar explains some of them in this wonderful book.
The second part is an updated version of Regeneration by J. C. Ryle, about the new birth. Ryle addresses what it means to be born again, and what it looks like in the life of a Christian.
Horatius Bonar (19 December, 1808 – 31 May, 1889) was a Scottish churchman and poet.
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.