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flowing away, a life tested in all things, a hardened life, a gaze strained with the intensity of the soul, unaffected gravity; a silence more effective than speech, care for things hoped for, contempt for things seen, equal honor toward every visible thing, whether one happened to be among the eminent in rank, or appeared among the lowly and rejected. These are the things and such as these in which the life of the teacher imitates the wonders of Elijah. And if anyone brings up the forty days' fast, we for our part will bring forward the teacher's eating of little throughout his whole life. For eating little is somehow akin to not eating at all, and especially when the one occurs in a short time, but the other lasts for one's whole life. Besides, in that case, that cake of spelt sustained the prophet's vigor, having surely something of such a nature in itself, by which the power of the one who partook of this food was preserved. And a proof is that not one of his own kind baked the food and set it before him, but he partook of an angelic preparation. Whence the power generated in his body by that food was full and unceasing. But here, with no innovation in his custom, reason was the measure of his food, providing so much for the body not as nature wished, but as the law of self-control commanded.

17 And the priesthood of the teacher imitates the mysteries of the prophet's priesthood, by being threefold in the word of faith drawing down the heavenly fire for the sacred rites. And we have been taught by Scripture in many places that fire is called the power of the Holy Spirit. But the teacher neither ended nor brought on a drought of the land. But there the great prophet, having struck the earth with the scourge of drought, himself also becomes the physician of the wound, bestowing on them a relief from the cure equal to the pain of the scourge. But if it is necessary to say something about this miracle of our Elijah: when once such a disaster was threatened by divine will, and the whole winter season had passed dry, and no hope of crops appeared, then the teacher, falling down before God, stopped the fear at the threat, having propitiated the Divinity with supplications and having loosed by prayers the dejection of the drought. But also of the relief from famine which the great Elijah showed in the case of a single widow, our life also has some likeness in the case of the teacher. For when a severe famine once afflicted both the city in which he happened to be living and the entire country subject to the city, having sold his own possessions and exchanged the money for food, when it was rare even for the very well-prepared to set a table for themselves, he lasted through the entire time of the famine, feeding those who flocked from all directions and the youth of the whole populace of the city, so as to offer participation in this philanthropy equally even to the children of the Jews.

18 But it makes no difference at all whether one fulfills the divine command by means of a jar or by some other occasion. For the comfort of those in need does not ask the "whence," but looks to what is done. And if Elijah was carried upward by fire, this is indeed a wonder, and a wonder beyond description. Yet the other form of being carried upward is not to be rejected either, when someone, through a lofty way of life, is resettled from earth to heaven, having made the virtues a chariot through the Spirit. which indeed everyone who examines the things concerning him with sound judgment will agree has been accomplished by the teacher.

19 Should one dare in this discourse also of Samuel? But having yielded the first place to the prophet in all other things, we will show two of the things said about him to be fitting also for our teacher: the birth of both was God-given. For as his mother had him, so this one too from a request

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ἀπορρέουσα, ζωὴ διὰ πάντων ἐξητασμένη, βίος κατεσκληκώς, βλέμμα τῷ τόνῳ τῆς ψυχῆς συντεινόμενον, σεμνότης ἀνεπιτήδευτος· ἡσυχία λόγου ἐνεργεστέρα, φροντὶς περὶ τῶν ἐλπιζομένων, καταφρόνησις τῶν ὁρωμένων, ὁμοτιμία πρὸς πᾶν τὸ φαινόμενον, εἴτε τις τῶν ὑπερόγκων ἐν ἀξιώματι τύχοι, εἴτε τῶν ταπεινῶν τε καὶ ἀπερριμμένων προφαίνοιτο. ταῦτά ἐστι καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα ἐν οἷς μιμεῖται ὁ τοῦ διδασκάλου βίος τὰ τοῦ Ἠλίου θαύματα. εἰ δέ τις προφέρει τῶν τεσσαράκοντα ἡμερῶν τὴν ἀσιτίαν, καὶ ἡμεῖς τοῦ διδασκάλου τὴν διὰ παντὸς τοῦ βίου ὀλιγοσιτίαν ἀντιπροσοίσομεν. γειτνιάζει γάρ πως τῷ ἀσίτῳ τὸ ὀλιγόσιτον καὶ μάλιστα ὅταν τὸ μὲν ἐν ὀλίγῳ γένηται χρό νῳ, τὸ δὲ πρὸς πάντα διαρκέσῃ τὸν βίον. ἄλλως τε κἀκεῖ μὲν ὁ ὀλυρίτης ἐκεῖνος ἐγκρυφίας διεκράτει τοῦ προφήτου τὸν τόνον ἔχων τι πάντως ἐν ἑαυτῷ τοιοῦτον, ᾧ συνετηρεῖτο τοῦ προσενεγκαμένου τὴν τροφὴν ταύτην ἡ δύναμις. τεκμήριον δὲ ὅτι οὐχὶ τῶν ὁμοφύλων τις αὐτῷ σιτοποιήσας τὴν τροφὴν παρεθήκατο, ἀλλ' ἀγγελικῆς παρασκευῆς ἐνεφορήθη. ὅθεν αὐτῷ πλήρης τε καὶ ἀδιάπνευστος ἦν ἡ διὰ τῆς τροφῆς ἐκείνης ἐγγινομένη τῷ σώματι δύναμις. ἐνταῦθα δὲ οὐδὲν καινοτομηθείσης τῆς συνηθείας, μέτρον τῆς τροφῆς ὁ λογισμὸς ἦν τοσοῦτον παρέχων τῷ σώματι οὐχ ὅσον ἡ φύσις ἐβούλετο, ἀλλ' ὅσον ὁ τῆς ἐγκρατείας ἐνεκελεύετο νόμος.

