strict watchfulness, keeping up constant communication with Diabolus and
the other lords of the pit, and prepared to open the gates to them when
opportunity offers, this peace can not be lasting. The old battle will
have to be fought over again, only to end in the same undecisive result.
And so it must be to the end. If untrue to art, Bunyan is true to fact.
Whether we regard Mansoul as the soul of a single individual or as the
whole human race, no final victory can be looked for so long as it abides
in "the country of Universe." The flesh will lust against the spirit,
the regenerated man will be in danger of being brought into captivity to
the law of sin and death unless he keeps up his watchfulness and
maintains the struggle to the end.

And it is here, that, for purposes of art, not for purposes of truth, the
real failing of "The Holy War" lies. The drama of Mansoul is incomplete,
and whether individually or collectively, must remain incomplete till man
puts on a new nature, and the victory, once for all gained on Calvary, is
consummated, in the fulness of time, at the restitution of all things.
There is no uncertainty what the end will be. Evil must be put down, and
good must triumph at last. But the end is not yet, and it seems as far
off as ever. The army of Doubters, under their several captains,
Election Doubters, Vocation Doubters, Salvation Doubters, Grace Doubters,
with their general the great Lord Incredulity at their head, reinforced
by many fresh regiments under novel standards, unknown and unthought of
in Bunyan's days, taking the place of those whose power is past, is ever
making new attacks upon poor Mansoul, and terrifying feeble souls with
their threatenings. Whichever way we look there is much to puzzle, much
to grieve over, much that to our present limited view is entirely
inexplicable. But the mind that accepts the loving will and wisdom of
God as the law of the Universe, can rest in the calm assurance that all,
however mysteriously, is fulfilling His eternal designs, and that though