The Letters of Gerhard Tersteegen

Pastoral letters of spiritual direction from the Rhineland, 1730s–1760s — freshly translated from the public-domain German, fully cited, and free to read. New letters are added as they are translated.

365 of 605 letters published

Erster Band · Theil I (1773) · 150 Briefe

Brief 1A brief account of true Christianity in the four words of the Gospel: "If anyone would come after me — 1) let him deny himself, 2) take up his cross, 3) follow me"; and 4) that one ought always to pray.
Brief 2The sharing and fellowship of true love. The kingdom of Antichrist and the kingdom of Christ are within us. The inward is the original of the outward.
Brief 3Preparation for a true Pentecost. The knowledge of the inner way is a rare grace. God is the unchangeable Love, even in dryness and darkness. How to bear oneself in it.
Brief 4Christian counsel to a person who had much doubt and disquiet in her heart over marrying.
Brief 5Christ's atoning blood, powerfully-working grace, and divine power outweigh our sin-miseries and all the power of the enemy.
Brief 6Our face must be set steadfastly toward Jerusalem, for union with God is the goal.
Brief 7All holy desires that rise from the Ground must bend inward again, into the Ground, to the presence of God. This is what Scripture calls praying.
Brief 8The benefit of a Christian correspondence. The great harm of distraction. An encouragement to remain within.
Brief 9A blessing for a Good Friday.
Brief 10To spend one's short lifetime, by the power of grace, on the one thing needful.
Brief 11The benefit of sufferings. God's love-drawing to inward detachment.
Brief 12The difference between true and false equanimity. The way to the former.
Brief 13To forget and forsake oneself, and to seek all holiness in God alone.
Brief 14A wish for the new life. The nearness of the wellspring of life. How it is to be found.
Brief 15An important blessing-wish.
Brief 16The benefit of inner sufferings, and of true humility. A marriage-wish.
Brief 17A Christmas wish.
Brief 18On inward dryness and poverty, and how one must conduct oneself therein.
Brief 19A salutary displeasure with ourselves. How the gifted freedom and time should be devoted to the Lord.
Brief 20A short compendium of the whole inner Christianity.
Brief 21An invitation to unanimous waiting for the promised Pentecost-blessing.
Brief 22Thoughts on the words: Nothing but God and His good pleasure.
Brief 23An encouragement to brotherly love.
Brief 24Christian thoughts at the entry of the new year. On surrender into the faithful hands of divine providence. On the seven times of Nebuchadnezzar, Dan. 4.
Brief 25How nothing befalls God's children apart from the will of their heavenly Father. The manifold causes of distractions. The two kinds of thoughts: those of the head and those of the heart.
Brief 26The necessity of the life of Jesus in us. The abominableness of the life of selfhood.
Brief 27Upon the words: Israel, forget Me not. Isa. 44:21.
Brief 28Familiar converse with God.
Brief 29A heartfelt wish of peace.
Brief 30The mingling of nature and grace. The life of Jesus. True inwardness.
Brief 31Jesus our perfect Redeemer and Saviour.
Brief 32An edifying life and a blessed death of a woman friend.
Brief 33A sense of our deep depravity. The profitableness of humility. Entire self-abandonment to God.
Brief 34An exhortation to faithfulness to the call of God.
Brief 35Reason fleeth from sufferings. The yoke of Jesus teacheth us meekness and humility.
Brief 36The name Jesus is to be our All in all, and a Bethesda for our spiritual infirmities.
Brief 37In Jesus there is counsel and remedy for all our sins. Wherein the love of God consists.
Brief 38To a sick woman friend. Encouragement to quiet surrender and trust in God.
Brief 39To the same; a profitable instruction concerning her inner life.
Brief 40To the same; that she should willingly drink out her cup of suffering to the end.
Brief 41To the same; to take leave of her, for eternity.
Brief 42The fleetingness of all that is temporal. The necessity of a complete detachment. Comfort over the departure of our friends.
