[MR] Re: The time has come (War College)

[Fergus MacDair]

A friend of mine sent this to me and I whole heartily
agree with the sentiments.  And since this tread
started about war college perhaps I should remind
people that we trained Bin Laden to fight the
Russians.

Fergus


A local paper just published an editorial cartoon
urging the US to "Nuke Afghanistan"; we see in the
papers the usual thugs and fools attacking Americans
who look like they come from the middle east;
ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was
so".

Mark Twain wrote something that is particularly apt at
this particular time in our nation's history (in my
none-too-humble opinion, of course). As we try to
decide what to do -- and to whom -- in response to the
recent murders, please keep his parable in mind.

BTW, this is online, nicely formatted, at both:
http://quanta-gaia.org/MarkTwain/warPrayer.html
        and
http://www.lone-star.net/mall/literature/warpray.htm
        -- Roy
=====================================================================

                                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 mean 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). 

=============================================================
end



__________________________________________________
Terrorist Attacks on U.S. - How can you help?
Donate cash, emergency relief information
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/fc/US/Emergency_Information/