#warandpeace — Public Fediverse posts

https://www.europesays.com/uk/?p=1229323 Protestant march through Catholic community opens old wounds in Northern Ireland #Europe #international #Ireland #NorthernIreland #UK #UnitedKingdom #USPolitics #WarAndPeace

See Ai Weiwei’s new art outside Sydney museum inspired by Ukraine war

Visitors to Sydney can see the latest work by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, who has unveiled an installation…
#Conflict #Conflicts #War #AiWeiwei #combathelmets #controversialdecision #installation #MCAAustralia #MUSHROOMS #NeilBalnavesTallawoladahLawnCommission #protectivehelmets #sydneyharbour #Ukraine #war #WarandPeace
https://www.europesays.com/3276566/

See Ai Weiwei’s new art outside Sydney museum inspired by Ukraine war

Visitors to Sydney can see the latest work by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, who has unveiled an installation…
#Ukraine #UA #Europe #Europa #EU #News #AiWeiwei #combathelmets #controversialdecision #installation #MCAAustralia #Mushrooms #NeilBalnavesTallawoladahLawnCommission #protectivehelmets #SydneyHarbour #warandpeace
https://www.europesays.com/ukraine/48683/

Embarrassed To Be An American.

Posted by Jerry Alatalo | September 26, 2026

[Editor’s note: I align fully with the profound sentiments expressed by retired U.S. Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson and retired CIA veteran Larry Johnson in their absolutely amazing Friday discussion with “Dialogue Works” host Nima Alkhorshid. Most discussions hosted by Mr. Alkhorshid are excellent, but this revelatory exercise – born out of necessity given the horrid current state of international relations – rises to a rarely-witnessed higher level of fearless free speech excellence.

Here is my concise take on the current unprecedented, inestimably-precarious state of the human condition:

After their shocking, repugnant, insulting-to-intelligence speeches to the world at the United Nations General Assembly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu have been denounced by the majority of the world’s people, – leading to valid/common sense speculation that both deceiving, hostile, clear-and-present-danger war criminals will soon – mercifully – become forced out of power.

Peace.

Please share this astounding discussion (170,000 views on YouTube in 24 hours) far and wide. Please feel free to share your thoughts and/or responses in the comments. Thank you very much. Good day.]

https://www.youtube.com/live/9x0nhBxis_o?si=zwhmddjCnVXv879c

Embarrassed To Be An American.

Posted by Jerry Alatalo | September 26, 2026

[Editor’s note: I align fully with the profound sentiments expressed by retired U.S. Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson and retired CIA veteran Larry Johnson in their absolutely amazing Friday discussion with “Dialogue Works” host Nima Alkhorshid. Most discussions hosted by Mr. Alkhorshid are excellent, but this revelatory exercise – born out of necessity given the horrid current state of international relations – rises to a rarely-witnessed higher level of fearless free speech excellence.

Here is my concise take on the current unprecedented, inestimably-precarious state of the human condition:

After their shocking, repugnant, insulting-to-intelligence speeches to the world at the United Nations General Assembly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu have been denounced by the majority of the world’s people, – leading to valid/common sense speculation that both deceiving, hostile, clear-and-present-danger war criminals will soon – mercifully – become forced out of power.

Peace.

Please share this astounding discussion (170,000 views on YouTube in 24 hours) far and wide. Please feel free to share your thoughts and/or responses in the comments. Thank you very much. Good day.]

https://www.youtube.com/live/9x0nhBxis_o?si=zwhmddjCnVXv879c

Embarrassed To Be An American.

Posted by Jerry Alatalo | September 26, 2026

[Editor’s note: I align fully with the profound sentiments expressed by retired U.S. Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson and retired CIA veteran Larry Johnson in their absolutely amazing Friday discussion with “Dialogue Works” host Nima Alkhorshid. Most discussions hosted by Mr. Alkhorshid are excellent, but this revelatory exercise – born out of necessity given the horrid current state of international relations – rises to a rarely-witnessed higher level of fearless free speech excellence.

