CMP Review 2025-05-18

“Although it is a blessed thing to be a Christian, it is not easy,” writes J. R. Dummelow. “The Christian journeys along the narrow way of self-denial discipline and mortification, perhaps of contempt and persecution, but the end of it is life.”

These words would have been read by Charlotte Mason’s students, according to her own account on p. 164 of An Essay Towards a Philosophy of Education: “When pupils are of an age to be in Forms V and VI (from 15 to 18) we find that Dummelow’s One Volume Bible Commentary is of great service… I need only say we find it of very great practical value.”

Writing in 1913, House of Education student Eleanor M. Frost concisely described a lesson as follows:

… the pupils would read the story in The Gospel History, then compare the accounts of this miracle in St. Matthew, St. Mark, and St. Luke, using the Notes in [Dummelow’s] The One Volume Commentary, next they would read the corresponding poem in Volume II. of The Saviour of the World.

Each week the Charlotte Mason Poetry team gathers these materials together to facilitate the exact kind of study Miss Frost describes. Today’s poem is about the narrow way. Find the story in The Gospel History, the commentary from Dummelow, and the poem by Miss Mason all in one place — including a recording of the poem by @antonella.f.greco. It’s at this link.

@artmiddlekauff

🖼️: To Pass Through The Narrow Gate by Jan Luyken