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THOMAS BINNEY (1798-1874)

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 949 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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THOMAS BINNEY (1798-1874)  ,
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English Congregationalist divine, was born of Presbyterian parents at Newcastle-on-
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Tyne in 1798, and educated at an ordinary day school . After spending seven years in the employment of a bookseller he entered the theological school at Wymondley, Herts, now incorporated in New College,
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Hampstead . In 1829, after short pastorates at
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Bedford (New Meeting) and
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Newport, Isle of Wight, he accepted a call to the historic Weigh House
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chapel,
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London . Here he became very popular, and it was found necessary to build a much larger chapel on Fish Street Hill, to which the congregation removed in 1834 . An address delivered on the occasion of the laying of the foundation stone was published, with an appendix containing a strong attack on the influence of the Church of England, which gave rise to a long and bitter controversy . Throughout his whole career Binney was a vigorous opponent of the state church principle, but those who simply classified him as a narrow-minded
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political dissenter did him injustice . His liberality of view and breadth of ecclesiastical sympathy entitle him to rank on questions of Nonconformity among the most distinguished of the school of Richard Baxter; and he maintained friendly relations with many of the dignitaries of the Established Church . He continued to discharge the duties of the
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ministry until 1869, when he resigned . In 1845 he paid a visit to
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Canada and the
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United States, and in 1857-1859 to the Australian colonies . The university of Aberdeen conferred the LL.D. degree on him in 1852, and he was twice chairman of the Congregational Union of England and Wales . Binney was the
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pioneer in a much-needed improvement of the forms of service in
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Nonconformist churches, and gave a
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special impulse to congregational psalmody by the publication of a
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book entitled The Service of
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Song in the House (lithe Lord . Of numerous other
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works the best-known is his Is it Possible to Make the Best of Both Worlds? an expansion of a lecture delivered to young men in Exeter Hall, which attained a circulation of 30,000 copies within a
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year of its publication .

He wrote much devotional

verse, including the well-known hymn " Eternal
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Light ! Eternal Light!" His last sermon was preached in November 1873, and after some months of suffering he died on the 24th of
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February 1874 . Dean Stanley assisted at his funeral service in Abney Park cemetery .

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