Here is my concise take on the current unprecedented, inestimably-precarious state of the human condition:

After their shocking, repugnant, insulting-to-intelligence speeches to the world at the United Nations General Assembly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu have been denounced by the majority of the world’s people, – leading to valid/common sense speculation that both deceiving, hostile, clear-and-present-danger war criminals will soon – mercifully – become forced out of power.

Peace.

Please share this astounding discussion (170,000 views on YouTube in 24 hours) far and wide. Please feel free to share your thoughts and/or responses in the comments. Thank you very much. Good day.]

https://www.youtube.com/live/9x0nhBxis_o?si=zwhmddjCnVXv879c

Embarrassed To Be An American.

Posted by Jerry Alatalo | September 26, 2026

[Editor’s note: I align fully with the profound sentiments expressed by retired U.S. Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson and retired CIA veteran Larry Johnson in their absolutely amazing Friday discussion with “Dialogue Works” host Nima Alkhorshid. Most discussions hosted by Mr. Alkhorshid are excellent, but this revelatory exercise – born out of necessity given the horrid current state of international relations – rises to a rarely-witnessed higher level of fearless free speech excellence.

Here is my concise take on the current unprecedented, inestimably-precarious state of the human condition:

After their shocking, repugnant, insulting-to-intelligence speeches to the world at the United Nations General Assembly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu have been denounced by the majority of the world’s people, – leading to valid/common sense speculation that both deceiving, hostile, clear-and-present-danger war criminals will soon – mercifully – become forced out of power.

Peace.

Please share this astounding discussion (170,000 views on YouTube in 24 hours) far and wide. Please feel free to share your thoughts and/or responses in the comments. Thank you very much. Good day.]

https://www.youtube.com/live/9x0nhBxis_o?si=zwhmddjCnVXv879c

Movie TV Tech Geeks #BooksandComics #WarandPeace 8 Great Books Where Every Chapter Is Perfect http://dlvr.it/TVd2dX

https://www.europesays.com/africa/439571/ Global hunger and food scarcity are among the costs of war #MarginNotes #WarAndPeace #zimbabwe

https://www.europesays.com/conflicts/1303/ Global hunger and food scarcity are among the costs of war #MarginNotes #US&Wars #WarAndPeace

https://www.europesays.com/ch/131618/ How can the pope preach peace behind an armed Swiss Guard? #Pope #Swiss #Switzerland #WarAndPeace

trumpsauthoritarianassault.blogspot.com/2026/09/lp-1... #PeaceTalks #WarAndPeace #EvidenceBasedResearch #MediaAccountability #PoliticalResponsibility #Conscription #Frontline #Channel5 #DailyMailOriginals #CivicEmpowerment

LP-136 Boris Johnson Into Ukra...

🚀 Oh look, another tech bro's magnum opus: a riveting tale of running #Qwen3.8 on a Mac Studio, complete with thrilling RAM usage stats and a 20-minute "gotcha" 🙄. Truly, it's the War and Peace of terminal commands! 🍿
https://terminalbytes.com/run-qwen-3-8-27b-locally/ #techbro #tales #MacStudio #RAMusage #terminalcommands #WarandPeace #HackerNews #ngated

🚀 Oh look, another tech bro's magnum opus: a riveting tale of running #Qwen3.8 on a Mac Studio, complete with thrilling RAM usage stats and a 20-minute "gotcha" 🙄. Truly, it's the War and Peace of terminal commands! 🍿
https://terminalbytes.com/run-qwen-3-8-27b-locally/ #techbro #tales #MacStudio #RAMusage #terminalcommands #WarandPeace #HackerNews #ngated

🚀 Oh look, another tech bro's magnum opus: a riveting tale of running #Qwen3.8 on a Mac Studio, complete with thrilling RAM usage stats and a 20-minute "gotcha" 🙄. Truly, it's the War and Peace of terminal commands! 🍿
https://terminalbytes.com/run-qwen-3-8-27b-locally/ #techbro #tales #MacStudio #RAMusage #terminalcommands #WarandPeace #HackerNews #ngated

