The Letters of Gerhard Tersteegen

Gerhard Tersteegen (1697–1769) was a German ribbon-weaver, hymn-writer, and spiritual guide. His letters offer counsel on prayer, trust, and a closer walk with the Lord.

All 605 letters from the 1773–75 collection are now available in English, translated from the German by Jarred Fenlason, fully cited, and free to read.

The complete collection · 605 letters

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A closer walk with the Lord

New to Tersteegen? Begin with selected letters on the nearness of God, prayer, and walking with Jesus in daily life.

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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, Daniel 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. Isaiah 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 Savior.
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 flees from sufferings. The yoke of Jesus teaches 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 practiced.
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 traveling 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 fulfill 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 Savior.
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 Savior.
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 practice 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 traveling 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 self-abandonment.
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 self-abandonment.
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 yieldedness 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 the Physician, I 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 traveling 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) · 151 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.
Brief 66How the trials and sufferings of living together are to be regarded, and made use of.
Brief 67Tidings of the passing of an important brother. Answers to several important questions concerning the inward life.
Brief 68Of the incapacity of reason in the ways of God.
Brief 69To a soul assailed by all manner of evil thoughts and images.
Brief 70Instruction in childlike love and simplicity toward God. Something on Hosea 10:10.
Brief 71The glory of God which clothed man in the state of innocence was lost through the Fall, brought forth again through Jesus; and how it is now to be found in Him.
Brief 72What true detachment is, and how one attains to it.
Brief 73An edifying report of a sick brother.
Brief 74An edifying conversation with the dying Brother H., together with an important reminder to the friends at C.
Brief 75That in the present one must do and suffer all things to God, and must not wait for the change of this or that circumstance.
Brief 76Thoughts concerning one departed. In what manner each must recognize his call, and attain the goal of his calling.
Brief 77A brotherly letter of awakening.
Brief 78A friend’s illness holds back the writer’s personal visit to friends, whom he offers up to God through prayer and rouses to earnestness.
Brief 79An edifying account of the illness and death of the wife of H. K.
Brief 80Grace works both things: the cleansing from evil and the imparting of the good in us. What is to be done about harmful self-will and self-activity.
Brief 81Encouragement to the following of Jesus in the cross.
Brief 82To an anxious soul; to quiet her by holding before her the love of Jesus.
Brief 83A brotherly letter of awakening and encouragement.
Brief 84Encouragement to a more cheerful, childlike walk before God.
Brief 85A spurring on to liberality, and to greater earnestness in godliness.
Brief 86A powerful encouragement to faith in the Lord Jesus, upon occasion of a raging epidemic.
Brief 87God’s purpose of love in the chastisement of His own. Direction how to bear oneself under it.
Brief 88Counsel and instruction to a sister upon the increasing sickness of her brother.
Brief 89A consoling instruction to a sick brother: that Jesus is his salvation and eternal life.
Brief 90An encouragement to open-handedness, out of Cyprian. An instance of God’s wonderful care over His own. On praying rightly, and on the mystery of the childhood of Jesus.
Brief 91What spiritual advantages have accrued to us through the incorporation of Jesus Christ into our humanity. Adoration of this divine love.
Brief 92Comforting encouragement and a wish of blessing to a sick man.
Brief 93Of the blessedness and freedom of the service of God. A heartfelt wish and covenant for the new year. Encouragement to dying with Christ.
Brief 94Thanksgiving for God’s grace over the blessed decease of a dear brother; together with a weighty call to his brothers and sisters.
Brief 95To a mother: of the unmerited grace, that the Savior Jesus would turn in unto her house and heart; and how she must accustom herself to God.
Brief 96Strengthening of the purpose to will to be wholly for God. How the gentle looking upon the Crucified is the best means against all temptations.
Brief 97That the fairest rules of self-forgetting help little, when God wills that we should see and feel ourselves.
Brief 98Comfort and encouragement to a suffering soul, that in storms, faintness, and misery it may peaceably await the help of the Lord.
Brief 99To a merchant, who in his old age was yet awakened to give up his worldly business.
Brief 100To a traveler the nearness of Jesus is commended as the one thing needful.
Brief 101The inward man must only be humbled by the striving of the outward man against him, and must not grow weary of seeking God.
Brief 102Brotherly sympathy with a soul standing in inward bareness and temptation. Of harmful self-love. Of the days of the spiritual creation. An important call and wish of blessing to some newly awakened ones.
Brief 103Pure trust in God wells softly through all hindrances. The writer’s conduct in extraordinary things, both with the healthy and with the sick.
