The letter of the law of God, separated from its spirit, tends to demoralize mortals, and must be corrected by a diviner sense of liberty and light.  The spirit of Truth extinguishes false thinking, feeling, and acting; and falsity must thus decay, ere spiritual sense, affectional consciousness, and genuine goodness become so apparent as to be well understood.

After the supreme advent of Truth in the heart, there comes an overwhelming sense of error’s vacuity, of the blunders which arise from wrong apprehension.  The enlightened heart loathes error, and casts it aside; or else that heart is consciously untrue to the light, faithless to itself and to others, and so sinks into deeper darkness.  Said Jesus:  “If the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” and Shakespeare puts this pious counsel into a father’s mouth:—­

    This above all:  To thine own self be true;
    And it must follow, as the night the day,
    Thou canst not then be false to any man.

A realization of the shifting scenes of human happiness, and of the frailty of mortal anticipations,—­such as first led me to the feet of Christian Science,—­seems to be requisite at every stage of advancement.  Though our first lessons are changed, modified, broadened, yet their core is constantly renewed; as the law of the chord remains unchanged, whether we are dealing with a simple Latour exercise or with the vast Wagner Trilogy.

A general rule is, that my students should not allow their movements to be controlled by other students, even if they are teachers and practitioners of the same blessed faith.  The exception to this rule should be very rare.

The widest power and strongest growth have always been attained by those loyal students who rest on divine Principle for guidance, not on themselves; and who locate permanently in one section, and adhere to the orderly methods herein delineated.

At this period my students should locate in large cities, in order to do the greatest good to the greatest number, and therein abide.  The population of our principal cities is ample to supply many practitioners, teachers, and preachers with work.  This fact interferes in no way with the prosperity of each worker; rather does it represent an accumulation of power on his side which promotes the ease and welfare of the workers.  Their liberated capacities of mind enable Christian Scientists to consummate much good or else evil; therefore their examples either excel or fall short of other religionists; and they must be found dwelling together in harmony, if even they compete with ecclesiastical fellowship and friendship.

It is often asked which revision of Science and Health is the best.  The arrangement of my last revision, in 1890, makes the subject-matter clearer than any previous edition, and it is therefore better adapted to spiritualize thought and elucidate scientific healing and teaching.  It has already been proven that this volume is accomplishing the divine purpose to a remarkable degree.  The wise Christian Scientist will commend students and patients to the teachings of this book, and the healing efficacy thereof, rather than try to centre their interest on himself.