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The War Prayer
www.midwinter.com ^ | 1923 | Mark Twain

Posted on 02/14/2003 7:27:20 PM PST by CubicleGuy

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.


Twain apparently dictated it around 1904-05; it was rejected by his publisher, and was found after his death among his unpublished manuscripts. It was first published in 1923 in Albert Bigelow Paine's anthology, Europe and Elsewhere.

The story is in response to a particular war, namely the Philippine-American War of 1899-1902, which Twain opposed. See Jim Zwick's page "Mark Twain on the Philippines" for more of Twain's writings on the subject.

Transcribed by Steven Orso (snorso@facstaff.wisc.edu)


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS:
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Blessed are the peacemakers...
1 posted on 02/14/2003 7:27:20 PM PST by CubicleGuy
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To: CubicleGuy
Mark Twain bump
2 posted on 02/14/2003 7:30:19 PM PST by Pay now bill Clinton
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To: CubicleGuy
I know I am supposed to read this and realize all the folly of war and quail at the prospect of the truth and realize the evils of my ways...

But, I really really like that war prayer--but not in the way it was intended. I like it as an actual war prayer. I pray that God gives us the strength and will to do all of the above and more.

Maybe it should even be updated for the modern age:

"O lord, bless the guidance systems of our missiles and bombs and should the need ever come, give us the heart and will to bless them with your cleansing fires from the heart of the atom--that they will sin no more."

Amen and amen.

3 posted on 02/14/2003 7:34:43 PM PST by Cogadh na Sith (The Guns of Brixton)
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To: CubicleGuy
The innocent people in the WTC and the Pentagon were shredded, burned, murdered. Should we just sit by and say, "Thank you, sir. May I have another?"
4 posted on 02/14/2003 7:38:00 PM PST by xJones
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To: xJones
No but, we should pray that the other side does not suffer much.
Yes, I pray we that do win but, those that lose, will most certainly suffer.
There are those in Iraq that do not want war. I pray that their suffering will be minimal.

God help us all.
5 posted on 02/14/2003 7:46:55 PM PST by It's me
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To: CubicleGuy; Sir Gawain; nunya bidness; sendtoscott; Demidog; OWK
bump
6 posted on 02/14/2003 7:50:48 PM PST by MadameAxe
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To: MadameAxe
Oh, now you've done it...
7 posted on 02/14/2003 7:53:39 PM PST by CubicleGuy
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To: xJones
Are we prepared to mete out the same punishment to the citizens of Iraq, even though they had nothing to do with 9/11?
8 posted on 02/14/2003 7:55:00 PM PST by CubicleGuy
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To: CubicleGuy
God of our fathers,
known of old.
Lord of our far flung battle line.
Beneath whose awefull hand we hold,
dominion over palm and pine.
O Lord, we beseech thee, protect us in the coming onslaught.
amen.
9 posted on 02/14/2003 8:00:30 PM PST by tet68 (Jeremiah 51:24 ..."..Before your eyes I will repay Babylon for all the wrong they have done in Zion")
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To: CubicleGuy; Shermy; a_Turk; swarthyguy; Destro
God be with the boys as they execute your will, as they confront evil, as they destroy those who hate you, as they free those who thought you had forgotten them, as they put their lives and earthly bodies between the torturer and his victims, as they risk all they have for people they will never know, expecting nothing in return except a shower and a hot meal.

Faith is not simply believing. Faith is something you do. Faith is courage in motion. The men who are on the ground, right now, hiding in holes in the sand, approaching strangers in dark places, praying unspoken prayers not just for their lives, but for their missions, these are men of faith.

Sometimes, faith wears boots and has a Glock strapped to his leg.
10 posted on 02/14/2003 8:01:07 PM PST by marron
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To: marron
Faith is not simply believing. Faith is something you do. Faith is courage in motion. The men who are on the ground, right now, hiding in holes in the sand, approaching strangers in dark places, praying unspoken prayers not just for their lives, but for their missions, these are men of faith.

That's really good. I like that a lot.

11 posted on 02/14/2003 8:07:12 PM PST by Cogadh na Sith (The Guns of Brixton)
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To: CubicleGuy
It was believed afterward that the man [blessed peacemaker] was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.

Regards

J.R.

12 posted on 02/14/2003 8:08:34 PM PST by NMC EXP
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To: It's me
God help us all.

Amen to that.

But it is important to realize that a few truly evil people exist. It isn't wrong to defend ourselves from maniacs like Saddam. Innocent people on all sides will be hurt, and that's always the tragedy of war. We didn't start this war, it was brought to us, and not brought by innocent people like the average Iraqis. Iraqi people are scared to pieces of Saddam, and he's killed a lot more of them than Americans ever will. Hopefully, the war will be over quickly and Iraqis can have the chance to choose their own destiny.

Unfortunately, that has never been the history of the Middle East. Our biggest problem will be getting the hell out of that place afterwards

13 posted on 02/14/2003 8:09:08 PM PST by xJones
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To: xJones
Our biggest problem will be getting the hell out of that place afterwards.

I think our biggest problem is those who would convince us that it's our business to go charging in there in the first place.

14 posted on 02/14/2003 8:13:13 PM PST by CubicleGuy
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To: marron
I don't mind the war. What troubles me is that the congress no longer matters in declaring war.
15 posted on 02/14/2003 8:16:18 PM PST by Destro (Duct and Cover...Duct and Cover...)
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To: chookter
Romans 12:17-21:
  1. Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.
  2. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.
  3. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
  4. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
  5. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

I think that one's pretty good, myself.

16 posted on 02/14/2003 8:22:14 PM PST by CubicleGuy
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To: CubicleGuy
Are we prepared to mete out the same punishment to the citizens of Iraq?

No, we are liberating the people of Iraq from a leader who has killed millions of the citizens of Iraq, Kuwait and Iran. We are not punishing them, although necessarily some will die at our hands -- hopefully few who are not shooting at us, and almost certainly fewer than Saddam has killed and would likely kill in the future if he stayed in power.

It is our business for a number of reasons. Most notably, we are still at war with the "government" (defacto) of Iraq. Saddam's thugocracy signed a cease-fire 12 years ago. They have utterly failed to follow it. So the ceasing ceases soon.

17 posted on 02/14/2003 8:23:50 PM PST by DWPittelli
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To: CubicleGuy
All right, let's say we let Saddam go. The Iraqis will have to continue to put up with him and his very disfunctional family. That's not our business and we can't solve our own problems, let alone theirs. But Saddam is funding a lot of terrorists that are interested in attacking America and in very unpleasant ways. That is our business. Saddam is just a follow-up to cleaning out the terrorist network that threatens our country. Nobody cared a flip about the Middle East untill it was rather dramatically brought to our attention when the planes were hijacked.
18 posted on 02/14/2003 8:27:12 PM PST by xJones
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To: Destro
What troubles me is that the congress no longer matters in declaring war.

A responsibility the fine Congresspeople and Senators are seemingly more than happy to hand off to someone else.

As Rich Little used to say when doing his Richard Nixon impression, "I'll take the responsibility. Just not the blame."

19 posted on 02/14/2003 8:27:14 PM PST by CubicleGuy
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To: Destro
I don't mind the war. What troubles me is that the congress no longer matters in declaring war.

The Congress, by 3 to 1 margins in both houses, approved "force" (i.e., acts of war) to overthrow Saddam. This is more than was done in most other wars fought by this country. And indeed, if you insist that a declaration of war must contain the word "war" then no nation has declared war in over 50 years.

20 posted on 02/14/2003 8:27:18 PM PST by DWPittelli
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