Familiar converse with God.
The Twenty-Eighth Letter.
Familiar converse with God.
Beloved brother!
All your pleasant letters I have duly received, and am heartily made one with all the good that is expressed therein: may the Lord make it, in us all, ever more experience and substance!
As concerns your own writing in particular, it is dear to me that you let me listen, this once, to the sighs you have framed therein — what you have to speak and to deal of, in secret, with your most intimate Soul-Friend. So it is right, beloved brother, when we do not long drag our own burdens about by ourselves, but accustom ourselves to tell and to lament all things at once to the Lord within us, with all openness of heart and trust — even as the dear Paul commends it, Phil. 4:5 and 6. Since the Lord is so near, we ought to be anxious for nothing, but with prayer, yea, with thanksgiving also, to make all things known unto Him. And this familiar converse with God must bring us to this: that it become wholly our own to name the Lord always in the second person — that is, that we call Him "Thou" more than "He." Only must we beware of a certain seeming discourtesy: namely, that we should not, alone and continually, will to speak with our Friend of our own affairs, but rather gladly, yea most gladly, speak of His affairs — of His felicities, glories, deeds, and virtues, to rejoice and delight ourselves therein. For mutual love of friendship requires this: that the one take part in the other's weal or woe. My Lord, what a grace! Of this I say no more; it must be practised. Only, for strengthening, I will yet add this golden little saying out of 1 Thess. 5:10: Jesus Christ died for us to this end, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with, and beside, Him. Amen!
German
Der achtundzwanzigste Brief.
Vertraulicher Umgang mit GOtt.
Lieber Bruder!
Eure sämmtliche angenehme Briefe habe ich wohl erhalten, und bin herzlich vereiniget mit allem dem Guten, so darinnen ausgedrücket ist: Der HErr wolle es in uns allen immer mehr Erfahrung und Wesen werden lassen!
— 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).
Translator’s notes
What this letter is. A warm letter on "familiar converse with God" — friendship with God as one keeps friendship with a person. Tersteegen has read his friend's "sighs," the things he "speaks and deals of, in secret, with his most intimate Soul-Friend," and approves heartily: this is exactly right — not to "long drag our own burdens about by ourselves," but to "tell and lament all things at once to the Lord within us, with all openness of heart and trust," as Paul counsels — "the Lord is at hand; be anxious for nothing." Such intimacy, he says, should grow so natural that we come to "name the Lord always in the second person… to call him 'Thou' more than 'He.'" But he adds a gentle warning against "a certain seeming discourtesy": in this friendship we must not "always… speak of our own affairs," but "most gladly speak of his" — "his felicities, glories, deeds, and virtues" — since "mutual love of friendship requires… that the one take part in the other's weal or woe." He ends with what he calls a "golden little saying" from Paul: "Jesus Christ died for us… that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with… him."
A few words and echoes.
- God as intimate friend. The letter's whole idea: to treat God not as a distant "He" but as the "most intimate Soul-Friend" one confides in — telling him everything "at once," burdens and all.
- Say "Thou," not "He." His striking counsel: familiar converse should make it "wholly our own" to address God directly in the second person, as one speaks to a friend present in the room.
- Speak of his affairs, not only ours. His courteous corrective: friendship is mutual, so we should delight to speak of God's "glories… and virtues," not forever bring only our own needs.
- Be anxious for nothing. He anchors it in Paul: because "the Lord is at hand," we may lay every care before him "with prayer… and thanksgiving," and be "anxious for nothing."
- Whether we wake or sleep. His closing "golden saying," from Paul: Christ died so that "whether we wake or sleep" — in life or in death — "we should live together with him."
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thi-028 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.