Brief 43The wholesome fruit of the cross. After the complete surrender to God, He at last works all in all.
Brief 44The childlike spirit. The child's school.
Brief 45Jesus Christ is the true book of life.
Brief 46Of Jesus, and His open fullness.
Brief 47A wish and sigh for the new year.
Brief 48The bodily weakness of the writer. His occupations. A blessing-wish from the child Jesus.
Brief 49Of the use of withdrawal for prayer and looking unto God.
Brief 50The benefit of brotherly love. The walk before God alone is essential; all else is mere dreaming.
Brief 51Of the all-ness of God and the nothingness of the creature.
Brief 52A greeting of love, and a sigh.
Brief 53The author's longing for the death of selfhood. The essential knowledge of God.
Brief 54Deaths should rouse us to go forth to meet the Bridegroom.
Brief 55A hearty wish to sink away from self, and to give oneself over to God.
Brief 56The necessity and guidance for following the drawings of grace, with good courage, unto the steadfast overcoming and offering-up of nature and one's own life, through childlike faith, love, and prayer.
Brief 57A wish of blessing for some newly-awakened souls. The use of inner passivity.
Brief 58Instruction for a person whom God would lead, through the ways of poverty, contempt, and suffering, into conformity with Jesus Christ.
Brief 59Suffering and inward-turning are the way to the innocent child-estate.
Brief 60That one must seek no certainty nor comfort outside oneself, but inwardly in God.
Brief 61Of the resurrection-power of Jesus Christ and its working.
Brief 62Various weighty rules of conduct, for arming oneself against the incitements to unlovingness.
Brief 63The difference between the true and the false stillness and self-abandonment.
Brief 64Encouragement to patient endurance at the cross.
Brief 65To the same. An exhortation to join in drinking from Jesus' cup of suffering.
Brief 66Of the manifold noise at initial awakenings, and how God in His time knows how to separate everything.
Brief 67A sigh for pure love and a straight God-ward intent.
Brief 68That no one is good but the one God alone; but man is throughout misery and self-hood.
Brief 69Many want to lose themselves before they have rightly found themselves, and to sacrifice a beauty and holiness they never yet possessed.
Brief 70By the childlike abiding-with and abiding-in Jesus, one escapes all danger from the enemy.
Brief 71Direction toward an image-less and will-less child-form.
Brief 72Of inward prayer in general: wherein it consists, and how it is to be practised.
Brief 73Comfort and instruction to a soul standing in the fire of inward purification.
Brief 74The profit of a simple child-like love amid the many opinions.
Brief 75How one is to conduct oneself in circumstances where one must obey those set over us, in things that have become contrary and repugnant to one according to grace.
Brief 76How one is to grow accustomed, childlike and quiet, to God and His working.
Brief 77To a Count. Comfort and instruction amid assaults and doubts concerning the faith.
Brief 78On the excellent medicine of humility.
Brief 79How our resolution to give ourselves over to God ought to be constituted.
Brief 80That the Spirit of the love of Jesus must, through Himself, content, heal, and quicken us.
Brief 81New Year's wish.
Brief 82God's purposes in the outward disturbances of war.
Brief 83Comfort in the burden and unrest of war.
Brief 84A letter of comfort and encouragement to a sick friend.
Brief 85Of the compassionate love of Jesus in the cross, and its benefit.
Brief 86Comforting encouragement to a dying brother.
Brief 87The will-less form of soul must be given by God, and evil rooted out through His grace.
Brief 88The excellence of the will-less child-form; for a New Year's wish.
Brief 89A letter of comfort to a mother on the blessed departure of her daughter.
Brief 90A heartfelt prayer for the appearing of God in the soul. On the spiritual voyage, and how to leave the rudder to Jesus.
Brief 91Of the unspeakable love and suffering of Jesus, on Good Friday.
Brief 92Of the childlike surrender to God and His guidance.
