ful vine has a strong elm to which it clings;
every strong elm supports a fruitful vine.

One important use of analogy in moral teaching is to fix the lesson on
the imagination and the memory, as you might moor a boat to a tree on
the river's brink to prevent it from gliding down during the night with
the stream. A just analogy suggested at the moment serves to prevent the
more ethereal spiritual conception from sliding out of its place.

In practical morals analogy is employed to surprise and so overcome an
adverse will, rather than merely to help a feeble understanding. In this
department most of the Lord's parables lie. When a man is hardened by
indulgence in his own sin, so that he cannot perceive the truth which
condemns it, the lesson which would have been kept out, if it had
approached in a straight line before his face, may be brought home
effectually by a circuitous route in the form of a parable. When the
conscience stands on its guard against conviction you may sometimes turn
the flank of its defences unperceived, and make the culprit a captive
ere he is aware. The Pharisees were frequently outwitted in this manner.
With complacent self-righteousness they would stand on the outside of
the crowd, and, from motives of curiosity, listen to the prophet of
Nazareth as he told his stories to the people, until at a sudden turn
they perceived that the graphic parable which pleased them so well, was
the drawing of the bow that plunged the arrow deep in their own hearts.

A man may be so situated that though his life is in imminent danger, he
cannot perceive the danger, and consequently makes no effort to escape.
Further, his mind may be so prejudiced that he still counts the beam on
which he stands secure, although a neighbour has faithfully given
warning that it is about to fall; it may be that because he stands on it
he cannot see its frailty. Let some friend who knows his danger, but
wishes him well, approach the spot and hold a mirror in such a position
that the infatuated man shall see reflected in it the under and ailing
side of the beam that lies between him and the abyss. The work is done:
the object is gained: the confident fool, made wise at length, leaps for
life upon the solid ground.

Although the faculty of perceiving and understanding analogies is
inherent in humanity, and consequently co-extensive with the race, it is
developed in a higher degree in some persons and in some communities
than in other