od. To each of us the question
which determines all else is, Am I to live for ends which find their
accomplishment in this present life, or for ends which are eternal? Am I
to live so as to secure the utmost of comfort, of ease, of money, of
reputation, of domestic enjoyment, of the good things of this present
world? or am I to live so as to do the most I can for the forwarding of
God's purposes with men, for the forwarding of spiritual and eternal
good? There is no man who is not living for one or other of these ends.
Two men enter the same office and transact the same business; but the
one is worldly, the other Christian: two men do the same work, use the
same material, draw the same salary; but one cherishes a spiritual end,
the other a worldly,--the one works, always striving to serve God and
his fellows, the other has nothing in view but himself and his own
interests. Two women live in the same street, have children at the same
school, dress very much alike; but you cannot know them long without
perceiving that the one is worldly, with her heart set on position and
earthly advancement for her children, while the other is unworldly and
prays that her children may learn to conquer the world and to live a
stainless and self-sacrificing life though it be a poor one. This is the
determining probation of life; this it is which determines what we are
and shall be. We are, every one of us, living either with the world as
our end or for God. The difficulty of choosing rightly and abiding by
our choice is extreme: no man has ever found it easy; for every man it
is a sufficient test of his reality, of his dependence on principle, of
his moral clear-sightedness, of his strength of character.

Therefore Christ, as the result of all His work, announces that He has
"overcome the world." And on the ground of this conquest of His He bids
His followers rejoice and take heart, as if somehow His conquest of the
world guaranteed theirs, and as if their conflict would be easier on
account of His. And so indeed it is. Not only has every one now who
proposes to live for high and unworldly ends the satisfaction of knowing
that such a life is possible, and not only has he the vast encouragement
of knowing that One has passed this way before and attained His end;
but, moreover, it is Christ's victory which has really overcome the
world in a final and public way. The world's principles of action, its
pleasure-seeking, its selfishness, its chil