Brief 93Instruction to a person, how she should conduct herself in the feeling of her sins and in temptations.
Brief 94To the same person. A powerful encouragement under the feeling of her sins.
Brief 95An answer to the question: whether one can, without violation of one's conscience, listen when this or that is spoken against one's conviction.
Brief 96Of the wretched self-preoccupation with our miseries. Important instruction and conduct therein.
Brief 97The mother-love of Jesus toward His children in their miseries.
Brief 98Of the adorable providence of God, to make us thoroughly will-less.
Brief 99A New Year's wish, in rhymes.
Brief 100Of the gracious revelation of Jesus after His resurrection. A hearty wish that Jesus would reveal Himself in us also.
Brief 101An edifying meditation on the words of Jesus: Peace be unto you.
Brief 102That suffering according to God's will is the fairest service of God. Instruction on how to conduct oneself in mortification.
Brief 103Exhortation to willing suffering.
Brief 104Of the power of love and of inward peace.
Brief 105Thorough instruction for a soul beginning in the Christian life.
Brief 106Encouragement to suffer for the love of Jesus. A sigh for cleansing in His blood.
Brief 107Of the use and inner worth of the cross, and of the hidden life with Christ in God.
Brief 108The vehemence of nature is best overcome by the pure life of love.
Brief 109Comfort and instruction to a woman with child. The nearest means to reunion with God is to become as a child.
Brief 110God's faithful providence in outward things should drive us to trust Him wholly in the inner life too.
Brief 111That through the completing of our sufferings we become dear children of Jesus, and find All in Him.
Brief 112On manifold temptations, and the necessity of the inward turning to God.
Brief 113What right greeting is.
Brief 114Encouragement to brotherly freedom, and to yielding to the secret drawing of divine love.
Brief 115Instruction to a person wrestling with despair.
Brief 116Of the unbounded divine love. History of the regenerate. The Geistliche Fama, and Herr D.
Brief 117Refutation of the rumor of the author's moving away. Counsel on how one is to behave when one is disturbed in the exercise of inward recollection.
Brief 118To remain, upon the discovery of self-propriety, in childlike trust in God, is a proof of grace.
Brief 119Of the simple and easy art of praying rightly.
Brief 120The loftiness and excellency of the child-state.
Brief 121To the sincere mind that would love God, no vicissitudes do harm. To look upon God, and to let oneself be looked upon by Him.
Brief 122On brotherly openness; the presence of God; the two landscapes; willingness for the cross, and inner sweetnesses.
Brief 123The inward impression of the loving presence of God is a refreshment and a preparation for suffering. How one is to behave in stumblings.
Brief 124How one is to attain to the joyful Easter day.
Brief 125Through the denial of the creatures one finds Jesus and the love-fellowship with one another.
Brief 126That we should be content only with God's good pleasure, and let our office be to love God and to be obedient.
Brief 127Exhortation to the complete and repeated surrender.
Brief 128Attentiveness to the holy calling of God. How one is to conduct oneself in certain temptations.
Brief 129The divine properties of the Child Jesus. A hearty wish and sigh that He may also be so born in us.
Brief 130Conduct amid the changeableness of one's state.
Brief 131The conduct of the Child Jesus in His pilgrimage. Of the deep and still well-being. That one must love God more than all.
Brief 132A brotherly exhortation to thankfulness for the abiding faithfulness of God.
Brief 133Encouragement to a friend regarding the children's school. A wish that Jesus may become Master in her and in the children's hearts.
Brief 134Christian instruction to two travelling merchants.
Brief 135The ground of faith, and comfort in suffering.
Brief 136Of light, darkness, and suffering, and how one is to bear oneself in them.
Brief 137How one is to receive the balm-drops of eternal love with humble thanks, and turn them to use.
Brief 138Instruction in suffering, and encouragement to complete surrender.
Brief 139That one must give oneself over to the divine leading only passively and simply.
