Earlier this year, I was traveling back to Melbourne by train after a holiday in New South Wales. I was really looking forward to having some quiet time in order to both rest and get some good prayer and metaphysical studying done, but as I settled into my seat and got out the Christian Science Bible Lesson to read, it looked like the ride was going to be anything but quiet.

A woman entered the train who looked disheveled, and she was yelling profanities at four children who were with her. (I later found out they were her nieces and nephews). This commotion caused quite a stir for all the passengers in the car. All in all, it looked to be a really sad situation, as she was exuding the same behavior for which she was yelling at the children—being disrespectful, with a bad attitude and manners. Most passengers responded by rolling their eyes or looking the other way.

After my initial response of feeling really aggravated, not to mention self-righteous, I recognized that the first place I needed to handle the situation was in my own thought. So, I began by thinking about this woman and the children in a loving, Christian manner. I knew that it is everyone’s divine right to feel loved and supported by God. I prayed to behold “the perfect man” as it says in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy (see pp. 476–477).

I also began to pray for an opportunity to reach out to this woman, if and when it was appropriate, because she had her hands full with caring for the kids and looked as if she could use some assistance. A few ideas came to thought about how I might offer to help, though it felt right to keep to myself for the moment. My prayers guided me to recognize that it’s neither normal nor natural for any of God’s children to feel overwhelmed or to act out in anger because we are all the loved of divine Love—created in the image and likeness of God, Love itself—and I could also trust that prayer was helping to support a wholesome environment on the train. I didn’t have to accept obnoxious, rude, or unloving behavior as attached to or normal for anyone.

The first line of Mary Baker Eddy’s spiritual sense of the Lord’s Prayer was so helpful to me right then: “Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious” (Science and Health, p. 16). I knew that harmony was present, even amidst the discord and disruption. I worked to uphold in my thought the true, spiritual model of children as innocent, pure, joyful, receptive, obedient, and free. And, I also felt God guiding me to specifically address in prayer the concept of oppression, as this woman was an aboriginal—people whose ancestors were indigenous to the Australian continent and have experienced much oppression over the years. So I mentally asserted that we are all so worthy and valued in God’s eyes, and enjoyed affirming an idea from Mrs. Eddy’s writings, “It does not follow that power must mature into oppression; indeed, right is the only real potency; and the only true ambition is to serve God and to help the race” (Message to The Mother Church for 1902, p. 3).

Yet despite these efforts, I sensed I was mostly just praying for the bad behavior to stop so I could get back to my plans with the Bible Lesson.

The chaos continued. As the woman chased one of her nieces into another car, again screaming profanities and yelling a racist remark half-way across the car to a friend of hers, a power not my own “kicked in” and I heard firmly, “That’s it!”

I was humbled to be reminded exactly who was doing the unifying.

At this point, I recognized that all the out-of-control behavior was not personal. It was simply an obnoxious display of what Mary Baker Eddy termed in her writings, animal magnetism. Put quite simply, animal magnetism is evil, or the belief in a power that attempts to mesmerize and draw our attention away from God’s goodness. Mrs. Eddy wrote this of animal magnetism, “The mild forms of animal magnetism are disappearing, and its aggressive features are coming to the front” (Science and Health, p. 102).

Having prayed a lot about unity during a study abroad to the Middle East, where I witnessed firsthand the division, and even hatred, between some Israelis and Palestinians, the following idea immediately came to thought as a really powerful Christian Science treatment when it came to thinking about our brothers and sisters from all walks of life. It’s from Science and Health, and I’d worked with it before: “One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself;’ annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry,—whatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed” (p. 340).

I was humbled to be reminded exactly who was doing the unifying, constituting, ending, fulfilling, annihilating, equalizing, and annulling. It was God, of course. No limited, human sense of love was going to do that, but divine Love could—and did.

Not five minutes later, after praying with these specific ideas, the chaos dissipated. We were all blessed to enjoy a very peaceful train ride. Plus, my prayers were answered when, at the end of the trip, I saw that this whole family was getting off at my same stop. So, I was able to help them with their luggage and had a really nice time talking to the girls, as well as the woman, their aunt. They were lovely!

The cherry on top was that as I was exiting the train station, what came to me was this angel message, “That was holding ‘crime in check,’ ” which was something I had previously been praying about and wondering what it might look like (see Science and Health, p. 97). All in all, the situation didn’t become violent, as it could have, which was such clear evidence of divine Love being in control.

In the Bible, we learn about two angels: Michael and Gabriel. A week after this train ride, the Bible Lesson included the following, which helped me discover more about what happened on the train as I reached out to God in prayer: “The Old Testament assigns to the angels, God’s divine messages, different offices. Michael’s characteristic is spiritual strength. He leads the hosts of heaven against the power of sin, Satan, and fights the holy wars. Gabriel has the more quiet task of imparting a sense of the ever-presence of ministering Love. These angels deliver us from the depths. Truth and Love come nearer in the hour of woe, when strong faith or spiritual strength wrestles and prevails through the understanding of God” (Science and Health, pp. 566–567).

Both those angels were on the train that day—Gabriel ministering love to that precious family and Michael’s strength to completely shut down the animal magnetism that was trying to perpetuate a chaotic environment. Together, these angels worked to demonstrate the healing power of God, divine Love. While my train ride didn’t go exactly as I’d anticipated, it was better because it was all about Christian Science in action.