In several instances our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, has used the illustration of a master sculptor to depict graphically the fundamental relationship existing between perfect workmanship and models or ideals. In her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," she writes (p. 248), "We must form perfect models in thought and look at them continually, or we shall never carve them out in grand and noble lives."
If the sculptor would produce a work of beauty and greatness which will endure and inspire, he must choose a model or ideal with as much thought and meticulous care as he will need to put into the execution of his work. The most faithful reproduction, the most painstaking workmanship, will fail to produce a monument of inspiring grandeur if the model is inferior. Again, the finished work to be truly great must be the outward expression of a lofty ideal, appealing to the highest, and lifting aspirations and hopes above earth to spiritual verities.
Our actions, our demeanor, and our inclinations are expressive of our thought models, and they form the mental atmosphere which we exhale. We may think at times that we can indefinitely harbor base inclinations, guard well the secret of hate, and surround with a wall of privacy unwholesome desires and tendencies; but can we? Unless we are awake to these shortcomings, and are struggling earnestly to be healed and purified, such baser models are apt to label us and mar the outward expression.