🚀 Oh look, another tech bro's magnum opus: a riveting tale of running #Qwen3.8 on a Mac Studio, complete with thrilling RAM usage stats and a 20-minute "gotcha" 🙄. Truly, it's the War and Peace of terminal commands! 🍿
https://terminalbytes.com/run-qwen-3-8-27b-locally/ #techbro #tales #MacStudio #RAMusage #terminalcommands #WarandPeace #HackerNews #ngated

https://www.europesays.com/iran/258656/ Pope Leo meets Lebanese president; security issues at center of talks #ApostolicPalace #CatholicChurch #CatholicNews #JosephAoun #LebanesePresident #Lebanon #PopeLeo #PopeLeoXIV #SecurityIssues #TrilateralFrameworkAgreement #vatican #VaticanNews #WarAndPeace

https://www.europesays.com/dk/144564/ Lessons from the Berlin Wall for Trump’s America: You can’t keep people in (or out) forever. #berlin #books #europe #Germany #history #Literature #WarAndPeace

Lessons from the Berlin Wall for Trump’s America: You can’t keep people in (or out) forever.

Sixty-five years ago this week, soldiers and engineers of the German Democratic Republic began construction on the 20th…
#Germany #DE #Europe #EU #Europa #Berlin #Books #History #literature #WarandPeace
https://www.europesays.com/germany/70777/

Movie TV Tech Geeks #Movie #TheOdyssey #WarandPeace 10 Most Impressive Epic Movies of All Time http://dlvr.it/TTs3PS

Movie TV Tech Geeks #Movie #TheOdyssey #WarandPeace 10 Most Impressive Epic Movies of All Time http://dlvr.it/TTs3PS

Movie TV Tech Geeks #Movie #WarandPeace #TheLeopard #TheEmigrants 10 Forgotten Epic Movies That Are Perfect From Start to Finish http://dlvr.it/TTpmNY

Movie TV Tech Geeks #Movie #WarandPeace #TheLeopard #TheEmigrants 10 Forgotten Epic Movies That Are Perfect From Start to Finish http://dlvr.it/TTpmNY

It’s in the Blood

In 1539, a fugitive former-priest-turned-Anabaptist, in his seminal work “The Foundation,” penned the following words:

“Christ is our fortress; patience our weapon of defense; the Word of God our sword. …Iron and metal spears and swords we leave to those who, alas, regard human blood and swine’s blood of well-nigh equal value.”

So said Menno Simons, principal leader of the Protestant sect which then became known as the Mennonites.

More than 500 years later, his words still resound with a mighty truth.

At the risk of sounding morbid, it has to do with blood.

While Menno specifically refers to the difference between human blood and that of an animal, his larger point is the “value” we place on the blood of another.

My point is quite simple.

Killing will not end through education, conflict resolution, or disarmament, though all of these are important and can help. Killing will end only when there is a fundamental shift in the mind and heart of those who kill.

For how can you kill someone if you believe that their blood is just as valuable as your own?

Let’s call it – for lack of a better term – bloodism.

The other – their humanity, life, blood – is somehow less than I, and therefore, their humanity, life, blood, is not as valuable as my own. It becomes quite easy then to justify killing the other, ie. spilling his/her blood.

The directors of death throughout history from every nation, tribe and religion have understood and disseminated this concept quite well. A person (and those like him/her) is described as having the wrong beliefs, the wrong skin color, the wrong gender, the wrong age, the wrong station in life, the wrong land, the wrong possessions, the wrong clothing, the wrong language —- the wrong blood. These others are not as valued as you are, the leaders of the macabre scream, though they couch their speech in terms such as vigilance, freedom, history, security, and truth.

Then the killing begins.

The Nazis did it to the Jews. Israelis do it to the Palestinians. Hutus did it to the Tutsis. Shiite do it to the Sunni. Palestinians do it to the Israelis. Sunni do it to the Shiite. Muslims do it to the Christians. Christians do it to the Muslims. This country does it to that country. That neighborhood does it to this neighborhood. This race does it to that race. That religion does it to this religion.

And any one of a million other combinations.

STOP!

Do not allow your mind and heart to be filled with bloodism.

We are made in the image of God.

ALL of us.

And that divine DNA resides in the very marrow of our bones and flows through our veins.

It’s in the blood.