17 Ἡ δὲ ἱερωσύνη τοῦ διδασκάλου μιμεῖται τὰ τῆς ἱερωσύνης τοῦ προφήτου αἰνίγματα, διὰ τοῦ τρισσεύειν ἐν τῷ λόγῳ τῆς πίστεως τὸ οὐράνιον πῦρ πρὸς τὰς ἱερουργίας ἐφελκομένη. πῦρ δὲ τὴν τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος δύναμιν καλεῖσθαι πολλαχῆ παρὰ τῆς Γραφῆς ἐδιδάχθημεν. αὐχμὸν δὲ γῆς ὁ διδάσκαλος οὔτε ἔλυσεν, οὔτε ἐπήγαγεν. ἐκεῖ δὲ ὁ μέγας προφήτης πλήξας τῇ μάστιγι τῆς ἀνομβρίας τὴν γῆν, ὁ αὐτὸς καὶ ἰατρὸς τοῦ τραύματος γίνεται ἐφάμιλλον τῇ ἀλγηδόνι τῆς μάστιγος τὴν ἐκ τῆς θεραπείας ἄνεσιν αὐτοῖς χαριζόμενος. εἰ δὲ χρή τι καὶ πρὸς τοῦτο τοῦ καθ' ἡμᾶς Ἠλίου θαῦμα εἰπεῖν· θείᾳ βουλήσει τῆς τοιαύτης ποτὲ συμφορᾶς ἀπειληθείσης καὶ ξηροῦ παντὸς τοῦ χειμερίου καιροῦ παραδραμόντος καὶ μηδεμιᾶς καρπῶν ὑποφαινο μένης ἐλπίδος, τότε προσπεσὼν τῷ Θεῷ ὁ διδάσκαλος μέχρι τῆς ἀπειλῆς τὸν φόβον ἔστησεν λιταῖς τὸ Θεῖον ἱλεωσάμενος καὶ λύσας διὰ προσευχῶν τὴν τῆς ἀνομβρίας κατήφειαν. ἀλλὰ καὶ τῆς τοῦ λιμοῦ παραμυθίας ἣν ἐπὶ μιᾶς ἐνεδείξατο χήρας ὁ μέγας Ἠλίας ἔχει τι καὶ ὁ καθ' ἡμᾶς βίος ἐπὶ τοῦ διδασκάλου ὁμοίωμα. λιμοῦ γάρ ποτε χαλεποῦ καταπονοῦντος αὐτήν τε τὴν πόλιν ἐν ᾗ διαιτώμενος ἐτύγχανεν καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν ὑποτελοῦσαν τῇ πόλει χώραν τὰς ἑαυτοῦ κτήσεις ἀποδόμενος καὶ εἰς τροφὰς διαμείψας τὰ χρήματα, ὅτε σπάνιον ἦν καὶ τοὺς σφόδρα παρεσκευασμένους τράπεζαν ἑαυτοῖς παραστή σασθαι, διήρκεσεν ἐκεῖνος ἐν παντὶ τῷ χρόνῳ τοῦ λιμοῦ τρέφων τούς τε πανταχόθεν συρρέοντας καὶ τὴν νεολέαν παντὸς τοῦ δήμου τῆς πόλεως, ὡς καὶ τοῖς τῶν Ἰουδαίων παισὶν ἐκ τοῦ ἴσου προτιθέναι τῆς φιλανθρωπίας ταύτης τὴν μετουσίαν.

18 ∆ιαφέρει δὲ πάντως οὐδὲν ἢ διὰ καμψάκου τὴν θείαν ἐντολήν, ἢ διά τινος ἄλλης ἀφορμῆς ἐκπληρῶσαι. ἡ γὰρ παραμυθία τῶν δεομένων οὐ ζητεῖ τὸ πόθεν, ἀλλὰ πρὸς τὸ γινόμενον βλέπει. εἰ δὲ ἀνωφερὴς ὁ Ἠλίας διὰ πυρὸς ἐγένετο θαυμαστὸν μὲν καὶ τοῦτο καὶ ὑπὲρ λόγον τὸ θαῦμα. πλὴν οὐκ ἀπόβλητον καὶ τὸ ἕτερον εἶδος τῆς ἐπὶ τὸ ἄνωφορᾶς, ὅταν τις διὰ τῆς ὑψηλῆς πολιτείας ἀπὸ γῆς εἰς οὐρανὸν ἀνοικίζηται διὰ τοῦ Πνεύματος ἅρμα τὰς ἀρετὰς ποιησάμενος. ὅπερ δὴ κατορθῶ σθαι τῷ διδασκάλῳ πᾶς ὁ εὐγνωμόνως τὰ κατ' αὐτὸν ἐξετάζων συνθήσεται.

19 Ἆρα χρὴ καὶ τοῦ Σαμουὴλ κατατολμῆσαι τῷ λόγῳ; ἀλλ' ἐν τοῖς ἄλλοις πᾶσι τῶν πρωτείων τῷ προφήτῃ παραχωρήσαντες, πρὸς δύο τινὰ τῶν περὶ αὐτοῦ λεγομένων καὶ τὰ περὶ τὸν διδάσκαλον ἡμῶν οἰκείως ἔχοντα δείξομεν· θεόσδοτος ἀμφοτέρων ἡ γέννησις ἦν. ὡς γὰρ ἐκεῖνον ἡ μήτηρ, οὕτω καὶ τοῦτον ἐξ αἰτήσεως