A History of the ' Chain-prayer '

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 2, 14 January 1909, Page 49

A History of the ' Chain-prayer '

Some time ago we more than hinted our suspicion that the author, as well as the distributors, of the ' chairiprayer' infliction, belongs to the class to which Irish politeness applies the gentle term ' innocent,' and which an Arabic euphemism designates by the phrase : ' Allah is with him !' In ruder phrase, we opined that the author of that " piece of folly belonged to the ancient order of the rantipole or mooncalf. Our Presbyterian contemporary, the Outlook, has recently had occasion to warn its readers against the ' chain ' folly. And in its issue of January 9 our esteemed contemporary prints, on the authority of a Wellington cor respozi dent, a story of. the origin of the nuisance which, if true, amply bears out the judgment that was reached by us on the internal evidence of the prayer and its accompaniment of superstitious and preposterous directions. 'In a certain English family of good social position,' says the Outlook correspondent, 'one of the daughters was afflicted with insanity, and was tenderly cared for at home. Her mania developed a religious form, and she was continually writing incoherent letters to friends and others, concerning their spiritual condition, which letters were, of course, destroyed without her kaowledge. One day she was observed to be unusually busy, writing some twenty or thirty, and her family discovered later, to their dismay, that she had succeeded in getting thorn into the post. The matter caused them much anxiety, and inquiry afterwards proved that these letters were the first of the celebrated "chain," the later links of which have become ko familiar ; and when the subject became a matter of public discussion, they thought it right to make the facts known. In its original form, this dictatorial document shows, one would think, sufficient evidence of mental aberration on the part of the writer y - but instead of rejecting it on that account, many people obey its injunction, merely toning it down. I have had copies sent to me at various times, both complete and " sub-edited.'" People, presumably sane, who unquestionably accept the, guidance of an anoynmous lunatic should be ashamed of themselves.'