July 28, 2014

It’s in the Blood

In 1539, a fugitive former-priest-turned-Anabaptist, in his seminal work “The Foundation,” penned the following words:

“Christ is our fortress; patience our weapon of defense; the Word of God our sword. …Iron and metal spears and swords we leave to those who, alas, regard human blood and swine’s blood of well-nigh equal value.”

So said Menno Simons, principal leader of the Protestant sect which then became known as the Mennonites.

More than 500 years later, his words still resound with a mighty truth.

At the risk of sounding morbid, it has to do with blood.

While Menno specifically refers to the difference between human blood and that of an animal, his larger point is the “value” we place on the blood of another.

My point is quite simple.

Killing will not end through education, conflict resolution, or disarmament, though all of these are important and can help. Killing will end only when there is a fundamental shift in the mind and heart of those who kill.

For how can you kill someone if you believe that their blood is just as valuable as your own?

Let’s call it – for lack of a better term – bloodism.

The other – their humanity, life, blood – is somehow less than I, and therefore, their humanity, life, blood, is not as valuable as my own. It becomes quite easy then to justify killing the other, ie. spilling his/her blood.

The directors of death throughout history from every nation, tribe and religion have understood and disseminated this concept quite well. A person (and those like him/her) is described as having the wrong beliefs, the wrong skin color, the wrong gender, the wrong age, the wrong station in life, the wrong land, the wrong possessions, the wrong clothing, the wrong language —- the wrong blood. These others are not as valued as you are, the leaders of the macabre scream, though they couch their speech in terms such as vigilance, freedom, history, security, and truth.

Then the killing begins.

The Nazis did it to the Jews. Israelis do it to the Palestinians. Hutus did it to the Tutsis. Shiite do it to the Sunni. Palestinians do it to the Israelis. Sunni do it to the Shiite. Muslims do it to the Christians. Christians do it to the Muslims. This country does it to that country. That neighborhood does it to this neighborhood. This race does it to that race. That religion does it to this religion.

And any one of a million other combinations.

STOP!

Do not allow your mind and heart to be filled with bloodism.

We are made in the image of God.

ALL of us.

And that divine DNA resides in the very marrow of our bones and flows through our veins.

It’s in the blood.

July 28, 2014

It’s in the Blood

In 1539, a fugitive former-priest-turned-Anabaptist, in his seminal work “The Foundation,” penned the following words:

“Christ is our fortress; patience our weapon of defense; the Word of God our sword. …Iron and metal spears and swords we leave to those who, alas, regard human blood and swine’s blood of well-nigh equal value.”

So said Menno Simons, principal leader of the Protestant sect which then became known as the Mennonites.

More than 500 years later, his words still resound with a mighty truth.

At the risk of sounding morbid, it has to do with blood.

While Menno specifically refers to the difference between human blood and that of an animal, his larger point is the “value” we place on the blood of another.

My point is quite simple.

Killing will not end through education, conflict resolution, or disarmament, though all of these are important and can help. Killing will end only when there is a fundamental shift in the mind and heart of those who kill.

For how can you kill someone if you believe that their blood is just as valuable as your own?

Let’s call it – for lack of a better term – bloodism.

The other – their humanity, life, blood – is somehow less than I, and therefore, their humanity, life, blood, is not as valuable as my own. It becomes quite easy then to justify killing the other, ie. spilling his/her blood.

The directors of death throughout history from every nation, tribe and religion have understood and disseminated this concept quite well. A person (and those like him/her) is described as having the wrong beliefs, the wrong skin color, the wrong gender, the wrong age, the wrong station in life, the wrong land, the wrong possessions, the wrong clothing, the wrong language —- the wrong blood. These others are not as valued as you are, the leaders of the macabre scream, though they couch their speech in terms such as vigilance, freedom, history, security, and truth.

Then the killing begins.

The Nazis did it to the Jews. Israelis do it to the Palestinians. Hutus did it to the Tutsis. Shiite do it to the Sunni. Palestinians do it to the Israelis. Sunni do it to the Shiite. Muslims do it to the Christians. Christians do it to the Muslims. This country does it to that country. That neighborhood does it to this neighborhood. This race does it to that race. That religion does it to this religion.

