18 September 1879 A.D. Dr. Clarence Macartney Born—Old School
Princetonian & Pastor of 1st Presbyterian, Pittsburg
Myers, David T.
“September 18: Dr. Clarence Edward Noble Macartney.” This
Day in Presbyterian History. 18 Sept
2014. http://www.thisday.pcahistory.org/2014/09/september-18-2/.
Accessed 18 Sept 2014.
September 18: Dr. Clarence Edward Noble Macartney
Even His Name Spoke of
Recognition
Born on this 18th day of September of 1879, Clarence Edward
Noble Macartney had one of those names that made you stop and think. He
grew up in a Covenanter household, with his father, the Rev. John L.
Macartney, being a minister in the Reformed Presbyterian Church
of Northwood, Ohio. As this town was the home of Geneva College, it
was no surprise that his father taught at the new college as a professor
of Natural Science. When the college moved to Beaver Falls,
Pennsylvania, the family moved with it.
But the father was not a well
man. Plagued with a respiratory problem, he and the family moved to
California for the warmer weather. In fact, twice there was a move in that
state, and finally on to Colorado in 1896. There were teaching professions
along the way for the father.
All this moving brought a
series of schools, which did not stop for the young man Clarence during his
collegiate years. They included: the University of Denver, the University of
Wisconsin at Madison, Harvard, and Yale Divinity School. There was
even a stint overseas in several countries. Finally, Clarence McCartney settled
down at Princeton Theological Seminary, where he studied under B.B.
Warfield, Robert Dick Wilson, and Frederick Loetscher.
The Old School Presbyterian
theology called him away from the Covenanter denomination of his father and
into the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Ordained soon after seminary,
he held pastorates in Patterson, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Macartney was no doubt a
conservative in theology. His Old School Presbyterian training at
Princeton Seminary had guaranteed that, along with his Covenanter
background. And he was to preach that famous sermon, “Shall Unbelief Win?” to counter the
Rev. Harry Emerson Fosdick’s sermon earlier, “Shall Fundamentalism Win?”
In its early years, he was a
member of the board of Westminster Theological Seminary. One of his
favorite professors at Princeton was Robert Dick Wilson, who was at Westminster
for one year before death took him. But McCartney was opposed to the
starting of the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Mission as well as
the Constitutional Union’s calls for a new church, if they couldn’t reform the
church from the inside. Eventually, he would resign from the board of
Westminster Seminary and remain inside the Presbyterian U.S.A. church,
even while Machen and others were censured out of the church. He would go
to be with the Lord in 1957.
Words to live by:
It comes down to a simply question. What is the
definition of an apostate church? J. Gresham Machen and others certainly
believed that when nothing is done in the way of church discipline
when essential doctrines of the faith have been denied, as was the case
with the Auburn Affirmation, then that speaks of a visible church being
apostate. Not one single signer of this affirmation was ever brought up on a
charge of heresy. Who were brought up for violation of their ordination vows
were conservatives like Machen, Woodbridge, Woolley, McIntire, and yes even a
David K Myers, among others. Pray for the purity of the church and
your church in particular. Don’t ever be silent when the truths of
God’s Word, the Bible, are being attacked. And stand for the faith once
delivered unto the saints.
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