Testimony of Healing February 26, 1949 Issue

Freedom gained from tobacco habit

Ann Marie Soderstrom Matthews

Let me say with the Psalmist (Ps. 107:1, 2): "O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy." Mrs. Eddy writes in her textbook, Science and Health (p. 225): "Whatever enslaves man is opposed to the divine government. Truth makes man free."

For over a period of fifteen years, until about eight years ago, I was in bondage to cigarette smoking. This caused periodic nausea and sick headaches which would confine me to my bed for several days at a time. I was led to secure the help of a Christian Science practitioner, and I prayed that I might be healed of this false appetite, which caused me much suffering, shame, and embarrassment in my home and among my friends, but the healing did not come. I might add that I tried on many occasions to use will power, but to no avail.

We read in the textbook (p. 1), "Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in words and in deeds." I continued to pray for enlightenment, trusting God with my desires, and turned more earnestly to the consecrated study of our Lesson-Sermons as set forth in the Christian Science Quarterly, together with Mrs. Eddy's other writings. I also subscribed for as many of the periodicals as I felt we could afford at that time.

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