And any one of a million other combinations.

STOP!

Do not allow your mind and heart to be filled with bloodism.

We are made in the image of God.

ALL of us.

And that divine DNA resides in the very marrow of our bones and flows through our veins.

It’s in the blood.

July 28, 2014

Movie TV Tech Geeks #BooksandComics #TheStand #WarandPeace 10 Best Epic Books of All Time http://dlvr.it/TTTXBB

Movie TV Tech Geeks #BooksandComics #TheLordoftheRings #WarandPeace 25 Best Books of All Time http://dlvr.it/TTMBwf

Movie TV Tech Geeks #BooksandComics #TheStand #WarandPeace 10 Most Ambitious Books of All Time http://dlvr.it/TTHr7S

https://www.europesays.com/iran/?p=179082 After Iran debacle, is the Trump admin ready to listen to the Vatican? #DonaldTrump #International #Iran #PopeLeoXIV #USPolitics #WarAndPeace

Movie TV Tech Geeks #Movie #LawrenceofArabia #WarandPeace 10 Best Epic Movies of the 1960s http://dlvr.it/TTCmT7

Movie TV Tech Geeks #Movie #LawrenceofArabia #WarandPeace 10 Best Epic Movies of the 1960s http://dlvr.it/TTCmT7

Freedom News: **Dissident Russian artist murdered in Poland**

https://freedomnews.org.uk/2026/06/21/dissident-russian-artist-murdered-in-poland/

Assassination of Semyon Skrepetsky is a threatening message to the entire Russian opposition in Europe ~ Nikita Ivansky ~ Bashkir artist Semyon Skr…
The post Dissident Russian artist murdered in Poland appeared first on Freedom News.

#News #EasternEurope #WarandPeace

Freedom News: **Dissident Russian artist murdered in Poland**

https://freedomnews.org.uk/2026/06/21/dissident-russian-artist-murdered-in-poland/

Assassination of Semyon Skrepetsky is a threatening message to the entire Russian opposition in Europe ~ Nikita Ivansky ~ Bashkir artist Semyon Skr…
The post Dissident Russian artist murdered in Poland appeared first on Freedom News.

#News #EasternEurope #WarandPeace

Freedom News: **Dissident Russian artist murdered in Poland**

https://freedomnews.org.uk/2026/06/21/dissident-russian-artist-murdered-in-poland/

Assassination of Semyon Skrepetsky is a threatening message to the entire Russian opposition in Europe ~ Nikita Ivansky ~ Bashkir artist Semyon Skr…
The post Dissident Russian artist murdered in Poland appeared first on Freedom News.

#News #EasternEurope #WarandPeace

Freedom News: **Dissident Russian artist murdered in Poland**

https://freedomnews.org.uk/2026/06/21/dissident-russian-artist-murdered-in-poland/

Assassination of Semyon Skrepetsky is a threatening message to the entire Russian opposition in Europe ~ Nikita Ivansky ~ Bashkir artist Semyon Skr…
The post Dissident Russian artist murdered in Poland appeared first on Freedom News.

#News #EasternEurope #WarandPeace

Dissident Russian artist murdered in Poland

Assassination of Semyon Skrepetsky is a threatening message to the entire Russian opposition in Europe ~ Nikita Ivansky…
#Poland #Polska #PL #Europe #Europa #EU #EasternEurope #WarandPeace
https://www.europesays.com/poland/13257/

The dangerous delusion of modern warfare

https://economist.com/interactive/essay/2026/05/28/the-dangerous-delusion-of-modern-warfare

#HackerNews #dangerousdelusion #modernwarfare #militarystrategy #conflictanalysis #warandpeace

The dangerous delusion of modern warfare

https://economist.com/interactive/essay/2026/05/28/the-dangerous-delusion-of-modern-warfare

#HackerNews #dangerousdelusion #modernwarfare #militarystrategy #conflictanalysis #warandpeace

The dangerous delusion of modern warfare

https://economist.com/interactive/essay/2026/05/28/the-dangerous-delusion-of-modern-warfare

