ke these words with you, and try to make
them a vital influence in your life?

I. First, I ask you to stand in the ways and see. I do not mean to say
that you have not already been doing this to a certain extent. The great
world is crossed by human footsteps which make paths leading in all
directions. Men travel through on different ways; and I suppose some of
you have noticed the fact, and thought a little about it.

There is the way of sensuality. Those who walk in it take appetite as
their guide. Their main object in life is to gratify their physical
desires. Some of them are delicate, and some of them are coarse. That is
a matter of temperament. But all of them are hungry. That is a matter of
principle. Whether they grub in the mire for their food like swine, or
browse daintily upon the tree-tops like the giraffe, the question of
life for those who follow this way is the same. "How much can we hold?
How can we obtain the most pleasure for these five senses of ours before
they wear out?" And the watchword of their journey is, "Let us eat and
drink and be merry, for we do not expect to die to-morrow."

There is the way of avarice. Those who follow it make haste to be rich.
The almighty dollar rolls before them along the road, and they chase it.
Some of them plod patiently along the highway of toil. Others are
always leaping fences and trying to find short cuts to wealth. But they
are alike in this: whatever they do by way of avocation, the real
vocation of their life is to make money. If they fail, they are hard and
bitter; if they succeed they are hard and proud. But they all bow down
to the golden calf, and their motto is, "Lay up for yourselves treasures
upon earth."

There is the way of social ambition. Those who walk in it have their
eyes fixed on various prizes, such as titles of honour, public office,
large acquaintance with prosperous people, the reputation of leading the
fashion. But the real satisfaction that they get out of it all is simply
the feeling of notoriety, the sense of belonging to a circle to which
ordinary people are not admitted and to whose doings the world, just for
this reason, pays envious attention. This way is less like a road than
like a ladder. Most of the people who are on it are "climbers."

There are other ways, less clearly marked, more difficult to
trace,--the way of moral indifference, the way of intellectual pride,
the way of hypocrisy, the way of indecision. This last is not