Prayer, Praise, and the War Plot

Abstract

In “Letter to the Earth,” Mark Twain’s Recording Angel enacts an ironic version of the notion that God answers prayers. He writes to a human petitioner, Abner Scofield, in response to Abner’s prayers of a single week: “As regards your prayers …, I have the honor to report as follows: 1. For weather to advance hard coal 15 cents a ton. Granted. 2. For influx of laborers to reduce wages 10 percent. Granted.” The angel’s letter reveals that Abner has asked God for economic rewards for himself and illness, hardship, and death for various troublesome neighbors and employees. The remaining 298 supplications are granted “in a body, except that 3 of the 32 cases requiring immediate death have been modified to incurable disease” (Letters from the Earth 103–4).

Evening and morning and at noon

I utter my complaint and moan

and he will hear my voice.

Psalm 55:17–18

And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.

Matthew 21:22