It is with deep gratitude for the discovery and founding of Christian Science by our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, that I give this testimony of the healing of the alcohol, tobacco, and coffee habits.
I was introduced to Christian Science about ten years ago when I was in great financial need. Space does not permit an account of the financial difficulties that were overcome during that period. Although I went through very rough waters for a while, I have never ceased to be grateful for that experience, for when the suggestion of lack comes to me, I say, "It can't frighten me any more!"
At my first reading of the textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, I felt as though the pages were illumined, and I was instantly healed of several ailments which were bothering me. Then I wanted to become a member of a Church of Christ, Scientist, for I knew I had found the true path which leads to God.
However, I drank quite heavily, and when I shopped in the market, I could not pass the beer counter without buying beer. I had such a great desire to be free from this gnawing appetite for alcohol that I resolved that if I must drink, I would also pray at the same time. So whenever I drank, I prayed, and before long I realized that I was no longer buying beer or drinking it. I still had the desire for drink, but I was able to refuse it.
The next step was overcoming the tobacco habit, which had just as much of a hold on me as the alcohol habit, if not more. I had much help from practitioners at different times, and I was able to stop the smoking. Then came my membership in a Church of Christ, Scientist. For this, I was very grateful, and I went to work immediately on every committee to which I was assigned.
For about nine years I did not drink or smoke. Then the suggestion came that having an occasional cocktail before dinner with my husband could not do any harm. Each time I did it, however, I had a great sense of self-condemnation. Occasionally I would take a puff on a cigarette with the same result. All this time I prayed to God for release from false desire. I felt that I must give up my church membership, for I could not go on living a lie. It was heartbreaking to think of severing myself from my church; so I kept on praying, though with apparently little success.
The thought came to me that the darkest hour precedes the dawn, and I said to myself: "This is certainly my darkest hour. Surely dawn will come soon." Another thought that came to me was that God does not leave us helpless, but makes a way for our escape from evil.
Then I remembered a story I had heard about a man who had associated with magicians in India. In one of the experiments performed for him he was confronted with a cement wall. He beat upon it, but it did not budge. Then he remembered that this was a test in magic and that the wall was mental not material; so he closed his eyes and proceeded to walk right through the wall.
I saw that I had been trying to heal material things called depraved appetites, not realizing that I was stamping them deeper in thought by making a reality of them. Then my thought was flooded with the truth that man is immortal, that there never had been a depraved appetite, and that in reality I had never had one. With that realization I was completely healed of the desire for both alcohol and tobacco. The appetite for coffee also vanished.
Every time I have had a healing, it has come through completely separating my sense of my true selfhood from matter. Mrs. Eddy says (Science and Health, p. 475): "Man is not matter; he is not made up of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements. The Scriptures inform us that man is made in the image and likeness of God."— San Fernando, California.
