Victories Over Bad Habits, Tobacco, Opium, Etc.
The Rev. W.H. Boole, a city missionary in New York City, has been
witness in his ministries, of many cases of complete deliverance from
bad habits, and appetites, solely by believing prayer. Many are
contained in a little tract written by him, "The Wonder of Grace." He
gives a few of these incidents:
"One is an officer in a church in New York, who had used tobacco for
forty years, making during that time
any efforts to abandon the
practice, but always failing because of the resultant inward growing.
But he was brought to an act of specific faith in Jesus, to save him
from the appetite, and now, after several years, he testifies, 'From
that hour all desire left me, and I have ever since hated, what I once
so fondly loved.'"
"Another is of a prominent church member in Brooklyn, N.Y., who had used
tobacco for thirty years, and could not endure to be without a cigar in
his mouth, and sometimes even rose and smoked in the night; after many
failures to overcome the habit, one night when alone, he cast himself on
his Savior for just this victory; and from that hour was delivered from
the desire as well as from the outward act, and now wonders that he ever
loved the filthy practice."
"A certain old lady, who lived near Westbrook, Conn., aged seventy, was
a confirmed opium eater, and used daily, an amount sufficient to kill
twenty persons. She was led to see that the habit was a _sin_; and as
such, she abandoned it, with specific application to Christ to save her
from it. She was heard, and lived for two years afterward, free from any
desire for that drug."
"A similar case was that of a carpenter, in Brooklyn, N.Y., who, from
taking morphine to allay the pain of a fractured leg, fell into its
habitual use, till he almost lived upon it for several years after his
recovery. He once swallowed, in the presence of several physicians, a
dose which it was calculated would destroy the lives of two hundred
ordinary men. Not long since, he was made to look at this as a sin, and
tried to break off the habit, abstaining, with an alarming reaction,
till five physicians declared that death would ensue, if he did not
resume it. This he did for a year; but then on a certain Sunday evening,
broke off again, casting himself by faith on Christ, from which moment
the desire left him, and has never returned, and he has experienced no
reaction or other ill effect, but has greatly improved in health."