Brief 140God alone is enough and our resting-point, and how one is to look to Him in all things.
Brief 141A blessing-wish for the holy Christmas feast.
Brief 142To a person who has recovered — that she should possess herself in patience, and look not at herself, but at the ground of the soul.
Brief 143Instruction on the loving presence of God.
Brief 144That the inward nearness of God is enough for everything.
Brief 145How the essential innocence in Christ is to be attained.
Brief 146How one may be rid of the register of one's wretchednesses, need, and sins.
Brief 147That the sufferings come first, and the joy and glory follow after.
Brief 148A commendation of the way of love.
Brief 149Through premature activities the enemy seeks to hold us back from the One-Thing-Needful.
Brief 150On the harmful returning to oneself, and one's own pondering and cares.

Erster Band · Theil II (1773) · 150 Briefe

Brief 1Encouragement to a believing turning to God, and to a devout walk before His face, in whose light the subtlest peculiarities are brought to light and fought against.
Brief 2A weighty reminder and instruction on the occasion of a raging epidemic.
Brief 3That the following of the inward drawing of God's love is far mightier to crucify and mortify the flesh than a thousand outward exercises of mortification.
Brief 4How one is to conduct oneself in inquiry, reading, and dealings with friends. The main thing is praying, self-denial, suffering, and loving.
Brief 5Of the three birthdays of believers.
Brief 6An encouragement to the withdrawn waiting at the grave of our heart, until Jesus appears to us there in spirit.
Brief 7A commendation of the exercise of prayer. Denying is ours, but the killing is God's work.
Brief 8An exhortation to endurance at the cross, until one has died upon it.
Brief 9Instruction in cross and suffering.
Brief 10Trials and sufferings God sends for our best in more than one way.
Brief 11Jesus alone can still and fulfil the insatiable desire of the human heart.
Brief 12On the happiness of God's call and the love-drawing of God, and how to give it room.
Brief 13On sweet littleness, and the contentment that arises from it.
Brief 14To enter into the possession of God, our heart must want to possess nothing beside God — not even its own self.
Brief 15An encouragement to union with the will of God, and to willing littleness.
Brief 16An encouragement to full surrender to God.
Brief 17Our imperfections compel us to forsake ourselves, in order to find the divine perfections in Jesus.
Brief 18How one must deny the sensual life, and follow the drawing of grace.
Brief 19How one must value one's good resolutions neither too high nor too low. The not-being-able is in us, but the being-able is to be found in God.
Brief 20Sickness, suffering, and dying are, to nature, terrifying; but looked upon in God, they become bearable and light.
Brief 21On the importance of the Christian life, and how, in cross, poverty, and testing, one must trust not in one's own strength but in our sweet Saviour.
Brief 22On openheartedness toward one another, and on faith-willingness in suffering.
Brief 23That one must suffer for the love and honor of God, whereby good resolutions grow ever more complete.
Brief 24A letter of condolence. Various weighty reminders for the guarding of the heart amid distracting circumstances.
Brief 25On God's keeping in the handling of the things of this world, and in intercourse with bodily relatives.
Brief 26A token of love and a blessing-wish to a pious preacher. The necessity of self-denial and sanctification must go paired with the doctrine of reconciliation in Christ.
Brief 27A Christian and very comforting word of consolation to a friend upon his deathbed.
Brief 28To a friend who was about to enter the married estate: that he and his people should not, at the wedding, make themselves like the world, but let everything proceed in Christian simplicity.
Brief 29To be wholly God's, and to see Him in all things, is the only way to lasting peace. The writer would have people directed not to himself, but to the dear Saviour.
Brief 30Encouragement to a sick person to bear her cross with love, but to bear herself in peaceable humility.
Brief 31To a person in anxiety about offending God — that she should not look upon her own weakness and misery, but trust in God.
Brief 32A loving encouragement to open the heart to the Child Jesus without delay. Instruction how to conduct oneself in solitude and in outward business.
