CHAPTER XXXI. CHRISTIANITY DERIVED FROM HEATHEN AND ORIENTAL SYSTEMS MORE than twenty thousand sermons are preached in the Christian pulpits, on every recurring Sabbath, to convince the people that the religion and morality taught and practiced by Jesus Christ was of divine emanation, and was never before taught in the world,--that his system of morality was without a parallel, and his practical life without a precedent,--that the doctrine of self-denial, humility, unselfishness, benevolence, and charity,--also devout piety, kind treatment of enemies, and love for the human race, which he preached and practiced, had never before been exemplified in the life and teachings of any individual or nation. But a thorough acquaintance with the history and moral systems of some of the oriental nations, and the practical lives of piety and self-denial exemplified in their leading men long anterior to the birth of Christ, and long before the name of Christianity was anywhere known, must convince any unprejudiced mind that such a claim is without foundation. And to prove it, we will here institute a critical comparison between Christianity and some of the older systems with respect to the essential spirit of their teachings, and observe how utterly untenable and groundless is the dogmatic assumption which claims for the Christian religion either any originality or any superiority. Of course if their is nothing new or original, there is nothing superior. We will first arrange Christianity side by side with the ancient system known as Essenism--a religion whose origin has never been discovered, though it is known that the Essenes existed in the days of Jonathan Maccabeus, B. C. 150, and that they were of Jewish origin, and constituted one of the three Jewish sects (the other two being Pharisees and Sadducees). We have but fragments of their history as furnished by Philo, Josephus, Pliny, and their copyists, Eusebius, Dr. Ginsburg, and others, on whose authority we will proceed to show that Alexandrian and Judean Essenism was identically the same system in spirit and essence as its successor Judean Christianity; in other words, Judean Christianity teaches the same doctrines and moral precepts which had been previously inculcated by the disciples of the Essenian religion. A PARALLEL EXHIBITION OF THE PRECEPTS AND PRACTICAL LIVES OF CHRIST AND THE ESSENES. We will condense from Philo, Josephus, and other authors. 1. Philo says, "It is our first duty to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness so the Essenes believed and taught." _Scripture parallel._ "Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all else shall be added." (Matt. vi. 33; Luke xii. 31.) 2. Philo says, "They abjured all amusements, all elegances, and all pleasures of the senses." _Scripture parallel._ "Forsake the world and the things thereof." 3. The Essenes say, "Lay up nothing on earth, but fix your mind solely on heaven."