A Similitude

"I once saw," says C. Simeon, "the ascent of an air-balloon. It was bound to the earth by eight cords. As the process went on of filling with gas, it seemed struggling to get free, and striving to break the bonds which kept it down. At length one string was cut, and immediately the part at liberty was lifted from the earth; the second and third were loosened, till, the last being snapped asunder, it rose majestically towards heaven, showing thereby its high destination, and evincing the object for which it struggled to get free. There is a picture of the mind I would fain possess — a mind whose affections are in heaven, a mind filled with the Spirit, and, in proportion as it is filled, demonstrating its character by its ardent aspiring and earnest longings after its heavenly inheritance. Thus, as the cords are cut which bind the soul to earth, it will rise in heart and affection to the region where it fain would be."