Philip D. Monjar lived in the small community of Clintonville from 1829-1851.  Not much is known of his life other than what is written on his tombstone.  As with most tombstones the length of life and name are generally all that is recorded of the one who is buried beneath.  What his life entailed for the brief 22 years he lived has been long forgotten after those who knew him passed as well. 

His tombstone is badly worn from the 160+ years since his burial.  A few years more and even his name will be eroded away as well. So what purpose did his life serve and what difference did his life make both in his generation and in future generations, especially since he died so young?   We don’t know how he died.  Was it due to a plague or illness or was he killed by another either by accident or deliberately, we don’t know.  Since he passed before the Civil War, it was not due to that war. 

I don’t know the impact this young man had while living nor the witness the words of this hymn made on those who have read them on his tombstone since, but I do know they impacted me when discovered them during a workday a couple of years ago when a group of us were volunteering repairing and remounting tombstones in our local cemetery that had fallen over or broken off.  This particular tombstone had broken off and needed cemented back in place.  I decided to research and discover where these words came from.   I discovered they were from a Charles Wesley hymn written by him in 1742 and inspired by Psalm 51:10 “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”

• Verse 1; “ O for a heart to praise my God, a heart from sin set free, a heart that always feels thy blood so freely shed for me.”
• Verse 2: “ A heart resigned, submissive, meek, my great Redeemer’s throne, where only Christ is heard to speak, where Jesus reigns alone.”
• Verse 3: “A humble, lowly, contrite heart, believing, true, and clean, which neither life nor death can part from Christ dwells within.”
• Verse 4: “A heart in every thought renewed and full of love divine, perfect and right and pure and good, a copy, Lord, of thine.”
• Verse 5: “Thy nature, gracious Lord, impart; come quickly from above; write thy new name upon my heart, thy new, best name of Love.”

The above hymn is an old Charles Wesley hymn written by him in 1742.  John Wesley founded the Wesley revival movement and Methodist Christian Denomination.  Wesley worked tirelessly traveling over 4000 miles/year on horseback and giving over 40,000 sermons in his lifetime sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the colonies of early America.  His brother, Charles wrote over 6000 hymns during his lifetime of this being one.    Together they became a team spreading the Gospel and stirring revival and new church plants all through the colonies, including the one in Clintonville.  The church in Clintonville started as a log building, which was replaced with a wood frame building after a band of renegade Indians destroyed the log structure with fire.

As I discovered this hymn of Charles Wesley “O for a Heart to Praise My God” and read the other verses of this hymn in addition to the first verse recorded on this tombstone,  I began to realize either this young man but certainly his parents / family had a deep love and faith for Christ.  Hardship and tragedy did not make them bitter or discouraged but sparked a high flame of confident hope that one day they would see their dead son again. 

I have been an active member of the same United Methodist Church that young man and family likely belonged to.  The same family and church that must have sung this hymn often and were blessed by. 

Here is some history to help visualize and understand that time:

1784 John Wesley organized the Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore, Maryland. 1795 A peace treaty was signed with local Indians, which allowed Venango County, in which Clintonville was to located, to be surveyed and then settled. 1796 The first settlers came in Venango County, including Clintonville area. 1804 First itinerant pastor came to mission at Clintonville. 1820 Clintonville first charter congregation of the Methodist Church in Venango County. 1828 First church building was built on the northern end of 2 acres of land donated from the Hoffman family farm, which was on the southern end of town. The church encountered growth and revival but log church building was burnt by a band of renegade Indians in 1852. 1853 New larger frame structure was built a few feet away on south end of 2 acre parcel of land. The picture shown is of this structure shortly after dedicated. 1892 A great revival was experienced for 4 month with attendance so great the floor of the church began to sag and church could not hold the seekers. 1894 A new larger stone church was built in the town of Clintonville next to parsonage structure, and frame structure was dismantled. The church property at south end of town then continued to be used as the cemetery for church and community. Pastor helped local men in building of stone church, which is 54ft x66ft with 2 ft. thick walls. 1897 Church parsonage encountered a fire and was completely destroyed. Parsonage was located next to church, so church windows of church were covered to protect them from heat of fire. Parsonage was rebuilt in 1898, which survives, along with church to present. 1920 Church continued to grow in numbers with many revivals experienced. 1930-1950 Church continued to grow in salvations and members, including active youth programs.

Also notice Philip Monjar died before the log church he worshipped in was burnt and replaced by the frame structure and long before it was replace again by a larger church.

Below are pictures of that wood church structure located next to the cemetery at the southern outskirts of the town of Clintonville.  You can see a large congregation gathered in front of this church.  Below it is the stone structure that replaced it built in 1894 in the same town.  The congregation continued to grow during the early 1900’s.  My great-grandparents would have been involved with building of the stone church structure and deeply involved in church and worship and ministry.  My grandparents and parents attended that church and were also deeply involved in that church all their lives and I too from my birth to present.  Unfortunately, the congregation size is not nearly as large today as it was in Philip’s time or in my great grandparents or parents time or even in my youth.  But it also means each generation must come to Christ and decide to follow Him and serve Him for themselves and cannot inherit that privilege from their parents or grandparents. We pray God’s anointing and revival will return and many will revive with those in the church and many will come to Christ, as was in past generations.  We know God is ready when we are ready to receive.

