In prayers, which our Saviour censures, Mt 6:7, were short forms or particular expressions in prayer, which the Jews were accustomed to repeat a certain number of times. So Roman-catholics still repeat the Lord's prayer, Ave Marias, etc., a great number of times; and think that the oftener a prayer is repeated, the more meritorious and efficacious it is. The repeated cry of a soul in earnest is indeed welcome to God, Ge 18; Mt 26:44; Lu 18:1; but he regards the heart and not the lips; and the greater the number of prayers one repeats as a task by which to acquire merit, the greater his sin.