Article November 30, 1940 Issue

Receiving a Higher Selfhood

ETHEL COLWELL SMITH

The story is told of Michelangelo, the sculptor, that he addressed a poem to a block of marble on which he was about to begin work. Pondering the possibilities within the stone, together with his own responsibility, he said something like this: "Within you there is both beauty and ugliness. Which comes out depends upon me."

If one regards each day as a block of marble, he may see in it the unfoldment of good which will enrich himself and the world. The choice lies within himself, for there will be experiences of many kinds to be dealt with by him. There will be the opportunity to speak pleasant words, or words that hurt; the opportunity to praise or to blame, to make someone happy or unhappy, to lift up or to pull down. There will be encounters which may leave thought either sweet or bitter. Continual choosing of good sustains and enriches, broadening, healing, and beautifying the world as did the masterpieces the great sculptor carved.

Mrs. Eddy shows the way to choose good where she says (Unity of Good, p. 6), "Sooner or later the whole human race will learn that, in proportion as the spotless selfhood of God is understood, human nature will be renovated, and man will receive a higher selfhood, derived from God, and the redemption of mortals from sin, sickness, and death be established on everlasting foundations."

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