Preparation 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.

The Third Letter.

Preparation 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.

God bless you with true peace, worthy friend and sister in Christ Jesus, our Savior!

Since I presently find in myself a — hopefully good — impulse to greet you with a few lines, I have meant simply to obey that inclination. The world is now keeping Pentecost, as it says. But as for me, I have not yet come so far; rather, by God's grace I am still, for my part, intent — with the disciples of our Lord — on gathering myself, and all that is in me, with one mind and into one, yieldedly and gently, in the hidden temple of my heart, in longing outstretchedness and yielded waiting for the promised Spirit and power from on high; that He may carry on in me, and fully accomplish, the work of redemption and cleansing from all sin that He has begun in me, unworthy as I am. And this same waiting, I hope and believe, will yet be your exercise too.

Whoever God has truly shown this blessed track of inward gathering, turning-in, and waiting — before so many other awakened souls — is bound to recognize so great a grace before God, and to thank Him for it in humility; yes, to marvel greatly at His singular goodness and kindly disposition toward such a corrupt creature. This will, without doubt, awaken in your soul a childlike trust toward this our Love-God — to look on Him no longer as a strange and unfriendly God, but as your God, who has a close and kindly eye on you, to help you; who has, indeed, already set His hand to the work to carry it really through; and who therefore — wherever you only yield yourself, untroubled, to His leading and purifying hand — will at last bring His work fully to completion in you, to His eternal glory.

For this reason, strive always to keep a reverent, yet trustingly tender, impression of this Love-God who is so inwardly near, even when, within, you may be comfortless, dry, unfeeling, or even assailed: for God is Love, and God remains unchanged, eternally Love; whether we feel and sense it or not, He still remains the very same. Sin, indeed, He does not love — but neither do you love it any longer, through His grace. I write this because I know your sinking nature a little, which is easily inclined to faintheartedness, sadness, anxiety, and distress; and to this is added your usual bodily weakness, as well as God's kindly ways of the cross within — and so one thing comes to another, and makes your soul's ground and faith's eye dry, dark, and dim. It is therefore most needful, and pleasing to God, that you raise yourself up a little in Him, and let yourself be raised, with a yielded, childlike, and inwardly-comforted sinking into faith — yes, a losing of yourself in this unfathomable, present Love-being.

I say yielded, that you may be kept from all secret discontent, subtle self-will, drivenness, or forced straining of your thoughts and your own powers. I say childlike, that in turning to God and in your dealings with Him you may go to work altogether simply, untroubled, trustingly, and without much scrupling. And I say inwardly-comforted, that the enemy may not, through despondency, vexation, and the like, disquiet you and make the way hard for you. I also call it, deliberately, a sinking into faith, that you might learn, with me, even in all dryness and darkness, to trust and to build on the invisible, unchangeably-present God — without feeling, seeing, or sensing — in dark faith. Soon the long eternity comes; then we shall have time to behold Him, and to delight in Him, as He is. May He help us — unworthy and weak as we are — to that end, and Himself teach us to practice these truths. Amen!

German

Der dritte Brief.

Vorbereitung zur wahren Pfingstfeier. Die Erkenntniß des inneren Weges ist eine seltene Gnade. GOtt ist die unveränderliche Liebe, auch in Dürre und Dunkelheiten. Verhalten hierinnen.

Gott segne dich mit wahrem Frieden, werthe Freundin und Schwester in Christo JEsu, unserem Heilande! Weil ich gegenwärtig einen verhoffentlich guten Trieb in mir befinde, dich mit ein paar Zeilen zu grüßen, so habe solcher Neigung hiermit einfältig Gehorsam wollen leisten.

— Opening lines of the original German. The complete transcription of all 605 letters appears in the forthcoming Encounter Press critical edition; Brief 1 is shown in full as a sample.

German text: public domain (1773–75 first edition / 1845 Gesammelte Schriften).