[Peace-political] Fwd: The War Prayer - Mark Twain (fwd)

[Al Kagan]

>Delivered-To: akagan at alexia.lis.uiuc.edu
>From: Tom_Childs at douglas.bc.ca
>Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 17:27:17 -0700
>Subject: The War Prayer - Mark Twain (fwd)
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>Cc: vlerner at interpac.net, fiona.hunt at zu.ac.ae
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>
>   ------ Forwarded message: ------
>>From mail Mon Sep 17 16:02 PDT 2001
>From: shniad at sfu.ca
>Subject: The War Prayer - Mark Twain
>
>
>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.
>
>--------------
>
>Albert Bigelow Paine first published extracts from "The War Prayer" in his
>1912 biography of Mark Twain with the comment that the author said he had
>been urged not to publish it. According to Paine, Mark Twain acceded to its
>suppression by stating, "I have told the whole truth in that, and only dead
>men can tell the truth in this world. It can be published after I am dead."
>A full text was collected in Europe and Elsewhere  (1923).
>
>
>
>
>--

-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu