Again, it is most important to recognize that in 'proportion' we are

not dealing with 'resemblance', but with relation.  There is no resemblance,

says the proverb, between chalk and cheese, nevertheless the proportion

remains the same, whether by ABCD we mean cheeses and chalks or chalks and

cheeses.  The importance of this fact will be demonstrated later, but many an

absurdity has passed for valid reasoning that has confused resemblance with

relationship even among those believers who have learnt something of the

truth concerning the Body of Christ, for some absurd conclusions have been

drawn from the title 'Body' through failure to appreciate this distinctive

character of analogy.

Martin F. Tupper in his Proverbial Philosophy has one or two lines on

analogy that are helpful:

'The wonderful all -prevalent analogy that testifieth one Creator,

The broad arrow of the Great King carved on all the stores of His

'The mind and the nature of God are shadowed in all His works,

And none could have guessed His essence, had He not uttered it

'For we learn upon a hint, we find a clue,

We yield an hundred -fold; but the great sower is analogy'.

'Analogy is milk for babes, but abstract truths are strong meat;

Precepts and rules are repulsive to a child, but happy illustration

winneth him:

Dimly will he think of his soul, till the acorns and the chrysalis have

taught him;

He will fear God in the thunder, and worship His loveliness in flowers;

And parables shall charm his heart, while doctrines seem dead mystery;

Faith shall he learn of the husbandman casting good corn into the soil;

And if thou train him to trust thee, he will not withhold his reliance

from the Lord'.

'Wherefore it is wise and well to guide the mind aright,

So to talk of spirit by analogy with substance;

And analogy is a truer guide, than many teachers tell of,

Similitudes are scattered round to help us, not to hurt us;

Moses, in his every type, and the Greater than Moses, in His parables,

Preach, in terms that all may learn, the philosophic lessons of

And here, in a topic immaterial, the likeness of analogy is just'.

These words set an analogy very high in the realm of teaching, and one

has only to ponder the subject, and to search one's own experience, to find

abundant confirmation.  Many a discovery has been brought about by analogy.

Christopher Columbus discovered America by analogy.  Many of his conclusions

proved false, but some were true and led to results undreamed of.  By

analogy, the ball and socket joint in the human skeleton led Stephenson to

effect a great improvement in his locomotive engine.