HOST: We've been hearing a lot lately about "compulsive" habits. We hear of compulsive gambling and compulsive drinking, and other kinds of compulsive behavior too. A large number of individuals have reached the point where they feel they can't get along without tranquilizers or stimulants, sleeping pills or some other kind of drug. Alcoholism now ranks as the third most serious health problem, while an estimated forty thousand people in the United States alone are considered to be incurably addicted to dope.

Specialists in human behavior have long felt that these enslaving habits are merely symptoms of a more deep-seated condition, such as a profound yearning for something which the individual feels is lacking in his life.

SPEAKER: A military Chaplain said some time ago that his experience with servicemen convinced him that the desire for liquor, tobacco, habit-forming drugs can be traced to spiritual hunger. He said the desire to find satisfaction in material pleasures is but inverted prayer. He told of the joy he had in supplying the spiritual food that the human mind is really calling for. This spiritual food compensates for the feeling of loneliness, the exactions of efficiency, the depleting activities of routine, the imposed dullness and boredom. What these men were actually seeking to fill the void in their lives only God could give them.

HOST: And that brings us to the Bible, doesn't it?

SPEAKER: Yes, it does. In the Bible there are many promises that have to do with satisfaction and true refreshment. For example:

Compulsive or enslaving habits stem from a desire to escape, even for a few moments, from frustration, from deep unhappiness, from a feeling of appalling emptiness in life. This desire to escape—even at tremendous cost—is the underlying cause for turning to drink and drugs and the other things we've been discussing.

HOST: Then just taking away the drug or the alcohol, the pills or the chocolates, is not really enough, is it?

SPEAKER: No, it isn't. The spiritual void must be filled. And we can fill it with what the Bible calls "righteousness"; and that means conformity to the divine and the moral law, and that's wisdom. Unfortunately the word "righteousness" sometimes makes us think of a self-satisfied attitude, an outward appearance of assumed goodness.

But Christian Scientists think of righteousness as right thoughts—true wisdom—a true sense of things. What one needs in order to gain freedom from enslaving habits is a true sense of who he really is, what he is, what his origin and purpose are.

From a purely material standpoint, man appears to be a collection of hidden, conflicting, often uncontrollable impulses. But what does the Bible tell us of man? It tells us that man is made in the image of God. This means the very image of one's heavenly Father! Then man must express Godlike qualities—wisdom, freedom, completeness, dominion. These must be his to utilize, his to exercise. No law of God makes man a slave to harmful appetites. God's law enables one to overcome them. One's reason for being is to bear witness to God's nature. Man's heritage from his heavenly Father is completeness and spiritual satisfaction.

Now, how does one go about claiming an inheritance? He has to identify himself as the beneficiary. So what we have to do is to identify ourselves as we really are—sons of God. We should not assume that we're helpless mortals. This will keep us from our inheritance, and we'll go on lacking control of ourselves. But if we see that as God's man we are indeed His image and likeness, then we receive our divine inheritance of good. Then we find true satisfaction and, with it, self-control.

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 227): "Slavery is not the legitimate state of man. God made man free." And she adds: "Citizens of the world, accept the 'glorious liberty of the children of God,' and be free! This is your divine right."

Would you read us that verified account of a man who proved this?

HOST: I'd be glad to. He says:

"I was left on my own at a very early age. I got mixed up with a bad crowd, and one thing led to another. I knew nothing of God to show me right from wrong. Then I ran away from home. I was arrested and sent to a reform school.

"Later on, I went to Chicago on my own and got into bad company again. That's when I started smoking marijuana. After that I went to Heroin and through the whole list of drugs, to morphine, and to whisky on top of it. For eleven years I struggled through all the tortures of the drug habit.

"Then one day an acquaintance mentioned Christian Science to me. I started reading Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, and a whole new world opened up for me. Little by little I caught some glimpses of the true meaning of God and of man as His spiritual likeness. There was gradual progress, but I slipped backwards many times.

"But one day I went to see a Christian Science practitioner. She could see I really needed help, and she patiently talked to me about God. She explained some of the teachings of Christian Science and how they could help me. She asked me to study the Lesson-Sermons from the Bible and Science and Health [outlined in the Christian Science Quarterly] and to attend church. And I did.

"This practitioner stood by me until I gained my freedom. Sometimes I would talk to her perhaps twice a week or more. I remember I'd be on a spot somewhere waiting all day for narcotics, and I'd call her and say, 'I can't break away.' And she would say, 'Yes, you can.' She told me God would give me the strength I needed. And then she would help me through prayer.

"At first I didn't have any confidence in my ability to do anything constructive about my life. But gradually I began to see myself in my real being as the son of God, and I made the effort to give up the drugs. Each day my moral courage increased, and the truths of Christian Science became clearer to me. Finally, after this faithful practitioner had been helping me a couple of years or so, the desire for drugs left me—left me completely. So did the desire to smoke and drink. I started working at a regular job and began attending night school to improve my education.

"My healing took place over fourteen years ago, and today I'm a free man."