Such a rich heritage.  The impact from my parents on back over the years is evident in my life and now my children’s lives and grandchildren.  But what we do for Christ and unique ways each of us is called does and will have an eternal impact long after we are gone.  It may be something we said or wrote or done that will have significance.   It may be an act of kindness or charity during a crisis in someone’s life.  It may be a hand of help as someone is shoveling their snow or working.  It may be a word of encouragement as stop to visit with someone at the local store or post office.  It may be something unexpected like the blog this post will be placed in that grew from a monthly devotional journal our daughter encouraged me to start. 

Clintonville Methodist Church as was in 1850s

Present Clintonville Methodist Church as looked in 1894

Clintonville Methodist Church as it looks today

Clintonville Methodist Church Congregation 1939

HOW DOES THIS STORY RELATE AND APPLY TO YOU?

What can we all learn and what does God want to show us all with this bit of personal history? The pictures and this history may have special significance if you grew up in Clintonville or have family that did. For others reading this, I encourage you to reflect on your own history and family and church and rediscover the rich heritage and legacy God has given you. The brief history I just shared, though incomplete, does show the impact and significance God places on each of our lives and the rich legacy and heritage of faith we each have even though we at best know a little part of that history. I so believe we will discover that amazing history and meet each ancestor who was a part of that legacy of faith. Even those like Philip Monjar who’s legacy continued long after his death through a hymn’s verse engraved into his tombstone. You and I have no idea what God’s path will lead to or the impact an insignificant action may have in the life of someone else or on our own lives. We can look at scripture and see countless examples to confirm this to be true. God, for some reason, seems to prefer using the least likely. The weak and least confident and even least gifted and even least prepared or able to do historic things. What God does look for and require is a one who’s heart and soul will “praise my God, a heart from sin set free, a heart that always feels thy blood so freely shed for me. A heart resigned, submissive, meek, my great Redeemer’s throne, where only Christ is heard to speak, where Jesus reigns alone. A humble, lowly, contrite heart, believing, true, and clean, which neither life nor death can part from Christ dwells within. A heart in every thought renewed and full of love divine, perfect and right and pure and good, a copy, Lord, of thine”. A heart that seeks God’s nature, seeking His Holy Spirit to come quickly from above and write His name upon their heart, the name of Love. Someday, you and I will have opportunity to meet all those before us who left a legacy that positively impacted us and guided us to Christ’s redemption. Someday we will see how God wisely and skillfully orchestrated His plan. We will see then how we fit into that plan and the impact our lives made in the lives of others. Oh what rejoicing that will be and what praise and worship we will be give our Lord for what He has done. I can’t wait. How about you? God’s love is eternal and available to everyone in every time and every place. All we need to do is look around and open our hearts to receive that love. The impact will change us but also will change those whose path we cross too. AMEN!!

BLOG: https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com/ FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/Don1951 EMAIL: dmcdaniel12@zoominternet.net

ADDENDUM: Below are some personal family pictures. Pictures of my great grandparents in front of their home, for 49 years, which later became my parent’s home, for 44 years, and now has been our home for past 34 years. My mother, who passed at age 92 in 2007 and my aunt who passed at age 100 in 2016 are shown also. These pictures would have been taken in 1921. In the pictures above you can see my parents in the 1939 congregation picture. The home my great grandparents and parents called home and we have call home was built in 1864. The brick building in the background of the picture of my mother and aunt as children was built in 1855 as the Clintonville School and served as school until 1914 when a frame school was built in location that is now a community clinic. That frame school later was abandoned for a larger community school built a few miles away. The frame school burnt in 1960 but the old brick school in the background still stands and serves as a duplex apartment.

That is my heritage and the legacy than impacted me. A legacy of family ancestors of faithful Christians before me who gave me an example and heritage to follow. As I read their letters and devotional books and their bibles and look at their pictures and read community history, their heritage become more real to me and motivation to follow Christ, as they did, becomes even stronger. Doing so also motivates me to be the example that my children and grandchildren want to follow as well. Christ desires for us all to follow His example and receive the precious give of salvation and redemption past generations have received and enjoyed. Someday we will learn the impact those before us have had on us first hand from them as well as from Christ who planned that impact on our lives. Buildings come and go but God remains and is consistent. Pictures of and reminders of a time long ago shows us God’s faithfulness both then and now.

Don McDaniel

Pictures of Rubin & Nancy Irwin at their (now our ) home at 200 Church Street in Clintonville. Also two of their grandchildren, Helen Kellerman and her sister (Hazel McDaniel – my mother) with Clintonville brick school in background, which was converted into 2 apartments around 1917. These pictures are dated around 1920.

This is our home, on left, today. The same house my parents and her grandparents before her. The same house in above picture when my mother was a young girl. Also notice the brick duplex on right which is in background of picture of my mother as a young girl in above picture