The Project Gutenberg eBook, Bunyan Characters - Third Series, by
Alexander Whyte

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Title: Bunyan Characters - Third Series
The Holy War

Author: Alexander Whyte

Release Date: April 13, 2005 [eBook #2308]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BUNYAN CHARACTERS - THIRD SERIES***

Transcribed from the 1895 Oliphant, Anderson and Ferrier edition by David
Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk

BUNYAN CHARACTERS--THIRD SERIES
Lectures Delivered in St. George's Free Church Edinburgh
By Alexander Whyte, D.D.

CHAPTER I--THE BOOK

'--the book of the wars of the Lord.'--_Moses_.

John Bunyan's _Holy War_ was first published in 1682, six years before
its illustrious author's death. Bunyan wrote this great book when he was
still in all the fulness of his intellectual power and in all the
ripeness of his spiritual experience. The _Holy War_ is not the
_Pilgrim's Progress_--there is only one _Pilgrim's Progress_. At the
same time, we have Lord Macaulay's word for it that if the _Pilgrim's
Progress_ did not exist the _Holy War_ would be the best allegory that
ever was written: and even Mr. Froude admits that the _Holy War_ alone
would have entitled its author to rank high up among the acknowledged
masters of English literature. The intellectual rank of the _Holy War_
has been fixed before that tribunal over which our accomplished and
competent critics preside; but for a full appreciation of its religious
rank and value we would need to hear the glad testimonies of tens of
thousands of God's saints, whose hard-beset faith and obedience have been
kindled and sustained by the study of this noble book. The _Pilgrim's
Progress_ sets forth the spiritual life under the scriptural figure of a
long and an uphill journey. The _Holy War_, on the other hand, is a
military history; it is full of soldiers and battles, defeats and
victories. And its devout author had much more scriptural suggestion and
support in the composition of the _Holy War_ than he had even in the
composition of the _Pilgrim's Progress_. For Holy Scripture is full of
wars and rumours of wars: the