Brief 33To look upon Jesus alone in everything is what alone makes glad, calm, and holy.
Brief 34On the Law and the Gospel.
Brief 35That one should love and practise solitude, prayer, and self-denial.
Brief 36How far the love of our neighbor obliges us to serve him; and how one should conduct oneself at the discovery of our faults.
Brief 37On the hidden life with Christ in God, and on self-denial.
Brief 38What is the ground, kernel, and aim of all godliness.
Brief 39Counsel, concerning the reading of certain books.
Brief 40An important instruction in the ways of sufferings and purifications, and of surrender to the pure love.
Brief 41To the same person; she is assured anew that her sufferings are a leading of God over her.
Brief 42Lovely counsel, for the complete going-out from oneself, and an easy entrance into the love of God.
Brief 43On the benefit of inner detachment.
Brief 44The writer's opinion on the eating of blood.
Brief 45How one should heed the gentle love-drawing of Jesus, and follow it.
Brief 46How one should be faithful and constant, too, on the way of inner prayer.
Brief 47A travelling friend is reminded of his spiritual journey and the disdain of all visible things.
Brief 48The writer's love to the called, and his special love to the chosen.
Brief 49On the divine love and its properties.
Brief 50The taste in reading is a hidden power and unction.
Brief 51Upon the complete surrender to God there follows also a complete peace.
Brief 52Trials and sufferings are marks of our election.
Brief 53How one is to bear oneself with peaceable humility, and to rejoice over God's perfections.
Brief 54Encouragement under the feeling of one's inner corruption, and on the exercise of the presence of God.
Brief 55On peaceable resignation.
Brief 56Instruction toward inner work-lessness, that the Lord Himself alone may work.
Brief 57On the excellence of the child-form in Christ.
Brief 58A brotherly call to renewal in the service of God at the beginning of a new year.
Brief 59That the drawing of God in the ground must not let itself be darkened by the reason.
Brief 60On the excellence of the life of Jesus in us.
Brief 61On the wisdom of God in the imparting of His graces, and that one must wait quietly for them.
Brief 62God alone works all good in the inward man.
Brief 63A loving encouragement to a complete surrender to Jesus.
Brief 64A powerful letter of encouragement in severe temptations and sufferings.
Brief 65The writer's own state of childlike resignation.
Brief 66To a tempted soul, how she is to bear herself.
Brief 67The turning-away of our inward from the outward, and the secret converse with God, are the best — yea the only — means to the overcoming of all our spiritual enemies.
Brief 68On the presence of God, and on the uncovering of sin and self-will.
Brief 69What Quietists or false mystics are.
Brief 70Rules for how one is to conduct oneself in work, in withdrawal for prayer, and in outward carefulness.
Brief 71On the reason, and on rationalist Christians.
Brief 72Instruction to a friend who took offense at someone, and how he should conduct himself regarding the keeping of the exercise.
Brief 73The difference between flesh and spirit, the inner and the outer man.
Brief 74A powerful encouragement under the cross.
Brief 75Of mercy toward the needy. On the death of a bodily brother of the author, as also of another friend.
Brief 76The author's impartial mind regarding all religious parties, and also the Separatists.
Brief 77How one is to lay the blame on oneself in quarrels.
Brief 78What a great fortune and good it is, to know and to be assured that God is the One who He is.
Brief 79A letter of encouragement to all the friends in E., toward a cheerful advance on the spiritual pilgrim-way.
Brief 80An encouragement to a deeper surrender.
Brief 81Christian admonitions to a brotherhood living together.
Brief 82What the true solitude with God is.
Brief 83To a nobleman. On the little Child Jesus in the stable at Bethlehem.
Brief 84A letter of comfort to a friend on the death of his wife.
Brief 85An encouragement to the love and trust of Jesus.
Brief 86On despairing of ourselves, and boundless trust in God.
Brief 87In what manner one must be free from the goods of this earth.
