Clements’ fam­i­ly em­i­grat­ed to Amer­i­ca in 1870, set­tling in Lib­er­ty, New York. John Cle­ments came to Christ in 1886 at serv­ic­es held by Dwight L. Moo­dy at the First Bap­tist Church on Che­nan­go Street, Bing­ham­ton New York. Moo­dy’s song lead­er, Dan­iel Town­er, wrote the mu­sic for Cle­ments’ first hymn, Man the Life-Boat. Cle­ments went on to write more than 5,000 hymns, and be­came the first pres­i­dent of the Prac­ti­cal Bi­ble Train­ing School in Les­ter­shire (now John­son Ci­ty), New York, a po­si­tion he held 17 years. His works in­clude:

• Best Endeavor Hymns (joint ed­it­or with I. All­en Sank­ey) (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: The Big­low & Main Co., cir­ca 1907)

Hymns

1. If Thou Shalt Confess
2. Jesus Leads
3. Man the Life-Boat
4. Lord, Send Us Forth
5. No Night There
6. Service Is Our Watchword
7. Somebody Did a Golden Deed