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 wars of the Lord; the wars of Joshua and the Judges; the wars of David, with his and many other magnificent battle- songs; till the best known name of the God of Israel in the Old Testament is the Lord of Hosts; and then in the New Testament we have Jesus Christ described as the Captain of our salvation.

Paul's powerful use of armour and of armed men is familiar to every student of his epistles; and then the whole Bible is crowned with a book all sounding with the battle-cries, the shouts, and the songs of soldiers, till it ends with that city of peace where they hang the trumpet in the hall and study war no more.