When Jesus was about to be taken away at the hour of his crucifixion, one of his disciples reacted vengefully by pulling his sword on a servant of the high priest. Jesus responded by healing the wounded soldier and, according to Matthew, by also making a statement that has come to mean a great deal to me: "Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?" (26:53).

There is a freedom that I feel when I read or think about that statement. Almost a glimpse of what Jesus must have understood of man's oneness with God and of the immediacy of God's great love for His children. The sense of authority in those words makes me realize that there could never be a time when we would be left without God's defending angels.

An experience I had proved to me that those "legions of angels" are a powerful presence—we need only listen for them. One day, on my way to an interview for my first job in the business world, I got onto the train and a man followed me. This man was frightening to look at, and he seemed to have a rage in his eyes. I was traveling at off hours and had boarded close to the beginning of the line. There was only one other passenger in the car, a senior citizen, and he appeared to be scared for me. I sat down, and the man sat right next to me, speaking profanities. I noticed the outline of what looked like a weapon in his coat.

I got up and he followed me. I started moving quickly through the cars. The rest of the train was empty, and I couldn't even find a conductor. Once again I sat down, and again he sat next to me.

Ever since childhood I had instinctively known that if I could silence the turmoil in my thinking, what I would hear would be God. So I began to put our fear with the very little I knew about God at that time. Then I listened for God's angels, and they were right there. I began to feel the calm of God's presence. I had considered getting off the train at a stop, but I didn't want to be left with this man on an empty platform, not even knowing where I was. So I just kept listening. Then at one stop, just as the doors were about to close, I heard so clearly, "Go now." I jumped up and so did he, but just as I made it out of the doors, they slammed shut leaving this man behind, screaming.

I have never forgotten the sense of God's presence with me that day. His angels are always available to protect us from any phase of evil, proving the utter powerlessness of a force apart from God, good. In the Christian Science textbook, Mary Baker Eddy defines angels as "God's thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and mortality" (Science and Health, p. 581).

Soon after that experience, God's angels were there leading me to be receptive to a new adventure, the study of Christian Science. Through this study I have learned more deeply that the protection I experienced on the train was not a one-time deal or a lucky break. It was the result of God's universal law of Love in action and of my receptivity to His guidance.

The Bible tells us that God is Love and that Love is all. Therefore it must follow that there can be no place for evil of any kind. Everything is created spiritually and governed by this law of Love, including man as God's image and likeness. In Love's realm of harmony, the concept of fear doesn't even exist. In the allness of goodness what is there to be afraid of?

Fear is based on the evidence reported by the material senses. But these senses are inaccurate barometers because they cannot recognize the universe of God, Spirit, where man really lives. Their claim that evil is real—and that we may or may not be able to escape harm—stems from the ignorant belief that God is absent and that He has left His child to fend for himself in a material universe.

My simple trust on the train—that God was there—enabled me to silence fear and to rise mentally to an altitude beyond anything human reasoning could have afforded me. This left consciousness open to God's angel messages. When we silence fear by claiming the allness of God and the nothingness of evil, we eliminate the static of inaccurate human reasoning. Mrs. Eddy states, "Science speaks when the senses are silent, and then the evermore of Truth is triumphant" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 100).

It is interesting to note that just as Jesus never defended himself by resorting to material means, neither do we ever have to feel defenseless without them. Our best defense is always spiritual, the defense of knowing that as the emanation of God, man is forever protected by his oneness with Him. This is taking action. As Paul states in Second Corinthians, "(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) casting down imaginations ... and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" (10:4, 5).

God's man is never a victim. And this pertains, as well, to the one who is being victimized by sin and evil acts. In looking back at my experience, I've seen that the picture of a violent man aggressively pursuing his victim was just not the picture that God was seeing or creating. God can create and know only goodness. The ugly view of pursuer and victim was in truth no more real than if we had both been actors playing those characters in a movie. God's man can never diverge from his perpetual being of goodness, purity, sanity and loveliness.

The thoughts God, continuously becoming apparent to us, are powerful. Yielding to them—and putting out fear and human will—is how the inspired characters in the Bible were able to meet extraordinary challenges, and we can too. We are not limited, because God is not limited. We are never without the power of God.