Brief 104How one is to conduct oneself in the state of darkness and suffering. That God knows so wisely to preserve His own from self-presumption.
Brief 105Encouragement to an inward, detached walk.
Brief 106That after our surrender to God has taken place, we must follow the leading of Jesus in an active and in a suffering way, and how this comes about.
Brief 107Encouragement to suffering and to loving.
Brief 108Our body’s dilapidation should make us look about, after the divine dwelling, through prayer, faith, and love.
Brief 109Wish of blessing to a sick man, in protracted sufferings. Testimony of joy over the earnestness of some awakened ones, and over the bowing of a friend. Counsel and encouragement in dryness and darknesses.
Brief 110Encouragement to a soul that stands in trials and sufferings.
Brief 111That God imparts to each one of His children something of the sufferings of Jesus Christ, and to what end such a thing comes to pass.
Brief 112To a sick man; that the grace that has befallen him is from God: together with some rules of conduct in regard of his inward state.
Brief 113Adoration of the Lamb, through whose blood God is so inwardly near to us. How to behave at the imparting of grace and in distraction.
Brief 114A wish of blessing to a sick man. God Himself is the Why of His goodness and love over us.
Brief 115A comforting encouragement in suffering. That the unwilling distractions do not harm the mind.
Brief 116A wish of peace and blessing to a sick man, to love God in suffering unto the last breath.
Brief 117To the same: of God’s lovable end-purpose in his suffering. In what manner he must now love the same, and otherwise conduct himself.
Brief 118To the same: that the love of Jesus would unite us, in loving and suffering, with Himself and with one another.
Brief 119To the same: to trust God, and to let oneself go in the anxieties.
Brief 120To the same: encouragement to hold out in suffering.
Brief 121A blessing-wish to the same, and that he must look not at himself and his condition, but at the sweet Savior.
Brief 122God’s good-pleasure is the soul’s only rest and blessedness. A wish for parents, and short remembrances to some awakened souls.
Brief 123A mortally sick man is pointed wholly upon grace and upon the infinite love of God.
Brief 124Last consolation-writing to the same, to let himself go childlike loose into the more-than-motherly love of Jesus.
Brief 125Consolation-writing to a friend upon the blessed decease of her bodily brother.
Brief 126Assurance to a person standing in inward sufferings: that this is the way, that Jesus suffer with her, that she must consent into her misery, trust so much the more simply in God, and must not omit the prayer.
Brief 127Encouragement not to come down from the cross; in suffering one learns to suffer, and that the smelter is our friend. Rule of conduct in temptation against the brother-love.
Brief 128Of the high grace of the incarnation of Jesus Christ, and in what manner He also be born in us. Who will nothing but God is never without God. Invitation unto Bethlehem.
Brief 129Of various hindrances to explaining oneself upon one’s inward. Encouragement to the faithful following of the voice of Jesus.
Brief 130To accustom oneself to look upon all that meets us in God.
Brief 131To a friend, upon the blessed decease of his mother.
Brief 132Of the writer’s suffering; of the promise in suffering, and that we thereby become like to Jesus, since He imparts to us His mind, His power, yea all good.
Brief 133To a pious school-servant. Instruction how to walk with the heart’s-God, and in what manner he may sanctify his office unto God and be of use to the children.
Brief 134Brotherly call: to love the great God, to worship, and to wait upon the Lord’s keeping. A sigh.
Brief 135Invitation to a deeper yielding-over, and to the offering-up of a sick sister.
Brief 136How needful is perseverance in the practice of prayer and of inward-turning, especially also in times of inner stripping, drought and darkness.
Brief 137How one is to conduct oneself in outward and inner sufferings, also in temptations.
Brief 138How the soul must do, when God does her the grace, and lets her feel herself as she is by nature.
Brief 139The writer’s thoughts and counsel to a pious preacher, on the awakenings in his congregation and extraordinary movements that have shown themselves.
Brief 140Of the going-under of one’s own life, and of waiting upon the revelation of the life of God in the soul. All lies in God’s mercy.
Brief 141Encouragement to take the suffering from God, and to unite oneself with His will.
Brief 142Of the heaviness and lightness of yieldedness.
Brief 143Of the writer’s likeness and unlikeness to Lazarus. Of the grace to suffer childlike. Christ must be sought and found not here or there, but in the heart.
Brief 144Distinction of the life of the senses and of the life in the senses. Concern for some awakened souls.
