One Line of the Bible is Worth More Than All the Learning of Men
Hugh Binning (1627–1653) was a man who lived and died by the Bible. He was a philosopher, a theologian, and a faithful pastor. He was born in Scotland during the reign of Charles I and died in 1653 during the time of Oliver Cromwell. Binning was a remarkable man who pointed many to Christ and still speaks through his works.
We read about Hugh Binning’s life in James Cochrane’s biography in The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning:
[Hugh Binning] died when he was scarce come to the prime and vigour of life, entering on the twenty-sixth year of his age, leaving behind him a sweet savour after he was gone, and an epistle of commendation upon the hearts of his hearers. While he lived, he was highly valued and esteemed, having been a successful instrument of saving himself and them that heard him, of turning sinners unto righteousness, and of perfecting the saints; and died much lamented by all good people who had the opportunity and advantage of knowing him. He was a person of singular piety, of a humble, meek, and peaceable temper, a judicious and lively preacher; nay, so extraordinary a person, that he was justly accounted a prodigy for his natural gifts, and his great proficiency in human learning, and knowledge of divinity. He was too shining a light to shine long, and burned so intensely that he was soon put out; but now shines in the kingdom of his Father in a more conspicuous and refulgent manner, even as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars for ever and ever.
Mr. Hugh Binning, was a man of very great piety and eminent learning. I heard old Mr. Simpson say, that when they were seeking to get old Principal Strang out of the college, the Principal said, ‘ye are seeking to get me out of my place, and whom have ye to fill my room ? I know no one, unless it be a young man newly come out of the school, viz. Mr. Hugh Binning.’ He was truly more fitted for an university than for a country congregation. He followed much Mr. Leighton's way of preaching, which made him less useful to the common people of Govan. Mr. R. Muir of Kilbride told me that Mr. Ralph Rodger told him, that Mr. H. Binning, at his death, did very much regret to him his taking such a way of preaching, and said, if he had lived, he was resolved to have followed that way of preaching by doctrines, reasons, and uses, which he declared he was then best pleased with. Speaking of human learning, and if he had lived, it is thought that he had been one of the greatest schoolmen of his time, he said, he did value more one line of the Word of God than all the human learning in the world.
As a preacher. Binning was certainly greatly in advance of the age at which he lived. We find in him a clearness and force of argument, an elegance of expression, and a richness and felicity of illustration, much more akin to the polished oratory of modern times, than to the homely expositions of those early days. But it is not merely for the graces of style, or even the closeness and power of reasoning, that his works are commended to the notice of every Christian reader. His skill in describing the great malady under which human nature has sunk, and in applying the great remedy provided in the gospel; his felicitous and affecting manner of unfolding the most precious evangelical truths; and his tender and pathetic appeals, cannot fail to interest and impress every mind. He instructed and edified the age in which he lived; and his works have continued to be read and deeply relished ever since. “There is no speaking,” says Durham, “after Mr. Binning; truly he had the tongue of the learned, and knew how to speak a word in season.”