Therefore Samuel too, the greatest of kings and prophets, “will never,” as the scripture tells us, “drink wine or intoxicating liquor till his dying day” (1 Sam. 1:11). For his place has been ordered in the ranks of the divine army, and through the providence of the wise commander he will never leave it.
[144] Now probably there was an actual man called Samuel; but we conceive of the Samuel of the scripture, not as a living compound of soul and body, but as a mind which rejoices in the service and worship of God and that only. For his name by interpretation means “appointed or ordered to God,” because he thinks that all actions that are based on idle opinions are grievous disorder.
[145] His mother is Hannah, whose name means in our language “grace.” For without divine grace it is impossible either to leave the ranks of mortality, or to stay for ever among the immortal.
[146] Now when grace fills the soul, that soul thereby rejoices and smiles and dances, for it is possessed and inspired, so that to many of the unenlightened it may seem to be drunken, crazy and beside itself. And therefore she is addressed by a “boy,” not meaning a single boy, but everyone whose age is ripe for restlessness and defiance and mockery of excellence, in these words: “How long wilt thou be drunken? put away thy wine from thee” (1 Sam. 1:14).
[147] For with the God-possessed not only is the soul wont to be stirred and goaded as it were into ecstasy but the body also is flushed and fiery, warmed by the overflowing joy within which passes on the sensation to the outer man, and thus many of the foolish are deceived and suppose that the sober are drunk.
[148] Though, indeed, it is true that these sober ones are drunk in a sense, for all good things are united in the strong wine on which they feast, and they receive the loving-cup from perfect virtue; while those others who are drunk with the drunkenness of wine have lived fasting from prudence without ceasing, and no taste of it has come to their famine-stricken lips.
[149] Fitly, then, does she answer the reckless one who thinks to mock her stern and austere life, Sirrah, “I a woman am the hard day, I have drunk no wine or strong drink, and I will pour out my soul before the Lord” (1 Sam. 1:15). How vast is the boldness of the soul which is filled with the gracious gifts of God!
[150] First, we see, she calls herself a “hard day,” taking the view of the varlet who thought to make a mock of her, for to him and to every fool the way to virtue seems rough and painful and ill to tread, and to this one of the old writers has testified in these words:
Vice you may take by squadrons; but there lies
’Twixt you and virtue (so hath God ordained)
Sore travail. Long and steep the road to her,
And rough at first; but—reach the top—and she,
So hard to win, is now an easy prize.