MARK TWAIN'S WAR PRAYER

To me the most blasphemous and shattering bit of news in this war time is the account of the days of prayer appointed by Czar Nicholas, Emperor William, and Emperor Francis Joseph.

The laughable, were it not so hideous, absurdity of an army, a huge organization about to set out upon the devil's most precious business of wreck and ruin, gathering in a church. and having the amazing audacity to ask Jesus to bless them and give victory to their arms!

Can you understand how custom and mobreason can so distort men's intelligence that they pray to Him whose whole plea was righteousness to give His benediction to war, "the sum of all villainies"?

Every inch and atom of His teaching, together with the undivided influence of His person and acts, was against violence.

"Turn the other cheek," He said; and "If a man compel you to go with him a mile, go with him twain." "If one take thy coat, give

him thy cloak also." "They that take the sword shall perish by the sword." "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."

I do not here contend that Jesus was practical, or even right, nor that the war-lords of Europe are not wiser than He. All the point I make is this: Why in common sense do said warriors insult Him by asking His Blessing, in addition to rejecting wholly His programme of spiritual force only?

Dr. Henry Neumann is authority for the statement that Mark Twain wrote a "War Prayer" a few years before his death. He never published it, as his friends told him it would be a sacrilege.

The article describes a regiment gathered in church to pray for victory before marching forth to battle. As the prayer concludes, a white-robed stranger enters the church and says:

"I have been sent by the Almighty to tell you that He will grant your petition if you still desire it after I have explained to you its full import. You are asking for more than you seem to be aware of. You have prayed aloud for victory over your foes, but listen now to the unspoken part of your prayer, and ask yourselves if this is what you desire."

Then the stranger speaks aloud these implications of their words:

"Oh, 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 of their patriot dead; 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. Blast their hopes, blight their lives, water their way with their tears."

If we are all to go in for war, and for settling our disputes by war methods, would it not be consistent to discard definitely the name of Christian from our civilization, and frankly avow ourselves as Devil Worshippers?

Wednesday, August 12, 1914.

THE BEGINNINGS OF WORLD
UNITY

WHILE the present war is undoubtedly to be a great step preparatory to the downfall of imperialism and the end of the present system of world government, where each nation presumes to keep up an armed force wherewith to settle its disputes, the beginnings of real world government by law are taking place.

The two significant factors in laying the foundations of an intelligent Parliament of Man are Holland and the United States of America.

Since the Jay treaty of 1794, which introduced arbitration into the modern practice of nations, the United States has been a leader in the peaceful settlement of international differences.

Since the meeting of the first peace conference at The Hague in 1899 Holland has been the centre of international development. By virtue of its position and its traditions

the Dutch city of The Hague has become the unofficial capital of the new world-order.

That new world-order is that nations shall no more appeal to arms in their dealings one with another, but shall bring their case into law and settle it by reason.

The necessary corollary of this, although out of respect for the high-mightinesses of the nations it is not mentioned, is that nations shall cease the practice of keeping up each a huge army and navy.

It is the presence, the existence, of large armaments that was the cause of the European outbreak. The unwillingness of nations to abandon militarism and to agree upon legal arbitration is costing them untold lives and treasure.

Pride, mediævalism, autocracy, and militarism are not mere picturesque stupidity; they contain in themselves the seeds of the destruction of the world.

Through the efforts of Mr. Bryan twentyone countries (July 24, 1914) have entered into treaties indorsing the peace plan.

While these treaties differ in minor details they are all similar to the agreement between the United States and Holland.

The main thing in all the treaties mentioned is that the two nations in the compact agree