#HackerNews #dangerousdelusion #modernwarfare #militarystrategy #conflictanalysis #warandpeace

The dangerous delusion of modern warfare

https://economist.com/interactive/essay/2026/05/28/the-dangerous-delusion-of-modern-warfare

#HackerNews #dangerousdelusion #modernwarfare #militarystrategy #conflictanalysis #warandpeace

https://www.europesays.com/people/93467/ EU’s Kallas warns debate on Ukraine war mediator is ‘Russian trap’ #EUCountries #EUHighRepresentative #EuropeanCentralBank #EuropeanCouncil #EuropeanUnion #GermanChancellorAngelaMerkel #KajaKallas #PeaceTalksBetweenRussiaAndUkraine #Russia'sWar #RussianTroops #SanctionsAgainstRussia #Ukraine #UkraineWar #WarAndPeace

When Universe tries hard to send a message #bookworm #lovecraft #1984 #warandpeace #artofwar

https://www.europesays.com/people/90814/ EU’s Kallas warns debate on Ukraine war mediator is ‘Russian trap’ #EstonianKallas #EUCountries #EUHighRepresentative #EuropeanCentralBank #EuropeanCouncil #EuropeanUnion #ForeignMinisters #KajaKallas #PeaceTalksBetweenRussiaAndUkraine #Russia #Ukraine #UkraineWar #WarAndPeace

EU’s Kallas warns debate on Ukraine war mediator is ‘Russian trap’

The European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, warned on Thursday against speculation about who might represent the EU…
#Europe #EU #EstonianKallas #EUcountries #EUHighRepresentative #EuropeanCentralBank #EuropeanCouncil #EuropeanUnion #foreignministers #KajaKallas #peacetalksbetweenRussiaandUkraine #Russia #Ukraine #Ukrainewar #warandpeace
https://www.europesays.com/europe/55119/

War Prayer: Memorial Day 2026.

Posted by Jerry Alatalo | May 24, 2026

The War Prayer by Mark Twain: The War Prayer
(1905) is Twain’s searing antiwar parable, in which a mysterious stranger reveals the unspoken horror beneath a congregation’s patriotic prayer for victory. Twain withheld it from publication during his lifetime, saying: “Only dead men can tell the truth in this world.”

The central theme is the hypocrisy of wartime patriotism and religious fervor. Mark Twain argues that when a nation prays for military victory, it is simultaneously — whether it acknowledges it or not — praying for the destruction of other human beings. The stranger’s “unspoken prayer” lays bare this moral contradiction: asking God to “help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds” and “help us to lay waste their humble homes.” Twain suggests that societies wrap violence in the language of piety and duty to avoid confronting what war actually requires.

Mark Twain wrote The War Prayer around 1904–1905, during the Philippine-American War, but it remained unpublished until after his death in 1910. When he submitted it to Harper’s Bazaar, it was rejected as “not quite suited to a woman’s magazine.” His family — particularly his daughter Jean — also discouraged publication, fearing the piece would be considered sacrilegious. Twain himself reportedly said, “I have told the whole truth in that, and only dead men can tell the truth in this world.” The story was finally published in 1923 in the posthumous collection Europe and Elsewhere, edited by his literary executor Albert Bigelow Paine.

The story ends with a single devastating sentence: “It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.” This is the story’s most powerful stroke of irony — the stranger has spoken the clearest, most logical truth in the entire piece, yet the congregation rejects it entirely. The ending reveals that the problem is not ignorance but willful refusal to understand. The congregation heard every word; they simply chose to label the messenger insane rather than confront the moral implications of their own prayer. Twain suggests that societies will always prefer comfortable delusion over uncomfortable truth, and that those who speak plainly about the costs of war will be marginalized as lunatics or traitors.

***

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 sputtering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spreads 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 outpouring 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 faces alight with material dreams-visions of a 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 heros, 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 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 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 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 His Who hearth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this-keep it in mind. If you 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.

***

(Source/credit: AmericanLiterature.com)

War Prayer: Memorial Day 2026.