Brief 88On the author's journey and illness. On the divine love-draw. The feeling of inward misery, and the going-out from oneself.
Brief 89That the Spirit of Jesus is a Spirit of love and of suffering.
Brief 90To be wholly before God is the true mystery of the inward life.
Brief 91Useful counsel to a friend regarding his business.
Brief 92How one is to conduct oneself under a prohibition against keeping company with the devout.
Brief 93On the profit of humility and of trust in Jesus. Instruction on speaking and not-speaking.
Brief 94To a merchant, not to give up his business entirely yet. Encouragement to follow his inner call.
Brief 95God has an unspeakable longing to impart Himself to souls, and well knows means and ways to make them poor and empty.
Brief 96The author's desire to be unknown. Contempt furthers our access to God. On the partisanships among the devout.
Brief 97Encouragement to surrender to the Lord Jesus.
Brief 98That God is everywhere, but especially near and present to our spirit. An instruction in the simple exercise of this inward presence of God.
Brief 99That the Yes-word given to Jesus must not be revoked by marriage.
Brief 100Encouragement to trust and to the love of God.
Brief 101To a tempted person, that the love of Jesus on the cross takes away all curse and sin.
Brief 102On anger and its cure. On a secret temptation, to be borne in resignation and humility.
Brief 103The author's special love for the inward souls. On harmful self-working. On the divine working in the heart, and remaining-in with Jesus.
Brief 104Encouragement to spiritual dying.
Brief 105To a countess, that spiritual poverty is precisely the way whereby God can be most glorified in us.
Brief 106That the divine providence from without, and His Spirit from within, are the fairest means of sanctification.
Brief 107God Himself draws our hearts to Him, and teaches us also to perceive His allurements in the ground.
Brief 108A counsel to stillness and to hiddenness. Instruction in dryness, darkness, and the inward ways of purification and suffering.
Brief 109How one is to conduct oneself in darknesses and sufferings.
Brief 110Of the necessity of losing all counsel and help in oneself, and of becoming a child in the Child Jesus.
Brief 111Of the singular mercy of God, that He lets us feel what we are in ourselves, and how one is to bear oneself in this state.
Brief 112Union and a wish for the New Year. Of the unblessed essence of nature, and of the blessed essence of the love of God.
Brief 113A brotherly letter of admonition to some friends living together.
Brief 114Useful instruction to a tempted mind.
Brief 115How one is to exercise oneself in solitude and in prayer.
Brief 116To a soul who is assured of the rightness of her way, and instructed how she is to conduct herself further.
Brief 117That one ought not to fear nor doubt, but calmly leave oneself to God.
Brief 118A loving admonition to a brother who had harbored a wicked grudge against someone.
Brief 119Encouragement in inner sufferings.
Brief 120On lovers of the writings of Madame Guyon who do not at all live accordingly. How simple the inward life is, and in what manner God Himself is the source of it in the soul.
Brief 121To a countess: how the love of God, become intimately near, leaves the soul no rest in itself or in anything created.
Brief 122The author's thoughts on the work of the conversion of the Jews.
Brief 123Answer to this person, who is raised up in heavy inward sufferings. NB. Her own little letter is printed before it.
Brief 124On the use and harm of images.
Brief 125To give place not to faintheartedness and fear, but to joy and love.
Brief 126Jesus [is] Physician, I [am] the sick one.
Brief 127Love-communion with our sweet Immanuel. On the arrest of two friends. On duty toward authority and Church.
Brief 128A letter of encouragement to some awakened souls at an imminent danger of persecution.
Brief 129The Refiner is our friend. Will-less surrender into His faithful hands.
Brief 130On the brother- and sister-name among God-seeking souls.
Brief 131Comfort to a brother standing in suffering and purification.
Brief 132Some brotherly reminders to an awakened merchant, concerning his inward and outward state.
Brief 133That the beloved Jesus-child is the magnet of our spirit. How to bear distractions and temptations with more than angelic patience.
