Theos-Talk Archives (March 2003 Message tt00409)

The War Prayer


Dictated by Mark Twain [Samuel Clemens] in 1904 in advance of his death in

1910.


During his writing career, he had criticized perhaps every type of person or

institution either living or dead. But this piece was just a little too hot

for his family to tolerate. Since they believed the short narrative would be

regarded as sacrilege, they urged him not to publish it. However, Sam was to

have the last word, and even the word after that. Having directed it to be

published after his death, he said,


"I have told the truth in that... and only dead men can tell the truth in

this world."


- William H. Huff




The War Prayer


by Mark Twain


It was a time of great exulting and 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 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 depths 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 doubt upon its

righteousness straight way 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 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 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!" Thewords

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 be your desire after I, His messenger, shall have explained

to you its import – that is to say, its full import. For it is likeunto

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 ablessing

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 prayedsilently. And

ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so! You heard these

words: 'Grant us 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 shrieks of their wounded, writhing

in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with hurricanes 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 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.