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MushmanTheManic
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Registered: 04/21/05
Posts: 4,587
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The War Prayer by Mark Twain
#5357887 - 03/02/06 03:01 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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(For your viewing pleasure, MushmanTheManic is proud to present, "The War Prayer" by Mark Twain. Due to its message, this essay wasn't published until after Twain's death.)
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.
Edited by MushmanTheManic (03/02/06 03:03 PM)
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Fospher
Crime FightingMaster Criminal


Registered: 02/09/05
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Loc: The Netherlands
Last seen: 12 years, 3 months
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I guess they learned the bitter truth of war 20 years later in Vietnam.
Oh wait, no they didnt! 
When Bush's reign of impulse stupidity has passed, the troops are pulled out of Iraq with no democracy installed, no food, water or electricity in the country, another Saddam-like dictator is put to power, the masses probably wont learn anything once again through the dense fog of media propaganda.
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thelorax121
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Re: The War Prayer by Mark Twain [Re: Fospher]
#5358272 - 03/02/06 04:42 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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I love Twain. He is the original Vonnegut, and way ahead of his time considering his worldy views. Very cute indeed
-------------------- Greens for all, and to all a good greens!
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Le_Canard
The Duk Abides

Registered: 05/16/03
Posts: 94,392
Loc: Earthfarm 1
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I've read alot of Twain, and I don't think I've ever encountered this. As usual, hard-hitting and honest as only Twain can make it. Thanks for posting this.
Edited by Le_Canard (03/02/06 05:10 PM)
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Silversoul
Rhizome


Registered: 01/01/05
Posts: 23,576
Loc: The Barricades
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Re: The War Prayer by Mark Twain [Re: Le_Canard]
#5358316 - 03/02/06 04:53 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Twain is my favorite philosopher.
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it stars saddam
Satan

Registered: 05/19/05
Posts: 15,571
Loc: Spahn Ranch
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My contribution to the thread:
"There is nothing... that there is no God and no universe; that there is only empty space, and in it a lost and homeless and wandering and indestructible Thought. And that I am that thought. And God, and the Universe, and Time, and Life, and Death, and Joy and Sorrow and Pain only a grotesque and brutal dream, evolved from the frantic imagination of that insane Thought. By this light, the absurdities that govern life and the universe lose their absurdity and become natural, and a thing to be expected. It reconciles everything, makes everything lucid and understandable: a God who has no morals, yet blandly sets Himself up as Head Sunday School Superintendent of the Universe; Who has no idea of mercy, justice, or honesty, yet obtusely imagines Himself the inventer of those things; a human race that takes Him at His own valuation, without examining the statistics; thinks itself intelligent, yet hasn't any more evidence of it than had Jonathon Edwards in his wildest moments; a race which did not make itself nor its vicious nature, yet quaintly holds itself responsible for its acts. But -- taken as unrealities; taken as the drunken dream of an idiot Thought, drifting solitary and forlorn through the horizonless eternities of empty Space, thse monstrous sillinesses become proper and acceptable, and lose their offensiveness." --Mark Twain, Letter to Joseph Twichell, July 1904
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Sclorch
Clyster


Registered: 07/12/99
Posts: 4,805
Loc: On the Brink of Madness
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hehe
-------------------- Note: In desperate need of a cure...
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fireworks_god
Sexy.Butt.McDanger


Registered: 03/12/02
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Re: The War Prayer by Mark Twain [Re: Fospher]
#5361286 - 03/03/06 11:45 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
Fospher said: When Bush's reign of impulse stupidity has passed, the troops are pulled out of Iraq with no democracy installed, no food, water or electricity in the country, another Saddam-like dictator is put to power, the masses probably wont learn anything once again through the dense fog of media propaganda.
I don't stay very well tuned-in to the situation, but it was my impression that the general progress within the country is not as you describe it, or is it tending towards that direction.
I understand that there is still a violent insurgency, but yet it sounded as though there was some development of the basic infastructure that is typical of a Western civilization country occuring. 
 Peace.
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If I should die this very moment I wouldn't fear For I've never known completeness Like being here Wrapped in the warmth of you Loving every breath of you
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MushmanTheManic
Stranger

Registered: 04/21/05
Posts: 4,587
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Re: The War Prayer by Mark Twain [Re: fireworks_god]
#5361917 - 03/03/06 03:09 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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You've been tele-hypnotized into the neocon production studio reality-tunnel. Iraq doesn't exist.
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Fospher
Crime FightingMaster Criminal


Registered: 02/09/05
Posts: 2,033
Loc: The Netherlands
Last seen: 12 years, 3 months
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Re: The War Prayer by Mark Twain [Re: fireworks_god]
#5362222 - 03/03/06 04:46 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
fireworks_god said:
Quote:
Fospher said: When Bush's reign of impulse stupidity has passed, the troops are pulled out of Iraq with no democracy installed, no food, water or electricity in the country, another Saddam-like dictator is put to power, the masses probably wont learn anything once again through the dense fog of media propaganda.
I don't stay very well tuned-in to the situation, but it was my impression that the general progress within the country is not as you describe it, or is it tending towards that direction.
I understand that there is still a violent insurgency, but yet it sounded as though there was some development of the basic infastructure that is typical of a Western civilization country occuring. 
 Peace.
Without this thread getting moved to the politics forum, I'll get you up to speed.
There cannot be democracy in Iraq. Iraq is a mix of three violent tribes, all waiting for any moment to cut each other's throat. This conflict is not some 5 year war, this has been going on for centuries. The only person that was able to keep these people in line was Saddam, who did not side with either the Shiites, Sunnis or Kurds, but would kill whoever got out of line and started a revolt. If there was a democracy, the Shiites would win, hence they're the country's majority. If the Shiites win, that would obviously be the end of Sunnis in Iraq (It is said in Holy Shiite scriptures that you will be rewarded in the afterlife if you kill a Sunni in the act of Jihad).
What people dont understand is that these people obtain a gang-like mentality. Are you going to go to Southside chicago and tell the gangs to just split the city evenly and fairly in peaceful manner? These people do not understand diplomacy, and the only thing that keeps them in line is brute force.
The Bush reign is one of the most atrocious and blind reigns in US history. Everyday you hear reports of 17, 20 soldiers dying in Iraq. And for what? To leave the country in the worse state that it was in before? At least before the invasion they had museums, food, water, electricity. Now all they have left are pissed of Muslims on the brink of civil war.
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Help on the Way
Slipknot420

Registered: 08/12/00
Posts: 2,893
Loc: Another World
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thanks for posting that, that was an awesome read!
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*Divine Moments of Truth* "Limitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns - it calls me on and on across the universe" ~ John Lennon "Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right" ~The Grateful Dead "Religionists, with their guaranteed eventual paradise, of which they know nothing, taking it all on 'faith,' can't be expected to understand or sympathize with those with a yen to storm the Gate of Heaven and see for themselves what all the praying's about!" ~Robert Hunter
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