Testimony of Healing December 6, 1924 Issue

The overcoming of smoking, or the tobacco habit, is one...

Howard C. McCann

The overcoming of smoking, or the tobacco habit, is one of the many healing effects I have had from Christian Science. The problem seemed long in being worked out; but I learned to work for myself, and this brought a wonderful harvest.

As a boy I accepted the impression that all men used tobacco, and that one was a man as soon as he could use it. This false idea, coupled with a supposed inherited desire for it, did not work for my advantage. I started using tobacco when very young, and continued for many years. One day I decided to stop, and did so by the use of so-called willpower; but at the end of the year I again yielded to the desire, which had not left me. Later I came into Christian Science, and as the truth dawned on me, the desire for freedom from the tobacco habit was again aroused in me by reading Mrs. Eddy's statement in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 454), "The use of tobacco or intoxicating drinks is not in harmony with Christian Science." Wishing to indulge in nothing that was not "in harmony with Christian Science," I stopped smoking again, yet still had the desire to smoke. After three months I began to lose hope of ever really overcoming the habit. I however worked and studied the best I knew how, and did not smoke. I gained new hope one day by reading an article in an old Journal. This article showed me that in Christian Science when a healing has taken place or a problem has been met, the evil physical sense testimony has disappeared. Thus I knew that the desire must be overcome.

In studying for further light, I was gradually but surely shown that I had been believing in "gods many" (powers many); for I had been believing that my so-called will-power was a real power. I had thought it wonderful to have will-power and to be able to do anything one willed. Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health (p. 144): "Human will-power is not Science. Human will belongs to the so-called material senses, and its use is to be condemned." It was just such words as these that awakened me to the realization that I should have to give up that which I had thought so wonderful, which I had cherished and prided myself on, but which I now realized was not real. I should have to give up my belief in it if I hoped to progress in Science. As I began to realize the wonderful blessings already received from the understanding of the truth, I gradually grasped the fact that there is only one God, one power, and so lost, in proportion, the belief of other powers as well as the desire for tobacco, until the belief and desire were entirely overcome. By putting all beliefs in other powers aside and knowing there is but one power, which is God, we are putting Christian Science into practice.

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