There is no knowledge absolutely needful to a man's salvation, except a knowledge of the things which are to be found in the Bible. All the education a man's head can receive will not save his soul from hell, unless he knows the truths of the Bible.
A man may have prodigious learning, and yet never be saved. He may be master of half the languages spoken around the globe. He may be acquainted with the highest and deepest things in heaven and earth. He may have read books till he is like a walking encyclopedia. He may be familiar with the stars of heaven, the birds of the air, the beasts of the earth, and the fishes of the sea. He may be able to speak authoritatively of plants, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows on the wall. He may be able to discourse of all the secrets of the earth. Yet, if he dies ignorant of simple Bible truths, he dies a miserable man.
Chemistry never silenced a guilty conscience. Mathematics never healed a broken heart. All the sciences in the world never smoothed a dying pillow.
All these things are of the earth, earthy, and can never raise a man above the earth's level. They may enable a man to strut and fret his little season here below with a more dignified gait than his fellow mortals; but they can never give him wings, nor enable him to soar towards heaven. Death will make an end of all his attainments, and after death they will do him no good at all.
"For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Rom. 10: 10.