Mrs. Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 407), "Puffing the obnoxious fumes of tobacco, or chewing a leaf naturally attractive to no creature except a loathsome worm, is at least disgusting." I am especially grateful to be enabled to tell of my healing, through the operation of Christian Science, of the tobacco habit. Smoking may seem, to those who have never been a slave to it, a habit of minor importance; but to the confirmed user of the weed, as I was for a period extending over forty years, it seemed the one big thing in my life. My joy is therefore great to be able to announce, not only that I was released from this bondage, but that I was released painlessly and without any reaction, craving, or distress.
For several years I had wanted to stop smoking, because I realized it was contrary to the teachings of Christian Science; but with every human effort on my part came only defeat, combined with a severe nervous reaction. A few months before my final healing I made a most strenuous attempt to give it up, but after a week or ten days of suffering I gave up the struggle in despair. When I asked a Christian Science practitioner for help to overcome this habit, I said I should be only too anxious to do everything I could to assist in the work, but that she must not ask me to stop smoking suddenly. To my surprise the practitioner said nothing about it until the conclusion of the interview, when she simply said, "If you feel the desire to smoke, will you please call me immediately, at any hour of the day or night, so that I may help you to overcome any such desire?" With such assurance, interest, and willingness on her part, it seemed that the least I could do would be to make an honest effort. One can hardly imagine my great joy when I realized that I was then and there instantly healed of the obnoxious habit.
My gratitude to Mrs. Eddy is very great, in that she has unfolded to mankind in this age the method of healing practiced by Christ Jesus; and I am also grateful to the practitioner who has made this testimony possible.— New York, N. Y.
