MR. KIPLING ON THE HOLY WAR.
(To ram EDITOR or ran SIRMS7011.") his—At a grave crisis when the country is threatened with de- pression it is everything that a man of note and genius should utter the right word. That word has, not for the first time, been uttered by Mr. Rudyard Kipling.* One or two considerations will show the absolute truth of this statement.
(1) His poem preaches the most impressive of sermons on a noble text taken from Butlyan'e Holy War. It thus sanctifies our present conflict against armed despotism and unrighteous- See Christmas umber of Land Ana water, p. 30 nese by connecting our Holy War with the- teaching of The Pilgrim's Progress, which may well be called the Bible of English. men.
(2) The poem reminds us of what we are constantly forgetting —that we are fighting "for right and not for rights:"
(3) The poem !supplies us with our right warm7, which echoes the whole spirit of Bunyan
"One watchword through our armies,
One anewer from our lands: 'No dealings with Diabelus
As long as Manson] stands."
This simple principle of holy warfare appeals to the good sense as well as to the faith of Englishmen. It makes at any rate for righteousness; it is worth more than all the judicious but ambigu- ous advice thrust upon us by "brittle intellectuals who crack beneath a strain."-1 am, Sir, die., A. V. D.
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