Brief 145Of the hidden life which the enemy seeks to hinder. Encouragement to becoming a child, as also to avoid the blood-suckers.
Brief 146The slightest beginnings of the life of Jesus are through faith counted great. A history from the life of the old fathers.
Brief 147Of the suffering purification of the lower or sensory part, and how one is to bear oneself therein.
Brief 148To the same, to follow inclination and open-heartedness in writing. Sharing of the sufferings. Cause of the same. Encouragement to yielding-over.
Brief 149The Lord is long-suffering with the souls; we must be so also, yet earnestness and enduring patience is required.
Brief 150Encouragement to willingness in suffering. The sweet union with God’s will works much good.
Brief 151God’s goodness shall move us to love Him and to forget ourselves.

Zweiter Band · Theil IV (1775) · 154 Briefe

Brief 1Consolation and instruction to all the awakened in the writer’s birth-city Meurs.
Brief 2Expression of joy over some newly awakened. What to do, when one feels like a beast before God.
Brief 3What belongs to being crucified and to dying. On the inward state of some in particular.
Brief 4Renewed joining-together unto true dying, and true living. Who is fit for this; how such is obtained and experienced.
Brief 5Comfort and instruction to a spiritually poor woman.
Brief 6Instruction how we may be delivered from the wretched I through grace.
Brief 7Of the high nobility of the children of God, and the importance of their calling.
Brief 8Encouragement to faithfulness in self-denial and prayer.
Brief 9Some fundamental truths to a suffering mind.
Brief 10That spiritual sloth amid so many graces is a shame.
Brief 11The horror of the self-life; the necessity of feeling it aright. The importance of every turning to God.
Brief 12The concern for our blood-friends must not disturb the peace of the heart.
Brief 13Useful instruction, how one must conduct oneself in inward dryness.
Brief 14How a soul is led out of the senses into the inward. Some general, and some particular, remembrances.
Brief 15God can overcome our inward enemies as well in health as in sickness, and is at all times equally worthy to be loved.
Brief 16How we can already find God and Paradise here in us.
Brief 17Of spiritual correspondence. Of God’s providence and love. An encouragement to trust in God in the experience of one’s own misery.
Brief 18That God withdraws the sensible good, that we may assume nothing to ourselves, but recognize everything as grace. Encouragement unto the glorious end.
Brief 19In what manner we should exercise silent prayer. The ground of prayer is the presence of God.
Brief 20Admonition unto rest of mind and stillness.
Brief 21Of the workings of the divine stillness and emptiness, and how greatly such is distinguished from the false emptiness or idleness.
Brief 22Encouragement unto even-minded receiving of the abundance and of the dryness from God.
Brief 23Important rules, unto a restless mind, for the obtaining of constant peace of heart.
Brief 24Five short rules on the way of inward Christianity.
Brief 25Brotherly reminder and chastisement.
Brief 26A God-loving mind is directed to the love-nearness of God in the inmost.
Brief 27Earnest admonition to prayer and to self-denial.
Brief 28To a friend; a letter of consolation on the death of a kinswoman.
Brief 29Invitation into the inward to the blessedness of the love-presence of God, together with a hearty sigh.
Brief 30We are called to be children of eternity, whereunto love and suffering, yea all, must work with us.
Brief 31Brotherly admonition- and chastisement-writing.
Brief 32How one is to conduct oneself in regard of the outer and inward solitude.
Brief 33Even in misery and distress to learn to praise God.
Brief 34That the outer and inner sufferings should serve us unto purification and humiliation.
Brief 35How one must serve God without seeing, in faith.
Brief 36Joy over the honest mind, to offer up its whole love to the love of God. Rule concerning unnecessary eating.
Brief 37Important reminders upon the words: Let us go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing, etc.
Brief 38Instruction concerning prayer and recollection, to a person in the married state.
Brief 39Encouragement to a person in anxieties.
Brief 40Warning against all strainings and against too much thinking upon bodily exercise.
Brief 41Bodily weakness, inner bareness and our own miseries should all work together toward our full preparation.
Brief 42What our only business in time and eternity shall be. Of self-forgetting, leaving, and trusting God.
Brief 43A friend is pointed, for her quieting, to God and to pure grace.
Brief 44Encouragement to a heavenly-minded walk at the blessed dying of a friend.
Brief 45Through the love-Spirit of Jesus the fellowship with Him, with one another, also with the blessed-departed, remains uninterrupted.
Brief 46Encouragement to sink oneself and one’s miseries into the unmerited love of God.
Brief 47Encouragement to one who is ailing, to rest in the present moment in the good-pleasure of God.
