When I was about thirty years of age, a medical man in the West Indies prescribed, as a preventive of fever, that I should smoke whenever it was necessary to travel through swamps by night. Believing him to be a safe guide, I followed his advice. The process was nauseating and attended by serious discomfort, but ultimately this habit, which at first was disgusting, became agreeable, and ere long the passion for tobacco became such a part of me that I could not do without it. Well does our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy, say, "Puffing the obnoxious fumes of tobacco, or chewing a leaf naturally attractive to no animal except a loathsome worm, is at least disgusting" (Science and Health, p. 407). In the book "Top or Bottom, Which?" the author used my case as a terrible example, in the chapter on Tobacco, beginning, "A friend of mine, a man of," etc. This book has been read by hundreds of thousands, and all who have read it should read this testimony, in order to learn that, there is no further reason for referring to my case as an example.
Truthfulness compels me to say that prayer in the old way never brought relief and failed utterly to emancipate me. Earnestly desiring deliverance, I begged my then family doctor to do something, but he failed to help me. I tried a much-advertised remedy, but it was a dismal failure. On reading some cases of healing in my wife's Sentinel, I applied for treatment twice, but I could not discern any benefit. Later I went to another practitioner and asked him to help me. When I left him I bit off the end of a cigar and was puffing away before the elevator reached the landing. It was the third in two hours, but in walking toward the car I thought it did not taste right. A little later it tasted worse, and presently it was thrown into the gutter.
Reaching home, the tempter was in waiting, a fresh box of the special brand of cigars that I had ordered days before. That night they awakened no desire, although cigars which the fastidious crave. I did not smoke but spent a happy evening free from nervousness and irritation. After breakfast next morning I had no desire for tobacco. After dinner, still forgetful of practitioner and treatment, I walked from the table and exclaimed, "Now I intend to try my cigars;" but instantly I was arrested by an invisible power, and standing there I knew I was healed. Turning to my wife. I said, "Please return that box, I shall never smoke again." That was over three years ago. Since then I have traveled in the West Indies, Mexico, and much of Europe (where cigarettes and pipes abound), but the healing was so complete that not only have I never used tobacco, but with very few exceptions have never desired it.
