To be eligible for membership in the Church of Christ, Scientist, applicants are required to conform to certain rules and standards, and among these requirements is abstinence from the use of tobacco. This sometimes poses a serious problem for certain individuals who may be otherwise well qualified.

When the remarks of Mrs. Eddy concerning tobacco are first read by one addicted to its use, the immediate reaction in some cases is extreme disapproval, disappointment, even angry resentment.

One confirmed smoker, who later became a devout adherent of Christian Science, closed Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, convinced that the book had been ruined for him, when he read (p. 407), "Puffing the obnoxious fumes of tobacco, or chewing a leaf naturally attractive to no creature except a loathsome worm, is at least disgusting." Having once seen a tobacco worm, he rebelled at the implication that he shared anything in common with it.

Many in this quandary, earnest in their desire for church affiliation, seek the help of a Christian Science practitioner. Sometimes the healing is quick, but in other instances the struggle may seem severe and protracted. When the latter is the case, error often becomes subtle in its deceptions, claiming to present God's will. For example, someone seeking to be healed of cigarette smoking may tell a practitioner: "I know I could stop through willpower. But does not Christian Science forbid the use of willpower?"

The practitioner will agree that it does, but he may cite this statement by Mrs. Eddy (ibid., p. 206): "The power of the human will should be exercised only in subordination to Truth; else it will misguide the judgment and free the lower propensities. It is the province of spiritual sense to govern man."

The practitioner may proceed to point out the distinction between the unbridled exercise of willpower and divinely guided human effort. The question then resolves itself into whether smoking is permissible under God's government or is simply supine submission to erring human will.

It is plain that to concede that there is power besides God breaks the First Commandment (Ex. 20:3), "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Since submission to the cigarette habit is an admission of the power and attraction of something besides God, it is unquestionably a violation of the divine decree and therefore contrary to God's will.

Thus the human will is found to be that which tempts one to continue smoking, and God's will is the divine influence that causes one to resist smoking. This resistance illustrates human striving exercised "in subordination to Truth," so that being inspired and empowered by Principle, this resistance can never be rightly adjudged as erring human willpower.

In Christian Science the carnal will is seen to be an accentuation of material sensual desire. With its accompanying impurities this will is an illusory reversal of the Godlike qualities which constitute man's native alliance with his Maker. Even the pure and good Christ Jesus had this claim of reversal to contend with. Notwithstanding this, when putting forth a mighty effort, the Master said (Luke 22:42), "Not my will, but thine, be done."

The scientific method of overcoming the corrosive action of the unregenerated human will is typified by this humble petition. The appeal to Spirit reverses mortal mind's seeming inversion of Truth, rebukes the specific error, increases the consciousness and evidence of man's alliance with divinity, and thus restores the harmony which obedience to the divine will always ensures.

One who has glimpsed a little of the beneficent portent of Jesus' words and deeds cannot believe that the Master was impelled by mere human willpower in dealing forcibly with error, as when he drove the merchants out of the temple at Jerusalem and upset the tables of the moneychangers. His words and deeds show the Christian's necessity for decisive action when confronted by evil's aggressive and domineering claims.

Christian Science teaches that one should never temporize with mesmeric compulsions but should dismiss them abruptly, confident of divine support born of the understanding of man's true relationship to the heavenly Father. When one adopts this course, the result will correspond with our Leader's words in "Unity of Good" (p. 17): "Be allied to the deific power, and all that is good will aid your journey, as the stars in their courses fought against Sisera. (Judges v. 20.) Hourly, in Christian Science, man thus weds himself with God, or rather he ratifies a union predestined from all eternity."