For a number of years I drank alcohol and smoked cigarettes. Then, because of my relatives' concern, I began studying the Bible and Science and Health. These books gave me a much clearer picture of my spiritual identity and its reality in my life. I learned that God knows all that is good, that He is infinite Mind, and that I am made in His likeness.
As a result, my thinking began to change. I came to understand my relationship to God much better than I had before. I learned new concepts: for instance, that I am spiritual, a complete and satisfied expression of Soul. I was expecting alcohol and cigarettes to satisfy me, but they didn't. Now, as I was learning more and more about the ultimate unreality of matter, I realized they never could. We think material things like alcohol and cigarettes can take care of our needs, but matter is powerless to provide any real satisfaction.
Of course it is one thing to say this, and another actually to prove it. But I really wanted to stop drinking and smoking. I silently prayed to let Christ, God's true idea of me, destroy anything in me that was not Godlike. I'd sing Hymn 298 from the Christian Science Hymnal and would get a lot inspiration from it. One stanza reads:
