To forget and forsake oneself, and to seek all holiness in God alone.

The Thirteenth Letter.

To forget and forsake oneself, and to seek all holiness in God alone.

Beloved brother in Christ!

As concerns my own person, I am, as to the outward man, still in the usual frailty — which rather increases than abates; yet I find myself inclined to come there once more this season (if God will), to see the friends in that place. As to the spirit, I find myself, indeed, likewise full of weaknesses and wretchednesses — yet withal, God be praised! in a fair, hidden trust toward the Lord. I say toward the Lord; for in myself I find not the least ground or cause why I trust, or ought to trust. Ah, how unwillingly the self-seeking and self-loving creature sets about it — to forget and forsake itself and its own, thoroughly, so as to seek and to set all holiness and life barely in God alone! — which is, after all, the only way to true godliness and unshaken peace; whereas otherwise, so long as one dwells so much in and with oneself, one is held — either in one's own righteousness, or in much anxious lamenting and despondency — without any special progress. We commonly suppose that, because so great and deep a purity is required for fellowship with God, both here and after this time, we must therefore also perform great and many things in order to attain to it — which, in the right sense, is indeed true: yet that which, in our eyes, is the greatest is often, before God, child's-work, if not less; and what seems childish to us is, before God, sometimes something great. May God counsel and lead us poor, weak, and unwise children! Let us freely forget our own selves, and have Him — more than has hitherto been done — as the object of our love and contemplation! He alone is worthy of it. A certain little closing rhyme expresses it, in some measure:

The short, light way that leads to holiness most true Is: that one can forget all things — and oneself too; When one but thinks on God with heart's deep inwardness, And, childlike, sinks into the Being measureless.

—— Herewith I close, for the time is gone; and I commend myself to the intercession of you all, which I, in my inward and outward weaknesses, find very needful. I greet the dear friend N——, and wish her the constantly sustaining, sanctifying, and reviving grace of God in her sickness. Jesus bless us!

German

Der dreizehnte Brief.

Sich selbst zu vergessen und verlassen, und allein alle Heiligkeit in GOtt zu suchen.

Geliebter Bruder in Christo!

Meine Person anlangend, so bin ich dem Aeußern nach noch in der gewöhnlichen Schwächlichkeit, welche eher zu- als abnimmt; dennoch finde ich mich geneigt, diese Zeit noch einmal (wann GOtt will) dorthin zu kommen, um die Freunde daselbst zu sehen.

— 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).