Editorial September 4, 1943 Issue

Why Should I Not Smoke?

John Randall Dunn

Have you ever asked this question, you who are taking your first steps in the newly discovered world of spiritual understanding, or you who may have been reading Christian Science literature for some time and still cling to your tobacco? Some men, and, sad to state, some women, take umbrage at Mrs. Eddy's meaningful statement in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 454), "It need not be added that the use of tobacco or intoxicating drinks is not in harmony with Christian Science." Say the objectors, Are there not more important demonstrations to be made, more serious errors to be overcome? Should not the mastering of hate and self-will, of unlovely dispositions, and a thousand other shortcomings, first engage our attention?

Our dear Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, verily endowed with wisdom from on high, answers these questions with a logic that cannot be gainsaid. Speaking of the stupendous task of meeting and overcoming the errors of mortal belief, culminating in death, she writes, "We must begin, however, with the more simple demonstrations of control, and." she adds appositely, "the sooner we begin the better" (ibid., p. 429). Rarely does one expect a child to walk before he has crept, to face up to fractions before a preliminary wrestle with addition and subtraction.

The importance of taking orderly steps in the understanding of Christian metaphysics is illustrated in the experience of a man who sought out a Christian Science practitioner for treatment. He was in considerable bodily distress, and appeared to be greatly in need of aid. Also, he had the appearance of one addicted to the excessive use of tobacco, and his practitioner could not fail to detect the very marked odor of the weed as he sat before her. When he told her his story and asked for treatment in Christian Science, the practitioner said: "I can see that you also need to be freed from the bondage of the tobacco habit. Truth will deliver you from this as well as from your pain." To the Scientist's surprise, she was told by the patient peremptorily to keep hands off his desire for tobacco; that he had come for physical healing alone and did not care to go any farther in the matter. To the patient's amazement, he was quietly informed by the practitioner that she could not, with such stipulations, undertake his case; that Christian Science treatment was the entering of the Christ, Truth, into human consciousness, and must cleanse from sin as well as from sickness.

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