Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1890-12-20

crimes, posed rs the high priests G
. Jehovah, and dared to approach til
= sanctuary, carrying the emblems Q
" the atoning blood. which the.
Knocked and ridiculed In thei
hearts. How could God hold com
manjon With such abemipab}e hy
pocrites, who denied His existence
No more than He can communicat
with the divines. of our age VIII
deny the neces>ity Of revelation.
The Essenes were q seet les
|, known than either of the two frs
, mentioned. The very name seem
Z to be . puzzle to philologifts, ther
4 being about as many theories .
there are authors upon the subject
, A probable derivation IL from tn,
Hebrew word chaaha, to be silent
, referring to the oaths Of secresy
whereby the members were bount
, together.
. The leafned Doctor Lightfoo
traces their origin to the sams
source rs that Of the Pharisees, viz.
to q desire of exclusiveness from the
Gentle element, which prevailed In
Palestine at the time Of the return
Of the Jews from Babylon. Only,
the Essenes carried this further
than the Pharisees. They formed
not merely q sect but an order, like
the Pythagoreaus among the Greeks
and the Buddhists in India, or like
the Catholic monks in later times.
1t seems probable that the idea OF
forming the brotherhood had been
carried home with come Of the Jews
from the extreme East where they
must have come In contact with
many, to Judaism foreign ele-
ments.
II can be said Of the Essences that
they were in q measure free from
both the hypocrisy Of the Pharisees
and the immortality Of the Sadducees.
They laid very little stress on the
ceremonial law and made moral
conduct the great requisite for
membership Of their order. But at
the same time they fell into
many efrors, as all people are sure to
do, when they have no Divine
guidance through revelation. Their
chief error was spiritualizing the
Scriptures, whereby they arrived at
the most startling conclusions. For
instance, they thought 1t sinful to
kill an animal and had. consequent
iy, to reject the law relating to sac
rifices. In their observance Of the
Sabbath they went so far rs 10 even
suspend the natural functions of the
body, sitting immovable in one
place all tie day. They abhorred
to enter into marriage relations and
were bound by osths to the strictest
coelibacy. No worldly employment
was entered into by their members
except agriculture.
When anybody wished to be ad-
mitted to the order, he had to stand
a three years probation. Then he |
had To swear that he would keep all |
the rules OF the order, among which
was one that he should touch no
food but such as had been provided
by the sect. There were various
additions to be performed. The
members had everything in common
and generally appeared in public in
a costume peculiar to the order,
scrupulously white dress.
Neander considers the Esseues
body Of pious men who had with
drawn from the body Of the people
in order to cultivate their desire for
better than the political
and religious strifes that broke the
nation up and prevented the accept
able worship Of God. BE this as ii
may, it is certain that We never
hear Of the Essenes having raised
their voice against Christ or perse.
cuted His followers. In the history
Df our Lord and Of the history of {
the Church for the first quarter of
century, Essenism seems to have
had no influence whatever upon
Christianity.
1t is all the more remarkable,
therefore, to see, that, later, the
doctrines Of this order should come
o exercise q moet fatal influence !
'ver the Christian Church. Upon !
his subject Lightfoot says: q
seven as carly As the year IS, when !
u. Paul wrote 10 the Romans. we de- I
Get practices in the Christian COM
nunity OF the metropolis, which NAV {
'ossibly have been due TO Essene in
luences Zone believeth that he NAV
at all things; another, who is weak. G
aie.h herbsD. Five or six years later, a
ae hereiical teaching which threat b
ned The integrity of the Gospel AT e.
oloss'e shows that this type of Juda- a
I'm was already strong enough within %
he Church 10 exert dangerous infiu- {.
nee on its dcctrinal purity. Then rr
,me the great cenvulsion-;he over 81
row of the Jewish poliiy and nation. N,
his was the turning point in the rela- III
ons between Essenism and Cnrisii- G.,
iity, at least in Palestine. Tho Is. q,
mes were extreme sufferers in the N,
oman war Of determination. II or
ems probable that their organization A,
as entirely broken up. Thu. cast m
mn, they were free to enter into tn
her combinations, while the shock OF "a
recent catastrophe would naturally "a
m their thoughts INFO new channels. an
the same time the nearer proximity I'm,
the Christians, who had migrated SCI
Perea during the war. would bring ha
m into close contact with the new toll
tn and subject them to its inilu- an
,es as they had never been SUBJ 9th
ted before. But, whatever may be me
explanation, the fac; seems certain. "a,
1 after the destruction of Jerusalem an,
Christian body was largely REIN avn,
ced from their ranks. The JUDAH Dor
tendencies among the Hebrew ("
1stians. which hitherto had been ono
oily Pharisaic, arc henceforth me,
'ely Essene." mo
mis- influence which at first ap- knc
red only OF small importance q $
acted the attention Of the clear. sup
ng eyes of the Apostles and they wa