Brief 48Taking-part and instruction to a suffering sister, concerning the deadly sickness of her father.
Brief 49Blessing-wish and instruction to persons about to marry.
Brief 50Wish and instruction to one mortally sick. Encouragement to a frail person.
Brief 51From God’s greatness and love. Incitement to return-love.
Brief 52God’s love toward us is exceedingly great; at times He withdraws such, in order to humble us.
Brief 53Of the entire surrender and ground-inclination to love God more purely.
Brief 54Christian New Year’s wish.
Brief 55That one must receive light and darkness with equanimity from the hand of God.
Brief 56To a sick woman, for strengthening in faith and in love.
Brief 57Acquaintance with righteous children of God is a great grace. Of the distinction of the poor use in intercourse with the same; and which the right use is.
Brief 58In joys and sufferings we shall love and praise God equanimously. His unchangeable love and our faith must be our stay.
Brief 59Of three kinds of union with God.
Brief 60Whoever seeks nothing but Jesus, of him He lets Himself be found everywhere. Instruction concerning openheartedness in speaking and silence.
Brief 61Brotherly testimony of love. A wish of peace and of blessing to a sick man.
Brief 62Example of a truly Christian conduct upon the news of the dangerous sickness of a dear brother. What all that is visible and the proper purpose of this life is; and how far the true surrender to God must go.
Brief 63To the same; at his recovery heaven on earth is wished him; wherein the same consists.
Brief 64In what way we love all the pious, and toward whom we must be open-hearted.
Brief 65A blessing-wish for the New Year.
Brief 66To a pious theologian. Strengthening and encouragement on the heart’s- and dying-way.
Brief 67Instruction, how one is to conduct oneself in temptations.
Brief 68To an anxious mind, that supposed itself to be forsaken of God and of His children.
Brief 69Our faults should serve us for future caution.
Brief 70New-Year wish.
Brief 71That one must wait without fear, workless and will-less, upon the revelation of God.
Brief 72Instruction to a lady who has left the Catholic religion.
Brief 73Important reminders to take the one thing needful rightly to heart.
Brief 74To a friend who is disturbed by evil reports. The reason why God permits such.
Brief 75Of the fellowship in Christ, and of the spiritual reaching-of-the-hand, in comparison of the vine and the branches.
Brief 76Lovely instruction, to give place to God and to the divine good-pleasure, and to hunger into Jesus.
Brief 77Awakening-letter for the New Year.
Brief 78How an assaulted mind is to conduct itself against the inward enemies after the example of Hezekiah, 2 Kings 18 and 19. Necessity of such purifying-days.
Brief 79Inward longing, that Jesus live in us and keep Easter.
Brief 80That one must occupy oneself not with oneself, but with God in love and trust.
Brief 81Encouragement to a more spiritual detached love.
Brief 82Blessing-wish for the New Year.
Brief 83Brotherly answer to a New-Year’s-wish: to be wholly the Lord’s.
Brief 84What a good courage under suffering is.
Brief 85Encouragement to self-surrender to God in inner and outer sufferings.
Brief 86A sick friend, who in heavy sufferings is comforted unto the blessed Easter-day, together with a wish of blessing upon his son.
Brief 87Instruction for inner prayer-exercise, to find the precious pearl, Jesus Himself, in the field of the heart.
Brief 88How one must conduct oneself under sorrowful circumstances and storms of this life.
Brief 89Comfort and encouragement, to commit oneself to the faithful Guide in drought and suffering.
Brief 90Sigh, to become strong in sufferings and trials through being-still and hoping.
Brief 91That one must be faithful to one’s conscience. How the slander of adversely-minded preachers is to be answered. Warning against wasting the powers of grace in side-matters, etc. What our religion and our affair is.
Brief 92Instruction for stillness and sweet turning-inward, to hear the Heart-Master Himself.
Brief 93To a person whom the Lord in the denudations would make rightly known to herself; that she should not fear, and should only surrender.
Brief 94In what way God must blot out the evil in us, and create the good.
Brief 95Jesus Himself wished for the New Year.
Brief 96Sigh for the inward love-nearness of God.
Brief 97God’s Father-heart and intention in outer suffering and inner weakness.
Brief 98To look upon oneself even in ways of suffering as given to God, in thorough hope of an eternally satisfying Good.
Brief 99Comforting encouragement to a death-sick friend.
Brief 100Through our sufferings we are to become like His death in the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ, so as presently also to experience the power of His resurrection.
Brief 101That one must bear his frame of mind with great dependence.