Posted by Jerry Alatalo | May 24, 2026

The War Prayer by Mark Twain: The War Prayer
(1905) is Twain’s searing antiwar parable, in which a mysterious stranger reveals the unspoken horror beneath a congregation’s patriotic prayer for victory. Twain withheld it from publication during his lifetime, saying: “Only dead men can tell the truth in this world.”

The central theme is the hypocrisy of wartime patriotism and religious fervor. Mark Twain argues that when a nation prays for military victory, it is simultaneously — whether it acknowledges it or not — praying for the destruction of other human beings. The stranger’s “unspoken prayer” lays bare this moral contradiction: asking God to “help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds” and “help us to lay waste their humble homes.” Twain suggests that societies wrap violence in the language of piety and duty to avoid confronting what war actually requires.

Mark Twain wrote The War Prayer around 1904–1905, during the Philippine-American War, but it remained unpublished until after his death in 1910. When he submitted it to Harper’s Bazaar, it was rejected as “not quite suited to a woman’s magazine.” His family — particularly his daughter Jean — also discouraged publication, fearing the piece would be considered sacrilegious. Twain himself reportedly said, “I have told the whole truth in that, and only dead men can tell the truth in this world.” The story was finally published in 1923 in the posthumous collection Europe and Elsewhere, edited by his literary executor Albert Bigelow Paine.

The story ends with a single devastating sentence: “It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.” This is the story’s most powerful stroke of irony — the stranger has spoken the clearest, most logical truth in the entire piece, yet the congregation rejects it entirely. The ending reveals that the problem is not ignorance but willful refusal to understand. The congregation heard every word; they simply chose to label the messenger insane rather than confront the moral implications of their own prayer. Twain suggests that societies will always prefer comfortable delusion over uncomfortable truth, and that those who speak plainly about the costs of war will be marginalized as lunatics or traitors.

***

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 sputtering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spreads 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 outpouring 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 faces alight with material dreams-visions of a 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 heros, 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 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 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 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 His Who hearth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this-keep it in mind. If you 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.

***

(Source/credit: AmericanLiterature.com)

War Prayer: Memorial Day 2026.

Posted by Jerry Alatalo | May 24, 2026

The War Prayer by Mark Twain: The War Prayer
(1905) is Twain’s searing antiwar parable, in which a mysterious stranger reveals the unspoken horror beneath a congregation’s patriotic prayer for victory. Twain withheld it from publication during his lifetime, saying: “Only dead men can tell the truth in this world.”

The central theme is the hypocrisy of wartime patriotism and religious fervor. Mark Twain argues that when a nation prays for military victory, it is simultaneously — whether it acknowledges it or not — praying for the destruction of other human beings. The stranger’s “unspoken prayer” lays bare this moral contradiction: asking God to “help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds” and “help us to lay waste their humble homes.” Twain suggests that societies wrap violence in the language of piety and duty to avoid confronting what war actually requires.

Mark Twain wrote The War Prayer around 1904–1905, during the Philippine-American War, but it remained unpublished until after his death in 1910. When he submitted it to Harper’s Bazaar, it was rejected as “not quite suited to a woman’s magazine.” His family — particularly his daughter Jean — also discouraged publication, fearing the piece would be considered sacrilegious. Twain himself reportedly said, “I have told the whole truth in that, and only dead men can tell the truth in this world.” The story was finally published in 1923 in the posthumous collection Europe and Elsewhere, edited by his literary executor Albert Bigelow Paine.

The story ends with a single devastating sentence: “It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.” This is the story’s most powerful stroke of irony — the stranger has spoken the clearest, most logical truth in the entire piece, yet the congregation rejects it entirely. The ending reveals that the problem is not ignorance but willful refusal to understand. The congregation heard every word; they simply chose to label the messenger insane rather than confront the moral implications of their own prayer. Twain suggests that societies will always prefer comfortable delusion over uncomfortable truth, and that those who speak plainly about the costs of war will be marginalized as lunatics or traitors.

***

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 sputtering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spreads 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 outpouring 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 faces alight with material dreams-visions of a 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 heros, 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 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 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 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 His Who hearth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this-keep it in mind. If you 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.

