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 a single
road; it is a net-work of sheep-tracks, crossing and recrossing the
great highways, leading in every direction, and ending nowhere. The men
who wander in these aimless paths go up and down through the world,
changing their purposes, following one another blindly, forever
travelling but never arriving at the goal of their journey.

Through all this tangle there runs another way,--the path of faith and
duty. Those who walk in it believe that life has a meaning, the
fulfilment of God's will, and a goal, the attainment of perfect harmony
with Him. They try to make the best of themselves in soul and body by
training and discipline. They endeavour to put their talents to the
noblest use in the service of their fellow-men, and to unfold their
faculties to the highest joy and power in the life of the Spirit. They
seek an education to fit them for work, and they do their work well
because it is a part of their education. They respect their consciences,
and cherish their ideals. They put forth an honest effort to be good and
to do good and to make the world better. They often stumble. They
sometimes fall. But, take their life from end to end, it is a faithful
attempt to walk in "the way of righteousness, which is the way of
peace."