I was influenced to become interested in Christian Science by "the silent lesson of a good example" (Miscellaneous Writings, p.126). Through the good works of one who was endeavoring to live the truth, together with an article in a magazine which spoke well of the Christian Science movement, the conviction began to dawn upon me that Christian Science was a thing of sanity and common sense, my previous beliefs to the contrary notwithstanding. That conviction has become more fixed as time has passed, and proof after proof has accumulated.
At the time of becoming interested in Christian Science I was an inveterate smoker, having been addicted to the use of tobacco for about twelve years. Several months after attending my first Christian Science lecture, during which time I read the literature and attended church, a great desire to be rid of the tobacco habit came upon me; so I called a practitioner for help. Treatment was continued for one week; but I now believe that the healing came with the first treatment. The appetite left me completely, and there were absolutely no harmful or unpleasant after effects. The change did not come through the exercise of human will; but, instead, the native purity of God's spiritual man was simply seen as forever established by His divine will, thus wiping out false desire. As far as the taste for tobacco was concerned, I became as a child who never had known it. The beneficial effects of that first healing increase as the years go on, and the Science of it becomes more and more apparent. I have also been healed of profanity and other sinful practices.
Studying Christian Science and endeavoring to practice it have been the means of dissipating moroseness and despondency. The light of divine Love has made me less critical and more charitable. This change in thought resulted in the healing of a painful crack in my lower lip, which appeared every winter. I had been told by a friend who had gone through the same kind of experience that this condition would never be healed except by surgical means. I have been healed of colds, sore throat, and fevers. Catarrh, said to have been inherited, had left me susceptible to catching cold. I was apt to share in this "popular influenza," as our Leader terms it (Miscellaneous Writings, p.239) in winter or summer. Frequently it was very severe and of long duration. But now the power of those so-called physical laws has been broken, and the experience of catching cold has become a very infrequent one. I have also been healed of the constant feeling of lack and the fear of poverty.
