| Transcribed here, verbatim, from an article first appearing in the November, 1959 issue of“The Mystic Light”RAYS FROM THE ROSE CROSS The Essenes Who Changed ChurchianityEnid S. Smith, Ph. D.PART 1Centuries before the Christian Era, the Essenes, in their great mystic Order with branches in many parts of the then known world, aspired, as their chief object in life, to the perfecting of their members in all righteousness that they might be worthy of God to bring into the world the Great Messiah. According to the records, esoteric and exoteric, Jesus was born within their Order, was trained by them during the “hidden years of his life” in their various branches and centers in Palestine, Egypt, Greece, India, Persia, Tibet, and elsewhere, and finally sent out by them “to effect a moral and religious revolution.”So, in the fullness of time came the epoch-making discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the caves of the kirbet Qumran district giving these facts. According to the wisdom of the Essenes, there is no such thing as chance in God’s universe––all things are determined by plan or destiny, and all come to pass in the regular time for them, nothing occurring that was not foreordained. Thus declare the masters of the art of living who produced a group of people that excelled in righteousness and in the development of “the gifts of the spirit,” and in the attainment of cosmic consciousness, more than any of their successors.It is recorded that no prophecy of theirs ever failed. This accuracy meant their survival in the days of Herod the Great, and their being excused from taking the hated oaths, even the oath of allegiance. History tells us that a certain Essene, one Menahem, who was celebrated not only for his uprightness but for his foreknowledge of the future, met Herod one day when he was a schoolboy and addressed him as “King of the Jews.” Herod thought that Menahem did not know him and was jesting. But Menahem smiled, clapped him on the bac... |
