Speaker: It's a wonderful feeling to know that divine protection and help are available at all times. The Bible says, "He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways." Our guest found freedom from fear and gained security and safety through reliance on God, and we've asked him to tell us about it.

Let me introduce Lester Kohnfelder, of Oakland, California. I know you're going to tell us some of the experiences you had when you were a shipyard worker, but couldn't we go back a little further? I think our listeners would be interested in your healing of that ankle injury.

Mr. Kohnfelder: When I was just a young fellow, I was healed of an injured ankle entirely through reliance on God's power. The injury happened while I was at work, and my employer insisted on a medical examination. So X rays were taken. The doctor said all the ligaments were torn loose. The condition was described to me as worse than a broken ankle, and I was told the ankle would always be weak. But as a result of Christian Science help, the ankle was healed within two days, and just a week after the accident I was able to play tennis. In fact, I've played tennis ever since, and the ankle is strong and normal in every way.

So I've felt confident, in the years since then, in relying on God for help and also for protection. In fact, I've been protected many times. The examples I'd like to tell you about happened during the Second World War when I was a welder in a shipyard. These were simple experiences but recognizable to any shipyard worker.

On one occasion I was working in the hold of a ship, and I went up and down by a wooden ladder tied to a guard rail. While I was gone, the crew untied the ladder to lower some machinery, and when they replaced it, they didn't lash it to the guard rail. When I came back I swung onto the ladder, and the force of my momentum started it over backwards.

The ladder was in front of me when I started over, and I might have landed on my back with the ladder on top of me. As I fell, I remembered the thought from the Bible: that "underneath are the everlasting arms." And somehow, without conscious effort on my part, I turned completely around and landed on the deck face down with the ladder underneath me. The impact was terrific, and I was stretched out flat; but I didn't have a bruise, a scratch, or an injury of any sort. There was no soreness or stiffness afterward.

Of course, there's much more to such protection than just turning to God in moments of crisis. It's the daily acknowledgment of God's presence and all-power that brings continuing protection, the understanding of God's unchanging law of harmony. Let me tell you an experience that proved convincingly to me that protection is never a question of chance when we rely on God's law.

We were building some ships made of galvanized metal. When you weld it, this metal gives off poisonous fumes. We had exhaust fans, but they just couldn't take away all the fumes. I might mention that years before, I'd had a similar job and had had to give it up because the fumes had made me so ill.

So here I was, faced with the same situation again. I'd been sent to weld in what they call the double-bottoms—small compartments at the bottom of the ship, where there's not much ventilation and you have to breathe these fumes eight hours a day. Pretty soon it got hold of me again, and finally I became so ill I could hardly work. I managed to finish out my shift and get home, but then the trouble seemed to strike even harder. I couldn't even get to the bed. I just lay down on the floor.

But I was a regular student of Christian Science by this time, and of course I was knowing the truth, praying as best I could. I knew that since man is God's image and likeness, he must be spiritual and forever untouched by any impure, material element.

I prayed along this line for quite a while, and by evening I had entirely recovered. Now what I'd like to emphasize is this: I never again had an attack of this trouble. Many of the welders would be away from work periodically or up at the doctor's office to get treatment. But I kept right on with the welding, often working in the double-bottoms day after day, and the fumes never made me ill again. In fact, during the five years I worked in the shipyards, I was never absent from work, and I never had to report for first aid of any nature.

I think what makes any experience outstanding to the individual is what it represents to him in proof of God's power. To me, the freedom from fear, the security and safety I feel each day—these are wonderful blessings that come from relying on God's protecting power.

Speaker: "Wonderful" is the right word, Mr. Kohnfelder. I'm sure anyone would prize such safety and security and freedom from fear. The experiences you told us show how God's power protects us.

Now, we feel and experience God's protecting power through His angels. I'm not talking about supernatural beings with feathery wings, as perhaps we've been accustomed to think of angels. I'm talking about angels as explained in Christian Science. Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered and founded this religion, gives this very illuminating definition in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 581): "Angels. God's thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and mortality." Isn't that helpful to think of angels as "God's thoughts passing to man"!

And when we understand man as spiritual and not material, since he is made in the image and likeness of God, we can never be separated from these angels. God is divine Mind, and Mind's creation can never be separated from the healing, protecting thoughts of the one Mind, God. And these angel thoughts come with all the comfort and blessing of infinite Love, whenever and wherever we need them.

Take our guest, for example. At the very moment he was falling, a thought from the Bible came to him. This inspiration brought protection, and he landed without injury. Again, when he became ill from the welding fumes, the truths that came to him healed him permanently.

But I'd like to emphasize this: it's the daily acknowledgment and understanding of the very presence and power of God that brings continuing protection. It's learning to entertain angels. God's thoughts, right through the day. In this way we rely on God's law and rule out chance or luck. Christian Science shows us how to have angels with us constantly—through the thoughtful daily study of the Bible and Science and Health.

This study helps us know God better. Then we're able to reject thoughts of danger, illness, disability, as powerless and actually unreal, never originating with God, infinite good. And we're governed by thoughts of order, protection, health, unchanging harmony.

The Bible certainly is filled with accounts of God's tender care for man through His angels. Christ Jesus was aware of the comforting, purifying presence of angels. The Bible tells how the Master resisted temptation in the wilderness and clung steadfastly to God. And, as we read in Matthew (4:11), "angels came and ministered unto him." Then we have that great Psalm of protection, the ninety-first. Let me read a part of it. "Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways."

The promise of this Psalm was literally fulfilled for our guest, and it can be for you too. When we make the Most High our habitation through entertaining God's thoughts, then His angels have charge over us. And we experience divine protection and help at all times.

The musical selection on the program was Hymn No. 99 from the Christian Science Hymnal (He that hath God his guardian made).