It was three o'clock in the morning. The young lawyer had been restless all night. The telephone rang, and when he answered it, an angry voice said, "If you continue with the case, you won't live out the week." He recognized the voice.

He arose and began to pray. It was difficult. Many fearful thoughts came to him, as well as temptations to appease the one who had threatened him. But as he continued to pray, this passage from a psalm brought him comfort: "The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust." Another verse assured him of God's protection: "Yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me: thou hast delivered me from the violent man."^{Ps. 18:2, 48;}

The attorney began to discern the operation of the law of God, the governing Principle of all. He saw that this law controlled not only him but also the one who had threatened him. Consequently there was only one solution to the problem—God's solution, embodying justice, strength, fearlessness, and peace. He saw that no harm could come to him or to anyone who acknowledges this law. He continued to carry out his highest sense of justice in the case and heard no more from the one who had threatened him.

Working from the basis of prayer and divinely directed decisions, we find the courage to follow the leadings of Principle even when these conflict with aggressive human demands. In the spiritual realm, where God and His creation, man, present the all-power of spiritual law, the fact of His dominion cannot be denied. And this perfect realm and stature are what we claim for ourselves even though we realize that we are temporarily in the gray area of human development where the strength of the divine presence needs to be proved. We do this proving hour by hour as the challenges of human experience present themselves. Every time we face up to error with Truth we become stronger.

Part of a dictionary definition of "appease" is "to accede to... belligerent demands...by a sacrifice of justice." ^{The American College Dictionary, Random House;} History shows that this type of appeasement only encourages those who would gain their ends by threats, and justice suffers.

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, points out in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures that "justice requires reformation of the sinner" and that "mercy cancels the debt only when justice approves." She says that "wrath which is only appeased is not destroyed, but partially indulged." ^{Science and Health, pp. 22, 23;}

It is always important to make every effort to understand the problems of others and to work with them if it is mutually understood that there can be no compromise in our position of integrity. A firm stand for justice in the beginning sets the stage for constructive unfoldment. And it is always important to pray fervently to be shown the most intelligent, loving, and effective way to counteract the anger or unreasonableness of others.

However, it is never right to give in to irrational demands simply to preserve a false tranquillity—a temporary peace that allows aggressive beliefs to develop unchallenged: Under this condition the next confrontation is more difficult because error appears to have taken on the nature of reality.

The master Christian, Christ Jesus, stood firm against the demands of mortal sense. In defiance of inhuman law he healed the man with the withered hand. When the Pharisees held council to destroy him, he withdrew, but healed the multitude that followed. When the Pharisees denounced his authority in healing "one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb," he called them a "generation of vipers" and asked, "How can ye, being evil, speak good things?" ^{Matt. 12:22, 34;} We do not find Jesus telling the merchants in the temple that they could continue their business activities provided they did not interfere too much with the spiritual nature of the temple of God. The Bible records that he "cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers." ^{21: 12;}

The detour of unwise or cowardly appeasement leads one down the path of limitation. It breaks the First Commandment by accepting something other than the allness of God, good. The result is frustration and discouragement. Yielding to erroneous threats settles nothing. It is not possible to temporize with mortal mind and still maintain the facts of being revealed in Christian Science—the perfect, spiritual nature of God's creation. Appeasement is always at best a waste of time, only postponing the day when error will have to be reckoned with, often in a more aggravated form.

Sooner or later all error must be met and mastered. If we allow error in the form of dishonesty to go unchallenged, we may find it difficult to deny and eliminate some of its other forms, such as an erroneous physical manifestation or lack of supply.

Appeasement that is mere human expediency is never an instrument of divine wisdom. One claiming spiritual heritage has no room in consciousness to consider halfway measures in dealing with what is ungodlike. He strives to activate in his thought and life the wholeness of spiritual being that resists evil in every form.

Mrs. Eddy says, "Resist evil—error of every sort—and it will flee from you." ^{Science and Health, p. 406;} Elsewhere she declares, "Christian Scientists cannot watch too sedulously, or bar their doors too closely, or pray to God too fervently, for deliverance from the claims of evil. Thus doing, Scientists will silence evil suggestions, uncover their methods, and stop their hidden influence upon the lives of mortals." ^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 114.}

There is no situation, however terrifying, that does not eventually yield its claim to power when faced squarely and tenaciously with the law of God. This law denies any power outside itself and completely annihilates discordant mortal phenomena.

Sometimes the demand for appeasement comes from mortal mind's claims regarding the body. Material law may argue that a medical diagnosis will help us to know better how to deal with a persistent physical problem. But the only diagnosis that can help is one that examines the quality of one's thoughts.

Does physical therapy suggest a way to regain fitness? Certainly activity is always desirable, but we should not make a curative experience out of certain motions of the body. Because the body is projected thought, improvement in bodily function comes only in response to corrected thought. And thought is corrected only by establishing true, spiritual identity and the unimpeachable relationship between God and His creation. This is true response to any challenge. Acknowledging God and His man as inseparable and unconquerable is the only way to maintain harmony.

Unwise, uncourageous, and unjust appeasement is never an instrument of one who expresses omnipotent Being. He relies only on the completeness of Spirit, in which the activity of God's ideas is coordinated under spiritual law. This law recognizes no need for compromising thought. It recognizes only Principle and its fulfillment.