Clarence E. Macartney was born at Northwood, Ohio in 1879. He studied at Pomona College, the University of Wisconsin and Princeton Seminary. He was pastor of these downtown churches: the First Presbyterian Church in Paterson, N.J., from 1905 to 1914; Arch Street Church in Philadelphia, from 1914 to 1927, and First Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, from 1927 to 1953.

Macartney served as Moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly in 1924. He died in 1957.

The most difficult field for a minister today is the downtown church, but Macartney excelled in three such churches. What was his secret? Dick Shappard, Vicar of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London, when asked for the secret of his success, replied that such a pulpit calls for three things: a minister with a unique personality, an actor who dramatizes his sermons, and a willingness to advertise in all sorts of winning ways. From a different standpoint we could apply all of these to Macartney.

The secret of his effectiveness was due partly to his personality. He was a Son of the Covenanters with more strength than charm. He had travelled widely and read much. He had made a lifelong study of American history and of homiletics. He published more than fifty books. Yet he would have said that his power was due much more to his message than to his personality. He was a staunch conservative, never afraid to contend for the faith of his fathers.

In a foreword to Macartney's autobiography, The Making of a Minister, Frank Gaebelein says of Macartney's preaching that there was in it a real measure of grandeur. "High seriousness, powerful directness, intensive conviction, mastery of the Scriptures, and knowledge of the human heart marked his sermons. In his imaginative illustrations and in his ability to reach the minds of his listeners, he had few equals."

His preaching was always rooted in the Bible. Two days before he died, Macartney said to his brother who was leaving to preach: "Put all the Bible you can into it."

Macartney's preaching was marked by simplicity -- a single theme is stated, illustrated and applied but it invariably brings his hearers to the heart of the Gospel. He took his stand on the Bible as the only infallible rule of faith and practice. Macartney was an evangelist who could have said as John Wesley often did: "I offered them Christ." He was once told that if he would devote all his time to it he could be the greatest evangelist of the century.

Macartney once observed: "My texts and themes are suggested as a rule by a regular reading of the Scriptures. When a theme or a passage strikes me I file it away in a packet and from time to time make notations and comments. I carefully outline in longhand my sermons and after several drafts, dictate them. All my sermons are fully written. My mornings are devoted to study and any other hours of the day or night I can employ. Many ministers waste their time through the want of a definite plan and the willpower to adhere to such a plan."