Alma’s parable is so filled with the spirit of prophecy and revelation that it touches on many other scriptural concepts. Nephi asks, ’now my beloved brethren, after ye have gotten into this strait and narrow path, I would ask if all is done? Behold, I say unto you, Nay…ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ…’ (2 Nephi 31:19-20). The spiritual novice has a responsibility to ‘press forward’, to continue to nourish the tree by tilling the soil. Without this diligent care, the soil can be dried by the temptations of the evil one, And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root it withered away (Mark 4:5-7). It should be remembered that the seed which fell on stony ground produced no fruit not because the seed was bad, or because the sower had not done his job, but because the soil was not yet prepared. Had someone removed the rocks, and tilled this stony ground, the result would have been fruit that brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred (Mark 4:8).