CMP Review 2024-12-17

December 17, 2024

Charlotte Mason opens Home Education with a beautiful section entitled “The Child’s Estate.” There she quotes William Wordsworth declaring,

trailing clouds of glory do we come

From God, who is our home:

Heaven lies about us in our infancy!

But she omits the latter part of the stanza:

And by the vision splendid
Is on his way attended;

At length the Man perceives it die away
And fade into the light of common day.

In 1918, Mason’s dear friend Francis Lewis cited the whole stanza and asked the poignant question: “If education is the calling out of latent powers, the helping to develop what is already there; why should not ‘the vision splendid’ ‘shine more and more unto the perfect day?’”

In this Advent season we invite you to meditate with Rev. Lewis on God’s glory and His role in education. Does heaven lie about us only in our infancy? Or can a glimpse of heaven always be a part of our homes? Read or hear his challenging and inspiring sermon here.

@artmiddlekauff