AN ANCIENT PRAYER

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 215, 20 December 1910, Page 3

AN ANCIENT PRAYER

AX OBJECTIONABLE REQUEST,

I Mr. J. A. Roberts writes: —I am en- | 'closing a letter purporting to come through the "Endless Chain Fraternity/' whoever they may be. I have heard of them before, but never came in contact with them. You will notice that in the beginning the Lord is implored to bless mankind. But, also, if you do not comply with the conditions, i.e.. to copy the prayer nine times in nine days you are threatened with misfortune. This amounts to blackmail of the worst type, because the Deity is called on to curse you if you do not insult nine innocent folk. It makes one wonder if we are living in the dark ages again, when a man was fined 2s 6d if he kissed his wife on a Sunday. It is time this kind of thing was put a stop to, and the perpetrators brought to book. It is done in the dark, because specific directions are given —viz., "It must not be a signal." v (Enclosure).

"0 Lord Jesus, I implore thee to bless all mankind. Keep me from all sin by Thy precious blood, and take me to live with Thee in eternity." This is an ancient prayer. It was sent to me, and 1 send it to you. Copy it and see what will happen. It is said in Jerusalem that whoever will not copy it will meet with misfortune, but whoever will copy it nine days in succession,'beginning the day it is received, and send each day to a friend, will on the ninth day experience some great joy, or will be delivered from all calamities. Make a wish while you write the praver, and do not break the chain. IT MUST XOT BE SIGXED.

Mr. B. Enroth writes on the same subject:—Recently I 'have received several times per post a document with the above-quoted heading, and it has come not only from New Plymouth, but also from remoter places, it is evident that there is a widespread fad in our midst which seems to demand some notice. Fads of a specious sort such as this, which come under the category of what St. Paul terms "works of the flesh," are apt, if not checked in their infancy, to at length command, where they at first plead—of which we have a striking instance in that other "good work" of prohibition, which I can remember to be just such another pleader for favor as this ''prayer chain.'' but which now arrogates to force itself on us by fines and imprisonment and the power of law. The prayer I am asked to copy for nine days and send each day to a friend—l am not even requested to offer it myself—has nothing objectionable or improper, any more than has a personal abstinence from intoxicants. It .runs thus: "0 Lord Jesus Christ, I implore Thee to bless all mankind. Keep me from all sin by Thy precious blood and take me to be with Thee eternally." 'With the exception that our Lord has taught us to pray, to the Father, no fault can be found in these petitions. Our Lord's Prayer, which one hopes all Christian people offer daily, embodies these excellent sentiments in other words. It is what follows which is so objectionable. I am told: '•This is an ancient prayer. It was said in Jerusalem that whoever will not copy it will meet with misfortune, but whoever will copy it nine days in succession, beginning with the day it is received and send each day a copy to a friend, will find on the ninth day some great joy and will be delivered from all calamity. Make ' a wish and do not break the chain." Here we have an historical statement, a threat, a promise an<l a request. As to the thing emanating from Jerusalem anciently—a very questionable and unlikely assertion, considering the history of that city—yet when one takes into consideration the grovelling superstition and constant strife of the nominal Christians there, one reflects that it is- just what might be expected of them so far as- its threat, etc., are concerned. The city which slew the Saviour has had on it the curse which those murderers invoked from that day, and is likely to remain under it until His return aga!in. Nothing good can be expected from thence. As to the misfortune with which I am threatened, on the one hand I read, "The curse causeless shall not come," and on the other, it is quite true that "man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards." When sin came into the world it brought sorrow, and as a sinner, I cannot hope to evade my share by any hocus-pocus such as copying out this prayer and posting it. ,Nor do I believe that by so doing I shall be delivered from all calamity. This smacks of the "removal of temptation out of our brothers' way," or which prohibitionists prate so glibly and with so much ignorance. No" true Christian ever hopes for such a state of things. We are taught to pray the Father to "lead us not into temptation, but deliver from evil"—not to be delivered from temptation. Our Lord told us, "In the world ve shall have tribulation; but | be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." St Paul tells us to "rejoice in | our tribulation,'! and St. James to "count it all joys when we fall into manifold temptations"; while St. Peter assures us that "the trial of our faith is more precious than gold." And finally St. John saw before the throne a great multitude which no man could number who had "come out of great tribulation." This prayer chain, like the efforts of the prohibitionists, is designed—quite untruthfully, however—to rob us of our share in this beatitude, and I therefore repudiate and object to it. Both alike endeavor to biwden tender consciences improperly and both tend to detract from that entire dependence on the Holy Spirit and 'the perfect redemption Christ has once for all made for all mankind.