Mark Twain's War Prayer.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 25 May 1915, Page 3

Mark Twain's War Prayer.

JJr HtMuy Xeumaii, iu an addru&> at the Brooklyn Society lor iitkical Culture, at the .Brooklyn Academy ol Music quoted from, an unpublished article by .Murk Twain on the subject of war. He said : A lew years betore his death Mark Twain wrote an article entitled 'The War Prayer.' It describes how a regiment gathers in a clnwcli before it departs lor the war and prays for victory. Aα the prayer concludes a white-robed stranger enters the church and says: 'J have been sent by the Almighty to tell you that he will grant your petition ii you will deaire it after 1 have explained to you it<s full import. You are asking lor more than you seem to be auare of. You have prayed aloud for victory over your foefi } but listen now to the U'lispoken portion ol your prayer and ask yourselves speaks akHid tlie.se implications of their words: 'O. Lord, help us to tear the soldiers of the foe to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms ot their patriot dead; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of lire; help us to wring the hearts of their unofferding widows with mivailing grief. Blast thoir hopes, blight their lives, water their way with their tears.' "Mark Twain never published this artido. His friends told him it would bo regarded as a sacrilege. Is it really sacrilege to say that men cannot pray for victory in war "without asking for these inevitable implications of their petition? What vonl<l it mean if we remembered this when the war spirit is abroad P"