When the subject of Christian Science became of frequent discussion in my home, I was experiencing some discomfort, said to be due to the excessive use of tobacco. I therefore decided to see if Christian Science could do anything for me. My use of tobacco had increased to the point where I was practically a continuous smoker except while asleep or at the table; and as I kept rather long hours, my consumption of tobacco was decidedly large.
I asked a practitioner to take up the case for me, but for two or three days, did not notice that any change had taken or was taking place. My first hint that the liking for tobacco was leaving me came one evening a few days after the practitioner had taken charge of the case, when I noticed there was something decidedly inferior in the flavor of a supposedly high quality cigar I was smoking. The next morning about ten o'clock I suddenly realized that I had not had a smoke that day—in strong contrast to my accustomed habit of beginning to smoke as soon as I rose in the morning. I hastened to rectify the oversight; and then made still more haste to abandon the rectification. When I lighted a cigar, I found the smoke fully as offensive to me as, I am sure, it could possibly be to an individual who had never before used tobacco. The liking for tobacco, the desire to use it, had been entirely wiped out of consciousness, so far as I was concerned; and I have never since that date had the slightest inclination to return to it.
Since being healed of the tobacco habit, I have had many other occasions for gratitude for the healing power of Christian Science in destroying many forms of discord. Business difficulties, discord in relations with other people, fears, and many instances of physical ailment of greater or less seeming seriousness have been overcome through reliance only on the ever available power of a demonstrable knowledge of Christian Science to restore harmonious conditions. For the most part, help has come through the work of practitioners, as when acute discord presents itself the desire for early restoration of harmony is liable to outweigh our desire to test the sufficiency of our own understanding to meet the case.
In my immediate family I have also seen many instances of the healing power of Truth. Instances of physical ailments, ranging from a congenital bowel complaint to an abscess which had caused suffering for many months; an advanced case of eye trouble, which reputable oculists stated would result in total blindness within a few weeks; severe burns; ptomaine poisoning; and a well-defined manifestation of angina pectoris,—all have been met and healed in the experience of near relatives.
To sum up, my experience and observation convince me conclusively that Mrs. Eddy's discovery of Christian Science, as fully and clearly stated in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," has brought to mankind the demonstrable power of God, wherewith to combat every phase of evil or discord that can enter human experience; and I feel a debt of eternal gratitude to our beloved Leader for the benefits her discovery has brought to me and mine.— Port Arthur, Texas.
