Testimony of Healing June 1, 1907 Issue

As it was wholly due to Christian Science that I was...

Calvin L. Carr

As it was wholly due to Christian Science that I was able to overcome the liquor and tobacco habits, I feel that I ought to give this testimony of my experience, hoping that it may be helpful to others who may be struggling under the burden of either of these errors. My parents and grandmother often called me to fill and light their pipes for them when I was but a small boy, and I soon learned to love tobacco, the desire for it increasing as I grew older. At the age of eighteen I joined an orthodox church, but soon fell from grace, for I indulged in a so-called inherited appetite for liquor. Soon after my marriage I became a member of another orthodox church, believing that with this influence I could rise above these habits, for I always wanted to be a useful Christian man. I did begin to rise to a position of usefulness, but the craving for liquor and tobacco soon brought me into disgrace again. I sold my farm and went among strangers, thinking that I could take up church work again and be successful in overcoming these errors. I tried to attain to such a spiritual condition that I might gain my freedom from these temptations and the wretchedness they caused me and my family; but again I fell, and again I moved. The rising, falling, and moving continued for many years, and I became discouraged and reckless morally, and almost a wreck physically. Church work, prayers, doctors, so-called "cures," all failed to heal me. I searched the Scriptures, but failed to find what I needed because I could not understand them. I was told to have more faith in God. but was not taught how to get it. I was told that I must live a better life, but was not taught how to do so. I was told to pray, and I did try, but I did not know how to pray, for I never received the answer I wanted so much. I studied the theories and opinions of men, called theology and other' ologies, but they disagreed and reasoned so differently that their opinions only confused me. I was losing confidence in everything and everybody, for I had discovered that I did not know anything as a certainty, and nothing but discord appeared where-ever I looked.

Thanks be to God for Christian Science! I found in it the spiritual help that I had searched for so diligently in all this experience. As I studied, and began to understand some of the truths it teaches, these habits began to leave me. Soon all appetite either for liquor or tobacco was destroyed, and I have had no desire for them in several years. Christian Science has taught me how to have more faith in God and how to live a better life; also how to come to God with my prayers. These teachings are becoming more and more clear and useful to me, and as I continue to be faithful and loyal to the means provided for our spiritual advancement, I shall continue to rise to higher elevations of thought and become more and more useful to my fellow-men. Christian Science is not mortal man's wisdom, but it is the wisdom of God.—Calvin L. Carr, Toledo, O.

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