Brief 134On the giving-over of our whole self. On true inward recollection. How needless are the books that would prove that there is a God.
Brief 135On the true and false losing-of-oneself in God.
Brief 136God's faithfulness and our unfaithfulness are abysses. How one is to bear oneself under the impressions of graces and lights.
Brief 137That the Spirit of Jesus is the true prayer-master.
Brief 138Blind trust, hearty love, honest faithfulness must go in a constant circle.
Brief 139That with God in the heart alone are strength and life given to childlike faith.
Brief 140Important instruction to a scrupulous friend, concerning his inward and outward state.
Brief 141On the self-surrender of the Child, Jesus — that we too must so surrender ourselves to God, in the purest and holiest desire.
Brief 142To a Count — that in communion with Jesus is our whole salvation and justification, and that progress in sanctification does not annul justification.
Brief 143On inward detachment and will-lessness — and that only therein can God pour His life and His peace into the soul, unmingled.
Brief 144To an awakened person — concerning her desire for more solitude and stillness, and concerning her inner insensibility.
Brief 145Encouragement to the recollected, hidden walk with Christ in God.
Brief 146Instruction to a Christian merchant travelling to the fair.
Brief 147That we must rise above our drivenness, sloth, and own misery, through the sweet prayer of the heart and a childlike walk in the presence of God.
Brief 148That God and His communion alone are truth and being, and that the Cross and dying beget in our spirit a new life in God.
Brief 149Encouragement in the combat against the temptations of the flesh.
Brief 150Of the spirit-communion of believers with one another. How the soul is to behave when God has withdrawn His grace from the sensory faculties.

Zweiter Band · Theil III (1775) · 65 Briefe

Brief 1Thorough and loving instructions to a sick brother, to look not upon himself, but in everything upon the crucified Jesus.
Brief 2The longing to be wholly for God must be wrought out, not by our own working, but by the life of Jesus in us.
Brief 3To the same. Some further rules of conduct in regard to his inward state.
Brief 4To a sister; that she thinks too much on herself, and too little on God.
Brief 5Not to put off converse with God and His children until one should be beautiful.
Brief 6The joy in God and His children is alone a true and abiding joy.
Brief 7A person hanging on the cross is encouraged to die, and invited to the crib, to the little child Jesus.
Brief 8Encouragement to the forgetting of the creature and of oneself. The author would gladly be forgotten and despised.
Brief 9To a pregnant friend, how she must look upon her present and future sufferings.
Brief 10Of God's kind leading and motherly care over His children.
Brief 11What inner prayer is, and what false emptiness is, or is not.
Brief 12To a person of high rank. Of the usefulness of sufferings and adversities in this life.
Brief 13On the words: Suffer with the gospel according to the power of God. With a comforting encouragement.
Brief 14Of the difference between the state under the law and under grace; as also between the active and the passive state.
Brief 15Of the nature of sufferings, and how to conduct oneself in them.
Brief 16Of the difference between sensual and pure brotherly love. Of suffering, and the childlike embrace of God's good-pleasure.
Brief 17Rules of conduct: how to bear oneself in disclosing one's state, in acting and suffering, in losing and forgetting oneself, and in private prayer.
Brief 18How to bear oneself at the disclosure of one's own wretchedness.
Brief 19Of seven degrees: how one must look upon God in Christ alone, and not look upon oneself, but forget oneself.
Brief 20That the straining is to be used not in prayer, but in self-denial.
Brief 21The more we seek to please God alone, the more we find Him, and all that sanctifies us, in the present now.
Brief 22Self-seeking makes all our pain; and in the simple intending of God is all the rest of our spirit.
Brief 23A comforting address to a friend sick unto death.
Brief 24An encouragement to a sick woman, to lay her spirit in the faithful hands of Jesus, and as a sinner to await her salvation.
Brief 25Weighty reminders to orphaned children, concerning their inward and their outward life.
