Of the many blessings that have come to me through the teachings of Christian Science, one which occurred about five years ago stands out as a direct result of prayer.
For some thirty years I had been an incessant smoker. The habit had obtained such a hold on me that for years I had consumed daily from twelve to thirty cigars, and smoked continually all my waking hours. For the last fifteen of those thirty years I had been a student of Christian Science, a regular attendant at the services, and I used no other healing methods. During that time I heard many testimonies of the healing of the tobacco habit. These testimonies were frequently very irritating to me, and on more than one occasion on returning home I made the statement that I could see no wrong in smoking and certainly nothing to stand up and talk about. I knew that it was keeping me from applying for church membership, but I continued to smoke. Although I knew the habit to be selfish, wasteful, and offensive to others, I still clung to it.
Then one day something happened. That afternoon I was in the office of a Christian Science practitioner on an entirely different errand. At the end of our conversation she asked if I had ever had help on the habit of smoking, or ever seriously tried to heal myself of it. I replied that I had done neither. She then asked me if I thought smoking a Christlike habit. I replied that I did not, and there the conversation ended. It apparently had made little impression on me at the time, for before entering the elevator I lighted a fresh cigar and I smoked several more that afternoon and evening.