***

(Source/credit: AmericanLiterature.com)

War Prayer: Memorial Day 2026.

Posted by Jerry Alatalo | May 24, 2026

The War Prayer by Mark Twain: The War Prayer
(1905) is Twain’s searing antiwar parable, in which a mysterious stranger reveals the unspoken horror beneath a congregation’s patriotic prayer for victory. Twain withheld it from publication during his lifetime, saying: “Only dead men can tell the truth in this world.”

The central theme is the hypocrisy of wartime patriotism and religious fervor. Mark Twain argues that when a nation prays for military victory, it is simultaneously — whether it acknowledges it or not — praying for the destruction of other human beings. The stranger’s “unspoken prayer” lays bare this moral contradiction: asking God to “help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds” and “help us to lay waste their humble homes.” Twain suggests that societies wrap violence in the language of piety and duty to avoid confronting what war actually requires.

Mark Twain wrote The War Prayer around 1904–1905, during the Philippine-American War, but it remained unpublished until after his death in 1910. When he submitted it to Harper’s Bazaar, it was rejected as “not quite suited to a woman’s magazine.” His family — particularly his daughter Jean — also discouraged publication, fearing the piece would be considered sacrilegious. Twain himself reportedly said, “I have told the whole truth in that, and only dead men can tell the truth in this world.” The story was finally published in 1923 in the posthumous collection Europe and Elsewhere, edited by his literary executor Albert Bigelow Paine.

The story ends with a single devastating sentence: “It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.” This is the story’s most powerful stroke of irony — the stranger has spoken the clearest, most logical truth in the entire piece, yet the congregation rejects it entirely. The ending reveals that the problem is not ignorance but willful refusal to understand. The congregation heard every word; they simply chose to label the messenger insane rather than confront the moral implications of their own prayer. Twain suggests that societies will always prefer comfortable delusion over uncomfortable truth, and that those who speak plainly about the costs of war will be marginalized as lunatics or traitors.

***

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 sputtering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spreads 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 outpouring 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 faces alight with material dreams-visions of a 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 heros, 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 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 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 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 His Who hearth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this-keep it in mind. If you 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.

***

(Source/credit: AmericanLiterature.com)

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Movie TV Tech Geeks #Movie #Amadeus #WarandPeace #BarryLyndon 8 Perfect Period Movies That Have Aged Like Fine Wine http://dlvr.it/TSgJgH

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Ah, the age-old tale 🎭: AI economics are ludicrous! Yet, let's humorously pay $70 a year for a novella-length newsletter to tell us why 🤡. Because nothing says "insightful analysis" like a word count that rivals War and Peace 📚.
https://www.wheresyoured.at/ais-economics-dont-make-sense/ #AIeconomics #HumorNewsletter #InsightfulAnalysis #WarAndPeace #NovellaLength #HackerNews #ngated

Ah, the age-old tale 🎭: AI economics are ludicrous! Yet, let's humorously pay $70 a year for a novella-length newsletter to tell us why 🤡. Because nothing says "insightful analysis" like a word count that rivals War and Peace 📚.
https://www.wheresyoured.at/ais-economics-dont-make-sense/ #AIeconomics #HumorNewsletter #InsightfulAnalysis #WarAndPeace #NovellaLength #HackerNews #ngated

Ah, the age-old tale 🎭: AI economics are ludicrous! Yet, let's humorously pay $70 a year for a novella-length newsletter to tell us why 🤡. Because nothing says "insightful analysis" like a word count that rivals War and Peace 📚.
https://www.wheresyoured.at/ais-economics-dont-make-sense/ #AIeconomics #HumorNewsletter #InsightfulAnalysis #WarAndPeace #NovellaLength #HackerNews #ngated

Ah, the age-old tale 🎭: AI economics are ludicrous! Yet, let's humorously pay $70 a year for a novella-length newsletter to tell us why 🤡. Because nothing says "insightful analysis" like a word count that rivals War and Peace 📚.
https://www.wheresyoured.at/ais-economics-dont-make-sense/ #AIeconomics #HumorNewsletter #InsightfulAnalysis #WarAndPeace #NovellaLength #HackerNews #ngated