Billings, Josh -- Josh Billings’ Trump Kards, ch. 11 “The Mermaid” (1874)

Dave — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 17:12:00 +0000

Be mersiphull to all the dum animals — no man can ride into heaven, on a sore-backed horse.

[Be merciful to all the dumb animals — no man can ride into heaven on a sore-backed horse.]

Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Trump Kards, ch. 11 “The Mermaid” (1874)
(Source)

Rauschenbusch, Walter -- Prayers of the Social Awakening, “For the World” (1910)

Dave — Wed, 17 Apr 2024 16:20:56 +0000

Enlarge within us the sense of fellowship with all the living things, our little brothers, to whom thou hast given this earth as their home in common with us. We remember with shame that in the past we have exercised the high dominion of man with ruthless cruelty, so that the voice of the Earth, which should have gone up to thee in song, has been a groan of travail. May we realize that they live, not for us alone, but for themselves and for thee, and that they love the sweetness of life even as we, and serve thee in their place better than we in ours.

Walter Rauschenbusch (1861-1918) American theologian, social reformer, Baptist pastor
Prayers of the Social Awakening, “For the World” (1910)
(Source)

This prayer is frequently misattributed to St Basil of Caesarea, often in a variant form such as this:

Oh God enlarge within us the sense of fellowship with all living things, our brothers the animals to whom Thou gavest the earth in common with us. We remember with shame that in the past we have exercised the high dominion of man with ruthless cruelty so that the voice of the earth, which should have gone up to Thee in song, has been a groan of travail.

The attributions to Basil are usually without citation, or with citations that are spurious in some fashion. For example, in Matthew Scully, Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy (2002), he cites Schaff and Wace, eds., A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series, Vol. 8 (1897), which is in fact about Basil's writings, but which does not appear to include this prayer.

Further discussion, in detail, can be found here: St. Basil’s “Animal Prayers” are a “Hoax” (Part One) | Animals Matter to God.

WIST Quotations

Billings, Josh -- Josh Billings’ Trump Kards, ch. 11 “The Mermaid” (1874)

Rauschenbusch, Walter -- Prayers of the Social Awakening, “For the World” (1910)