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therefore they cannot have come from the Jews. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke (as we now have them) make Jesus to have been both circumcised and baptized-that is, to be both a Jew and a disciple of John. The circumcision is not mentioned in the John Gospel, and the chapters in which it is narrated are a later addition. If Jesus had been a Jew, and derived his name, according to Jewish custom, from the place of his birth, he would have been called Jesus of Bethlehem, or of Nazareth."* The Baptists taught that "from the throne of God flowed a primitive Jordan (the river of wisdom), from which again flowed 360,000 Jordans. This is why Jesus is said to have been baptized of John in Jordan." The word " manda," from which Mandaite was derived, was the Chaldee for gnosis, or knowledge. The "Christ," "Panangria," or "Universal Light of the Planets" of this sect, was called IAO, or IAOUE-identical with Yahuh and the biblical "Jehovah " (Ye-ho-weh).

* M.A., Oxon., Mankind: their Origin and Destiny.
+ Ibid.

DANCING AND PRAYER-BIBLICAL PROMISES THE UTILITY OF PRAYER-ACTUAL FAITH IN PRAYER-THE LOGIC OF PRAYER.

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THE earliest prayer was a dance, and in the early Christian Church special provision was made for dancing in the "choir" (Greek, choros a dance). The presules, or bishops, led the dance on feast days. "The angels were believed to be always dancing, and the glorious company of the Apostles is really a chorus of dancers." Dancing, however, in the Christian Church fell into discredit through the immoralities of the love feasts, but faintly survives in Church processions. Basil said: "As it [dancing] will be our occupation in heaven, it had better be practised betimes on earth." The Chorentes-an order of monks-retired into the desert to obtain salvation by dancing. Limoges the people used to dance round the choir of the church, and at the end of each psalm, instead of the Gloria Patri, sang: 'Saint Marcel, pray for us, and we will dance in honour of you."" Up to the time of the Reformation dancing was practised in the Catholic cathedrals of Spain, Portugal, Rousillon, Peru, and Mexico; and to this day a dancing procession takes place on Whit Tuesday at Echternach, in Luxembourg. Survivals of this custom are to be seen in the Welsh followers of Whitfield called "Jumpers," the "Dancers" of Ohio, and the "Shakers." Spoken prayer originated in an incantation, remains of which are seen in the frequent repetitions in the liturgies of such expressions as "Kyrie eleison" ("Lord have mercy upon us ") and "Good Lord deliver us," in which the Deity is first flattered by being called "good," then asked to deliver from the evil ones, or powers of

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darkness. Flattery and self-abasement have always accompanied worship and prayer. Besides the collections of good spells against the evil ones, petitions for blessings, fine weather, rain, success in battle, etc., were—and are to this day—common, and believed in by man.

When Halley's comet appeared in 1456 it was considered the harbinger of the vengeance of the Deity, and the Pope ordered all the church bells in Europe to be rung, in order to scare it away. The faithful were ordered to add a special prayer to their daily supplications. As their prayers had so frequently before been answered in eclipses, and in times of drought and rain, so on this occasion it was declared that a victory over the comet, when it disappeared, had been vouchsafed to the Pope, who got the credit for exorcising successfully, and expelling it from the skies. Halley, however, who discovered the comet, guided by the revelations of Kepler and Newton, also discovered that its motions, so far from being controlled by prayer, were guided in an elliptic orbit by destiny, and he predicted its re-appearance in 1759, which duly occurred.

The Biblical promises accepted by the Christian Church as genuine regarding petitions, prayers, etc.-collectively and privately-are :—

I. "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I [Jesus] do" (John xiv. 13).

2. "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you......Ask and ye shall receive," etc. (John xvi. 23, 24).

3. "The prayers of a righteous man availeth much.”

4. "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible to you" (Matt. xvii. 20).

5. "All things are possible to him that believeth" (Mark ix. 23).

6. "Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt, but shall believe that these things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith......Whatsoever things ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" (Mark xi. 23, 24).

7. "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might

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say unto this sycamore tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea, and it should obey you (Luke xvii. 6).

The faith-carrying capacity of a grain of mustard seed is impossible to estimate even roughly; but the expression suggests a very minute proportion. The naïveté of the latter part of No. 6 exposes the magical character and fraud of the attempt to cajole the Jews into a blind credulity— "believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them"!

The above promises are unlimited as to persons and as to time, being by no means limited to the lifetime of the Apostles. "These signs shall follow them that believe...... Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." They are somewhat marred, however, by the contradictory assertions of Yahuh, the Father and original, of whom Jesus is said to have been the incarnation, and those said to have been inspired by him: "God knows the secrets of the heart" (Psalm xliv. 21); “All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing, and he [Yahuh] does according to his will among them; and none can stay his hand" (Dan. iv. 35); "For I, the Lord, change not " (Mal. iii. 6). Then what can possibly be the use of prayer to him, as suggested by his reputed Son? If Yahuh does just as he likes, nothing can "change him," as he says-barring the smell of cooking (Gen. viii. 21); and if he knows everything, including his people's wants, we can scarcely see the logic of prayer to him.

As regards the utility of prayer, we should expect to see some practical results from it in daily life, among those who have faith and who believe. Do we? Let us examine the point.

Those who are prayed for most are those who are prayed for publicly in churches, by large numbers of the faithful and believing-sovereigns, heads of States, the nobility, and the clergy. Have our kings or queens, with the solitary exception of our present Queen, enjoyed better health, become any richer, or lived any longer, because of the prayer in the State Prayer Book that asks that it may be granted them "in health and wealth long to live"? History says no. Are our nobility endowed with greater divine“ grace, wisdom, and understanding" in consequence of the prayers to this effect? Judging from the large number of criminals

and delinquents from among this class, who form a no small proportion of those who appear in our courts of justice, we should say no. Are the clergy of the State Church, who are supposed to be called to the ministry by the Holy Ghost, protected more than anyone else against temptation, immorality, infectious diseases, sickness, or the asphyxiating effects of coal-gas or drowning? Missionaries are eaten and digested by cannibals, just as any other person who has only his own prayers to rely upon. Do we ever hear of cannibals suffering in any way after enjoying a feast of missionary? Does prayer protect from disastrous floods, or produce rain in seasons of drought? When the natural causes which produce floods and periods of drought cease to exist, the floods and drought disappear; and the causes are generally easily explained by natural science. Mr. Foote tells us that "in 1879 we were afflicted with a fall of rain scarcely paralleled in the country. Through the spring and the summer the deluge persisted. Yet our 'rain doctors' kept as quiet as mice. Perhaps they reflected that it was scarcely politic to pray for sunshine until the Americans had ceased to telegraph the approach of fresh tempests. But, deceived by a brief spell of fine weather in July, they suddenly plucked up courage, and proceeded to counsel Omnipotence. The result was woeful. On the very next Sunday after prayers for fine weather began to be offered, a terrific storm burst over the land, and for weeks the rain was incessant. The harvest was spoiled, and about forty million pounds' worth of produce was lost to the country.'

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Does the history of earthquakes and other misfortunes, such as fires, due to natural phenomena, show that praying people are saved from danger, while the non-praying ones suffer? When the earthquake of 1887, in the north of Italy and south of France, occurred, were the churches (God's own houses) saved, and the gaming-tables at Monte Carlo destroyed? No, just the contrary. The inhabitants of Bajardo fled from their houses at the first shock, and assembled in the parish church, where they fell on their knees, and implored the divine protection. The priests and the people were praying with one voice, when the celestial answer arrived. A fresh wave of earthquake rent

* G. W. Foote, The Folly of Prayer.

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