Brief 26To a sick brother. An exhortation to entire committal into the hands of Jesus.
Brief 27A testimony of joy to the same, for his recovery. That the discovery of one's faults is grace. That one must leave oneself wholly, and give oneself wholly over to God.
Brief 28The privilege of the simple. Of undiedness, and of temptations between the sick and their nurses.
Brief 29Question and answer: how one may soonest mend one's faults, and raise oneself in unrest and sadness.
Brief 30That the great love of Jesus should stir us to love in return, to childlike trust, and to committal to Him in suffering and in dying.
Brief 31An encouragement, and a heartfelt sigh, toward the renewal of an entire self-offering to God.
Brief 32To the same. That she should not fall into unbelief at the experience of her weakness.
Brief 33A hearty greeting and blessing-wish.
Brief 34A guide to right stillness of soul, or to the prayer of the heart.
Brief 35To a friend; to encourage him to offer up his sick sister to the Lord, like Abraham his Isaac.
Brief 36How, in the absence of one's friends, one may remain in God, undivided from one another in spirit.
Brief 37On the harm of faint-heartedness, and the profit of trust in God.
Brief 38That the turning of the heart to God already shows a trust in Him, even when it is not felt.
Brief 39To a sick person; that she should turn away from all things, and sink with trust into Jesus.
Brief 40How one is to behave in temptations, and to shun the occasions with earnestness.
Brief 41What is commonly understood by the sin against the Holy Ghost. Which temptations defile the spirit, and which not.
Brief 42Thorough instruction: how one is made holy and blessed out of grace.
Brief 43Comfort and instruction to a sick woman, and an encouragement to love.
Brief 44To a person who has gone over into a certain congregation. The writer, for his part, chooses rather the hidden life with Christ in God.
Brief 45On the words of John 17:3, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee," etc.; and that blessedness, with the children of God, begins here in their inward part, and is completed in eternity.
Brief 46To a sick woman friend; that the one medicine alone can help her: to cleave to Jesus with tender love, and disregard of herself and of all things.
Brief 47A consoling farewell to a sick brother, unto blessed eternity.
Brief 48Encouragement and instruction to a newly-awakened person. Rules of conduct regarding outward acquaintance, and also regarding church- and communion-going.
Brief 49To a brother who had been deathly ill, on his recovery.
Brief 50To a patient, on the words of Psalm 73:22: "And I must be as a beast before Thee."
Brief 51Comfort and instruction to an awakened person who was in the temptation to think that some particular sin was to blame for her bodily illness.
Brief 52Encouragement to a sick sister toward loving surrender at the cross.
Brief 53Comforting encouragement and instruction to a sick person, in case it should come to dying.
Brief 54Not to let ourselves be kept, by a show of humility, from interceding for one another.
Brief 55Various instructions on prayer and inward recollection.
Brief 56Of our great misery and corruption. Means and ways to be delivered from it.
Brief 57Of the grace of God's high and holy call, and how to follow it.
Brief 58God Himself is the best teacher. How one must follow Him with a forgetting of one's wretchedness, especially by the way of love and of the presence of God. On medicine, alchemy, and gold-making.
Brief 59Comforting instruction: how to conduct oneself in the feeling of one's wretchedness, inner sufferings, temptations, and especially in prayer.
Brief 60How far the state of repentance, of the law, and the drawing of the Father are one and the same. That faith in Jesus has its degrees. On the distinction of the free will.
Brief 61That looking back upon oneself makes one despondent. A medicine against it.
Brief 62How one may come to the forgetting of oneself and of all created things.
Brief 63Particular directions concerning daily times of withdrawal for prayer, and also concerning the exercise of prayer itself.
Brief 64That the Tempter so gladly diverts the hunger after God into side-matters; and what is safest for the soul in this. Of working and not working.
Brief 65That recollection, gathering, inwardness, and the nearness of God are not in the soul's power, but are grace.