Day 55 Crux

Image By Till Credner

 (see also Adorable Person,  Born Person,  Continual Converse)


“The present-day crux is, that naturalistic philosophy being in the ascendant, and the things of our religion being altogether idealistic, many noble natures are in revolt, feeling that they cannot honestly accept as truth that which is opposed to human reason. Others, to whom their religious faith is the first thing, but who are yet in touch with the thought and discovery of the day, affect an only half honest compromise with themselves, and say that there are certain questions which they will not examine; matters secular alone being open to searching scrutiny. Now, it is not, as we so often hear, that the times are out of joint, that Christianity is effete, that there is any inherent antagonism between the facts of natural and the facts of spiritual life. It is our own philosophy which needs to be adjusted. We have somehow managed to get life out of focus; we have begun with false initial ideas, and have taken the logical inferences from these for essential truth. We have not perceived that the concern of the reasoning powers is not with moral or spiritual truth, or even with what we call facts, but is, simply, with the logical inferences from any premises whatever accepted by the mind.”

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“Can Character be Changed?––Everything turns on the condition the originator (General Booth of the Salvation Army) wisely puts first. There is the crux.”
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“The Idea that 'Strikes' Us ––The crux of the situation is: how can an emanation so purely spiritual as an idea make an impression upon even the most delicate material substance? We do not know. We have some little demonstration that it is so in the fact of the score of reflex actions by which we visibly respond to an idea that 'strikes' us. The eye brightens, the pulse quickens, the colour rises, the whole person becomes vitalised, capable, strenuous, no longer weighed down by this clog of flesh. Every habit we have formed has had its initial idea, and every idea we receive is able to initiate a habit of thought and of action. Every human being has the power of communicating notions to other human beings; and, after he is dead, this power survives him in the work he has done and the words he has said. How illimitable is life! That the divine Spirit has like intimate power of corresponding with the human spirit, needs not to be urged, once we recognise ourselves as spiritual beings at all.”

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“The child as a person will be the very crux for our crusade.”

 
Examen: What are the initial ideas Mason is asking me to accept?  How do these ideas affect the classroom?

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The present-day crux: Charlotte M. Mason, Parents and Children, 2:130.
Can Character be Changed?: 2:153.
The Idea that “Strikes” Us: Charlotte M. Mason, 3:70–71.
The child as: Cholmondley, The Story of Charlotte Mason, 109.

Day 55 Crux meditation/100 Days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025

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