YOU may plant the cone of a California Pine in a vase of earth, and cover it with a glass, and set it in your window to catch the sunbeams, and keeping the earth moist the pine will grow until it reaches the top of the glass, and it will search all around to find some way out of its prison, and will press with all its vital force toward Heaven. But the glass resists the pressure, and those little branches turn back to earth, the stunted pine soon withers to the very root.

But plant that cone in its native soil, and give it showers and sunshine, and it will lift its branches higher and higher, for thousands of years, until it forms the loftiest pile of verdure on the face of the earth. So a man may plant his hopes on a little spot of earth, and close himself in with the covering of earthly pleasures, and for awhile he may long to break through his prison walls and come forth to a freer life. But, in the end, if he keeps his covering on, his growth will be downward and dwarfed. But let him break forth from the contracted circle of a worldly life, let him cultivate hopes worthy his immortal destiny, let him look upon God as his Father, and himself as the heir of boundless creation, and he shall grow in greatness and in joy; “he shall be made a king and reign forever!”