As we stand at the brink of aggressive war,
it's worth reading (or re-reading) Mark Twain's
'The War Prayer'. You might want to pass
it on to some of your more hawkish friends.
Twain wrote this in reaction to the Phillipines-
American War of 1899-1902, which procured
that country as an American colony.
Kipling also noted the event, and wrote
"The White Mans Burden" to welcome the
US to the status of imperial power, and to
remind us of our new responsibiliies.
Peter Trei
-------------------------------------
The War Prayer
by Mark Twain
It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was
up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire
of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy
pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and spluttering;
on every hand and far down the receding and fading spread of
roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the
sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue
gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and
mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices
choked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed
mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory which stirred
the deepest deeps of their hearts, and which they interrupted at
briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running
down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pastors
preached devotion to flag and country, and invoked the God of
Battles beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpourings of
fervid eloquence which moved every listener. It was indeed a
glad and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits that
ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its
righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning
that for their personal safety's sake they quickly shrank out of
sight and offended no more in that way.
Sunday morning came -- next day the battalions would leave for
the front; the church was filled; the volunteers were there, their
young faces alight with martial dreams -- visions of the stern
advance, the gathering momentum, the rushing charge, the
flashing sabers, the flight of the foe, the tumult, the enveloping
smoke, the fierce pursuit, the surrender! Then home from the
war, bronzed heroes, welcomed, adored, submerged in golden
seas of glory! With the volunteers sat their dear ones, proud,
happy, and envied by the neighbors and friends who had no sons
and brothers to send forth to the field of honor, there to win for
the flag, or, failing, die the noblest of noble deaths. The service
proceeded; a war chapter from the Old Testament was read; the
first prayer was said; it was followed by an organ burst that
shook the building, and with one impulse the house rose, with
glowing eyes and beating hearts, and poured out that tremendous
invocation
God the all-terrible! Thou who ordainest!
Thunder thy clarion and lightning thy sword!
Then came the "long" prayer. None could remember the like of it
for passionate pleading and moving and beautiful language. The
burden of its supplication was, that an ever-merciful and
benignant Father of us all would watch over our noble young
soldiers, and aid, comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic
work; bless them, shield them in the day of battle and the hour of
peril, bear them in His mighty hand, make them strong and
confident, invincible in the bloody onset; help them to crush the
foe, grant to them and to their flag and country imperishable
honor and glory --
An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless
step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long
body clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his
white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his
seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness. With all
eyes following him and wondering, he made his silent way;
without pausing, he ascended to the preacher's side and stood
there waiting. With shut lids the preacher, unconscious of his
presence, continued with his moving prayer, and at last finished it
with the words, uttered in fervent appeal, "Bless our arms, grant
us the victory, O Lord our God, Father and Protector of our land
and flag!"
The stranger touched his arm, motioned him to step aside --
which the startled minister did -- and took his place. During some
moments he surveyed the spellbound audience with solemn eyes,
in which burned an uncanny light; then in a deep voice he said:
"I come from the Throne -- bearing a message from Almighty
God!" The words smote the house with a shock; if the stranger
perceived it he gave no attention. "He has heard the prayer of
His servant your shepherd, and will grant it if such shall be your
desire after I, His messenger, shall have explained to you its
import -- that is to say, its full import. For it is like unto many of
the prayers of men, in that it asks for more than he who utters it
is aware of -- except he pause and think.
"God's servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Has he paused
and taken thought? Is it one prayer? No, it is two -- one uttered,
the other not. Both have reached the ear of Him Who heareth all
supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this -- keep it
in mind. If you would beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware!
lest without intent you invoke a curse upon a neighbor at the
same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain upon your crop
which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse
upon some neighbor's crop which may not need rain and can be
injured by it.
"You have heard your servant's prayer -- the uttered part of it. I
am commissioned of God to put into words the other part of it --
that part which the pastor -- and also you in your hearts --
fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God
grant that it was so! You heard these words: 'Grant us the
victory, O Lord our God!' That is sufficient. the whole of the
uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words.
Elaborations were not necessary. When you have prayed for
victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which
follow victory--must follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the
listening spirit of God fell also the unspoken part of the prayer.
He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen!
"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go
forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we
also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to
smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to
bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields
with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the
thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in
pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of
fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with
unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little
children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land
in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer
and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail,
imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for
our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their
lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps,
water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the
blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of
Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful
refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with
humble and contrite hearts. Amen.
After a pause: "Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak!
The messenger of the Most High waits!"
It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because
there was no sense in what he said.
