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 with 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 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 and 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 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 — excpet 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, and 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 your neighbor at the same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain on your crop which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse on 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 the 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!

“Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth into 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 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 in the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames in 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 pilgrimmage, 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.


http://www.atrueott.com/

Dear Matt Damon

Dear Matt Damon,

First of all, let me just say that I have enjoyed your work in various movies over the years. And congratulations on all of your success, both popularly and especially financially. But I want to talk specifically to you about one of your rolls, as the voice-over talent for the recent documentary movie entitled “Inside Job”.

Again, well done sir. This was a very well presented documentary on corruption most foul within the banking industry and in the United States government. But to be honest Matt, I have never seen a more well-done and yet totally incomplete presentation of the facts about such an important event in our nations history. In short, you were the narrator of one of the biggest propaganda pieces in history, and I was wondering how that feels…

You see Matt, I figure that your participation in this thing can only be explained by two possibilities:

1) You were just reading a script, and really don’t comprehend what was truly happening outside of what that script stated within the government and banking industry. And you thought you were truly part of something quite special.

2) You were fully aware of your participation in a government cover-up of the most important aspects of what really happened during this period of organized crime, and you were rewarded handsomely for your popularity and participation in this totally incomplete propaganda piece.

Now, I see that you are supportive of many charities and organizations around the world, and that pleases me as one of your fans. And so I am writing you this letter to let you know that I want to give you the benefit of the doubt with regards to your participation in this misleading documentary. I truly believe that you were doing what you thought was best (and I’m sure the paycheck wasn’t too bad either).

But if this assumption is true, I am wondering what you would do if you found out that you were unwittingly part of a massive misinformation campaign designed to obfuscate the most important aspects of this criminal event. Would you seek to publicly rectify the situation if you saw the proof that “Inside Job” was just a half-truth, designed to allow the very government who has ravished the third-world you are so desperately trying to help through your charities and support, get away with the financial crime of the century? Have you made enough millions yet that you would be willing to sacrifice your future movie career to truly educate humanity about the real Inside Job that took place and how it is directly responsible for the poverty and destitution that you publicly rally against?

As a fan, I’d like to know the answer to these questions…

So Matt, if you will indulge me for just 15 more minutes, I’d like to explain a few things to you, so that you might publicly address the true nature of the so-called financial collapse of 2007-2008 with a fully informed head. For that, I’ve prepared this video, which is just a short snip-it of a 4-hour documentary that I made on the same subject. Please know that this movie cost me nothing to make – except my valuable personal time – and is offered for free to the public without charge. I’m not selling anything. You see, it doesn’t take 20 million dollars to uncover the truth… not like the budget for “Inside Job”, just a deep passion for the truth and a hell of a lot of research.

Now, if you will, please view this 15 minute excerpt from this free movie, The Great Pension Fund Hoax:

So as you can see, Matt, Inside Job failed to mention the most important information for the comprehension of this whole Ponzi scheme – the fact that government had massive controlling stock investments in these banks, investment corporations, mortgage corporations, and bail-out receivers. In other words, the financial collapse of these corporations was not a collapse at all, but was instead a merger of government investment held and owned corporations through what is called “corporate governance”, as well as the complete and utter theft of billions and billions of dollars from the public. This term, corporate governance, was even mentioned once to my surprise in the movie – but with no explanation of what it actually means.

Again, now that you have received this holy grail of comprehension with regards to your documentary’s cover-up, and now that you can see the true nature of government’s complete conflict of interest as major share-holder of every major and important corporation on the planet – while also regulating the markets and industries those investment held banks and corporations operate under (including the major water companies like Nestle, Coca-cola, and Pepsi that are stealing all of the clean water from the African children you are banging your head against the wall trying to help) – what are you going to do about it?

What will you do…?

I mean, considering that the government also has major controlling shares in the very media industry that has made you such a wealthy and popular icon, do you have the integrity to stand up against the hand that feeds you in order to set into motion the necessary public comprehension that is needed to truly save the world from this organized propaganda and government-military industrial machine?

By the way, here are the investments in media companies, if you can spare another 10 minutes:

So what’s it gonna be, Matt?

Will you be the hero of our generation, exposing this truth to millions?

Or will you continue to support the very government corporate owned structure that is killing the families you’re trying to protect in your charitable organizations?

The choice… and the consequence of inaction is now yours, Matt. Because now you know.

Signed, a fan that hopes #1 is the answer you seek to rectify,

–Clint Richardson–

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Watch the full movie here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhkWueEjewM

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–Clint Richardson (realitybloger.wordpress.com)
–Thursday, March 22, 2012