When I began reading the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health...

STELLA MARIS YANNI

When I began reading the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, I straightway felt its healing impulse and moral elevation. Grateful for the love I had found expressed in the church and through the Christian Science periodicals, I wanted to feel worthy and deserving of all the good that God was bestowing on me.

But one thing hindered my spiritual advancement—a habit of smoking. I longed for release from this false appetite in order to become more receptive and obedient to divine Truth. I had learned that smoking is not consistent with the teachings of Christian Science. Yet I felt both ashamed and saddened because I thought it would be impossible for me to give up the habit. I had tried before, through human will, and had failed.

One day while I was reading the textbook, a statement of Mrs. Eddy's stood out (p. 22): "Vibrating like a pendulum between sin and the hope of forgiveness,—selfishness and sensuality causing constant retrogression,—our moral progress will be slow." I saw myself as behaving in that manner, swinging between enslavement by matter and attraction to Spirit. Then I decided to cast my moral weight on the side of good and wholeheartedly accept the truths being revealed to me.

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