The War Prayer

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 sputtering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spreads 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 outpouring 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 faces alight with material dreams-visions of a 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 heros, 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 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 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 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 His Who hearth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this – keep it in mind. If you 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 by 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 the Father 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 their 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 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.

6 Replies to “The War Prayer”

  1. Truly, there are always multiple perspectives, and inevitably, we all sift through what is available to us to draw our own conclusions. Sometimes there is a distinct rightness or morality, but whose is the best? Nearly everyone likes to paint themselves as the hero in the aftermath. Nonconformists will occasionally portray themselves as being badass, but most humans want to be regarded as being right and good even in the cases where they failed to take the moral high ground.

    Look at the dichotomy unfolding right before our eyes in the news this past week. Some people believe that a young black criminal in Missouri virtually committed suicide by cop, while others believe that an upstanding young citizen was senselessly gunned down by a trigger happy cop simply because he was black. People, some of whom are actually ignorant of any details, are taking sides. Some feel so strongly in their opinions that they are deepening and worsening the damage.

    BB

    1. Bob,
      Countless wars have been fought with each side claiming the favor of God. What should we conclude? Wars using Gods name is currently the favorite term used by Islam these days. Far in the past it was the crusades.

      In America war is a useful tool used by the politicians who are the new priests of the Republic. They ask God to bless their efforts as they bomb people of dark skin all over the globe. The question is, who buys into this bullshit?

      The current riots are the tools of these same ‘high priests’ of this Republic to implement change to the social structure. Change that will transform this country into what is was never intended to be.

  2. It seems to me that was an outstanding war prayer to the gods of war. Like the ones in the bible, and Armstrong types. They have the right clans. I know I am the black sheep on this one but if it comes down to the lives of us, or them, freedom or slavery, I say hack away.

  3. “…but if it comes down to the lives of us, or them, freedom or slavery, I say hack away.”

    Agreed. Point taken. But if you fight constant wars of aggression that is a different story!

  4. It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.

    Yes, I get that a lot, particularly when I debunk British Israelism. I know for sure Dixon Cartwright treated me that way.

    The point is that people deliberately misunderstand and reject rather plain testimony. The more true it is, the more they resist.

    We deal with that all the time here.

    It isn’t as if anyone has any excuse at all any more. We have:

    Demonstrated that Herbert Armstrong committed incest with his youngest daughter for 10 years as he began his ministry, thus proving that he was not only disqualified from being a minister, but should have been in prison (and in some states, executed);

    Proved over and over that Herbert Armstrong was a false prophet, thus disqualifying him from being any sort of minister and earning him the (Old Testament) death penalty;

    Shown that he was the very picture of II Timothy 3 through his narcissism and thus all Christians are enjoined, “from such turn away”;

    Exposed that his beliefs were taken totally from G. G. Rupert from whom he plagiarized;

    Published the fact that he didn’t even finish high school and was thus incompetent to be a minister because he was not educated to be so, let alone be the chancellor of a college;

    Related his anger issues;

    Made it clear that he was a hypocrite who didn’t even follow his own teachings because he was ‘different’ and ‘special’ — above it all — which is why he had coffee and donuts on the Day of Atonement while frail widows in their eighties fasted without food or liquid for 24 yours;

    Showed him to be a spendthrift during the manic phases of his bipolar disease, when he spent and spent — $68,000 in one day at Harrod’s for tableware — and then panicked and demanded offerings because ‘the work was going down’;

    Proved that Roderick Meredith has been a false prophet for 60 years;

    Followed the exploits of Ronald Weinland as he was exposed as an insane lying false prophet convicted felon;

    Exposed David Pack as a narcissistic scoundrel with little regard for his congregants;

    Maintained documentation that Gerald Flurry was ‘That [false] Prophet’ and total failure in becoming a Herb mini-me.

    In all of this, the Armstrongists are staunch in their support of people who are totally incompetent heading dysfunctional enterprises of the Church Cult Corporate doomed to failure through entropy, with absolutely no rational basis at all to believe the rubbish, let alone give money to the sociopaths that lead the cult.

    As far as they are concerned, there is no sense in what we say.

    They are utter delusional fools.

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