These are forbidden by our Lord, and were well
styled “vain,” if they consisted, as among the Mohammedans, in the
repetition of words and phrases. Richardson mentions an old man who
travelled with him, who was thought to be of peculiar sanctity, and most
devout in prayer: “Certainly he did not pray in secret, communing with
his heart, but called aloud with all his might, and repeated the words
as fast as his tongue could give them utterance. The form and words of
his prayer were the same with those of the others; but this good man had
made a vow to repeat certain words of the prayer a given number of
times, both night and morning. The word rabboni, for example, answering
to our word Lord, he would bind himself to repeat a hundred or two
hundred times, twice a day; and, accordingly, went on in the hearing of
all the party; and, on his knees sometimes with his face directed
steadily to heaven, and at other times bowing down to the ground, and
calling out rabboni, rabboni, rabboni, rabboni, rabboni, &c, as fast as
he could articulate the words after each other, like a school boy going
through his task, not like a man who, praying with the heart and the
understanding also, continues longer on his knees, in the rapture of
devotion, whose soul is a flame of fire, enkindled by his Maker, and
fixing upon his God, like Jacob, will not let him go until he bless him.
Having settled his accounts with the word rabboni, which the telling of
his beads enabled him to know when he had done, he proceeded to dispose
of his other vows in a similar manner. _Allah houakbar_, perhaps, came
next, ‘God most great;’ and he would go on, as with the other, _Allah
houakbar_, _Allah houakbar_, _Allah houakbar_, _Allah houakbar_, &c,
repeating them as fast as he could frame his organs to pronounce them.”
styled “vain,” if they consisted, as among the Mohammedans, in the
repetition of words and phrases. Richardson mentions an old man who
travelled with him, who was thought to be of peculiar sanctity, and most
devout in prayer: “Certainly he did not pray in secret, communing with
his heart, but called aloud with all his might, and repeated the words
as fast as his tongue could give them utterance. The form and words of
his prayer were the same with those of the others; but this good man had
made a vow to repeat certain words of the prayer a given number of
times, both night and morning. The word rabboni, for example, answering
to our word Lord, he would bind himself to repeat a hundred or two
hundred times, twice a day; and, accordingly, went on in the hearing of
all the party; and, on his knees sometimes with his face directed
steadily to heaven, and at other times bowing down to the ground, and
calling out rabboni, rabboni, rabboni, rabboni, rabboni, &c, as fast as
he could articulate the words after each other, like a school boy going
through his task, not like a man who, praying with the heart and the
understanding also, continues longer on his knees, in the rapture of
devotion, whose soul is a flame of fire, enkindled by his Maker, and
fixing upon his God, like Jacob, will not let him go until he bless him.
Having settled his accounts with the word rabboni, which the telling of
his beads enabled him to know when he had done, he proceeded to dispose
of his other vows in a similar manner. _Allah houakbar_, perhaps, came
next, ‘God most great;’ and he would go on, as with the other, _Allah
houakbar_, _Allah houakbar_, _Allah houakbar_, _Allah houakbar_, &c,
repeating them as fast as he could frame his organs to pronounce them.”