When Christian Science was first brought to my attention about eighteen years ago I was a slave to tobacco, having used it constantly since childhood. As I grew older I began to realize that there was nothing beneficial in the use of tobacco, for I saw that it was becoming injurious to my health and detrimental to my social respect. I tried earnestly many times to overcome the habit, but it seemed that the more I battled against it the more firmly it claimed to be a necessary part of me.
Some months after being told about Christian Science by a friend with whom I was working, I attended a Wednesday evening testimony meeting in one of the branch Churches of Christ, Scientist. At this meeting a gentleman testified that he had been healed of the tobacco habit through the study and application of Christian Science. I shall never forget the ray of hope that came into my consciousness. I began earnestly to ponder his statements and to wonder if I really had found something that could free me from this habit. I remember wondering at that time if it could be possible that a time would come when I could publicly express gratitude for a healing of this habit. That time has come, and I am profoundly grateful to God for this great healing truth which has been given to the world through the discovering and founding of Christian Science. A complete healing has been accomplished, and there has never been the slightest desire for the use of tobacco since.
The healing was not instantaneous, and there were periods of discouragement to be mastered; but how grateful I am for every advancing step I was compelled to take, and for the patient, loving help and support of the practitioners who helped me. As the great spiritual truths about the perfect, all-loving God and man, His perfect image and likeness, began to dawn in my consciousness, I began to realize what David meant when he said, "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." I saw that if man truly is the likeness of God, for that very reason he is, has been, and always must be satisfied, and that in proportion as I awakened to this fact shall I be satisfied.