Brief 102Encouragement to praise and love God under outward and inward sufferings.
Brief 103Wish and encouragement to become acquainted with the dear, sweet eternity.
Brief 104Blessing-wish for the feast of the birth of Christ.
Brief 105Instruction and reassurance in inward poverty and darkness.
Brief 106Encouragement under long-continued sufferings and sicknesses.
Brief 107Of four kinds of degrees of love to God.
Brief 108Comfort and instruction to a troubled tempted mind, how it must mistrust itself, and outwardly follow the counsel of good friends.
Brief 109Of God’s fatherly goodness toward a soul that desires nothing else than to please God, which comes to pass when she is content with Him and with everything as He does it.
Brief 110Of spirit-fellowship, high calling and state of grace. That inwardly-called hearts must follow the leading of God will-lessly.
Brief 111New-Year Wish.
Brief 112The writer’s thoughts on the married estate.
Brief 113How we are to look upon all the ways of God in faith. Invitation to Jesus.
Brief 114How in the feeling of our inability we must resign ourselves wholly and as we are to God and His leading.
Brief 115How one should remind one another in love, and also love one another with the infirmities.
Brief 116The kingdom of Jesus Christ is established and confirmed neither outwardly nor inwardly without preceding judgments.
Brief 117Blessing-wish upon homecoming from a friends’ visit.
Brief 118Comfort to a sick one: That Jesus is within with us in the little ship, and suffers with us.
Brief 119How far one is to go in yielding; and that to please God alone must be the end therein.
Brief 120Of songs of lamentation and songs of praise. In what wise one must quietly suffer and love all the will of God.
Brief 121That the fellowship-love must aim at God alone.
Brief 122Of the necessity of will-lessness, of the sweet inward-turning and union with God’s will.
Brief 123Direction to the heart of Jesus, and encouragement to the going-out from oneself and from all created things.
Brief 124That one must look not upon oneself, nor upon the accidents of things, but alone thereupon, that God be pleased.
Brief 125How we are all to look childlike upon helps in God, and to show God our love, also in the days of suffering. Of intercourse with friends.
Brief 126How to attain unto the peace on earth which the little Child Jesus has brought.
Brief 127To a troubled mind, how in all occurrences it must become childlike.
Brief 128Instruction unto childlike simplicity and unpleasantness.
Brief 129Of various fruits of righteousness. Warning against idolatry, against sensual and pictorial occupation with the Savior and His children.
Brief 130Not according to the feeling of weal or woe, but according to the essential fruits, to judge of one’s inward state.
Brief 131How to conduct oneself at visits and all outward occurrences, also as to the inward, in order to be wholly for God.
Brief 132Encouragement unto spiritual watchfulness, and believing turning-in, to give room unto the eternal light of life.
Brief 133Upon the words of Psalm 81: “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.”
Brief 134The essential love of God is unlocked in the little Jesus-Child: and all the greatest things are also wrought by God only in the spiritually little.
Brief 135How love among one another must be constituted, if it is to further the love of God.
Brief 136To a Catholic maiden. Way to universal love.
Brief 137Of the times of the gracious visitation of God. What the true mark of God therein is. Distinguishing of extraordinary communications and of essential graces.
Brief 138Encouragement to trust in God.
Brief 139A wish of blessing, on the death of a dear brother, to his children and widow.
Brief 140How one must examine important undertakings for some time beforehand in prayer.
Brief 141Of true inwardness.
Brief 142Jesus will truly give us and become for us all that which we would seek in vain in ourselves and in all creatures.
Brief 143Encouragement to thankfulness for God’s goodness, and to a cheerful pilgrim-walk.
Brief 144In what way a sinner may trust upon Christ’s blood and grace.
Brief 145Blessing-wish to a friend on his recovery; and warning against the emissaries of Babel.
Brief 146Necessity of the continual going-out and dying to oneself.
Brief 147Strengthening under inward sufferings and darknesses.
Brief 148Whereby the peace of God is to be known, and whereby it is to be preserved.
Brief 149A wish of blessing to a sick brother.
Brief 150Spur to cheerful progress on the pilgrim-way.
Brief 151A deathly-ill woman is pointed wholly upon Jesus and His grace.
Brief 152Wish of blessing upon some sick ones, that they may look only upon Jesus in the sufferings, and the sufferings in Jesus.
Brief 153Upon the dying of a son, who from the father was called Johannes, and from the writer Gerhard.
Brief 154That in the world we have only anguish, and that in Jesus alone the peace of God is to be found.