SEVERAL years ago there lived in the Zuni mountains of New Mexico a whole neighborhood of people who were submitting themselves to the jurisdiction of a court of law, held down in the valley, which was presided over by a justice of the peace inimical to the mountain folk, a man who lost no opportunity to show his enmity to people of the Anglo-Saxon race. The mountaineers could see no way of escape from this situation, which had existed for a long time, since they were far from civilization and it cost much money and loss of time to travel to Albuquerque, where the higher court was held.
The writer, battling with an appetite for intoxicating liquor, had wandered far away from his usual haunts into the wilds of the West, seeking relief from bondage. While he was in the Zuni mountains he heard of this claim made by the justice of the valley, and being a lawyer, it did not take long to uncover the facts of the situation, namely, that the inhabitants of the mountains were wholly outside the jurisdiction of this particular court, and that it had never had any legal authority over them whatever; that the justice of the peace had illegally usurped such jurisdiction; that the mountaineers had ignorantly submitted themselves to this usurpation, and that the court which did have jurisdiction over them was on the opposite slope of the hills and was presided over by an honest, peaceful man of their own race. A knowledge of the truth corrected what was wrong in the situation, and peace reigned in these mountains.
Again, the writer did not recognize that in his ignorance he was doing exactly the same thing which these mountaineers had done. They had submitted themselves to the jurisdiction of a court which had no legal authority over them whatever, and although they disliked it very much, they had not made a lawful resistance, but without adequate protest had paid the penalties imposed by the court and had never appealed to a court of higher jurisdiction. Very soon thereafter, Christian Science pointed out to the writer that he had been submitting himself to the jurisdiction of a court which had no legal authority over him whatever, the court of mortal mind; that he had allowed a judge who was nothing but a fraudulent and illegal usurper, to pronounce sentence upon him and hold him in bondage to false appetite. Jesus said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." The recognition of the truth respecting their civil rights freed the men of the Zuni mountains from a false belief, for that was all which really troubled them, and the truth of man's being freed the writer from a false belief of an enslaving appetite.
