A PRAYER-WHEEL.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3814, 5 October 1883, Page 4

A PRAYER-WHEEL.

Another interesting , item from America is the description of a prayer-wheel, established in New York by one Dr. •who has already gotten himself into notice by the introduction of a new Piiblo which ho claims to huvo written under inspiration. That he is Hincoi'o about his novelties i.s proven by the fact that he pays all the expense of their advancement himself and without the aid of public contribution. Can you imagine anything funnier than praying

by machinery ? Yet the idea is not altogether a new one. The Mongol Buddhists have practised that kind of worship for ages. The efficacy of prayer, according to Dr. Newborough, lies not in the quality, but in the quantity. A few hundred petitions rapidly whirled into Heaven from a wheel will have more effect, it is calculated, than one earnest individual supplication. So things arc doubtless altered up there since the brief cry of '■ Clod, be merciful to me a sinner" sufficed to rouse Divine pity and secure Divine pardon. Dr. Nowborough s wheel is about a foot in diameter, has gilded spokes and a brass crank in front of the hub, which itself rests in an ornamental frame, while round the periphery runs an embellished inscription of the Lord's Prayer. After all it is*but a slight variation from the custom of many repetitions of Avcs and Paternosters ; and who is to say that a Deity who is willing to accept thirty " Our Fathers," told on a rosary as expiation for the sin of coveting or bearing false witness, would refuse thirty thousand or so clashed skyward from a whirling periphery as sufficient apology for a breach of the sixth or eighth commandment.