Some stories do not touch us; this one touches every hope

Some stories do not touch us; some are necessary for our hope. I have said “stories” thus, since we do not yet arrive at the things of the ascent—useful to everyone who knows how to ascend or to hear those who ascend. Of the things of the story, then, some are useful to all, some not to all. For example: the story concerning Lot and his daughters—if it has something useful according to the ascent, God knows, and the one to whom he grants to examine those words; but if according to the story, you might ask: what benefit to me from the story concerning Lot and his daughters? Likewise what benefit to me is the story of Judah and Tamar and the things about her, simply told?

But since the story that has Saul and the medium touches everyone, a necessary truth according to the Word. For who, released from this life, wants to be under a demon’s authority, so that a medium may bring up not some chance believer but Samuel the prophet?—of whom God says through Jeremiah: “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before my face, I would not listen even to them”; of whom the prophet says in hymns: “Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among those who call on his name; they called on the Lord, and he himself listened to them; in a pillar of cloud he spoke to them”; and elsewhere: “If Moses and Samuel stood…” and what follows.

Therefore—if so great a man was under the earth and the medium brought him up—does a demon have authority over a prophetic soul? What shall we say? These things are written: are they true, or are they not true? To say they are not true drives toward unbelief—it will come down on the heads of those who say it. But to say they are true supplies us with inquiry and difficulty.