To the same; to take leave of her, for eternity.
The Forty-First Letter.
To the same; to take leave of her, for eternity.
In the grace of Jesus, beloved sister!
In the name of Jesus, who is our only hope, I greet and bless your soul, and wish earnestly that this blessing-laden High Priest, who is assuredly near to your spirit, may bless you mightily and eternally, and gladden you — that you may set your hope wholly upon the overflowing grace which is offered to us poor sinners in Jesus. Praised be the faithful Shepherd of souls, who has sought and found you, as a lost little sheep, in the wilderness of this world: may He bear you now home upon His shoulders, and refresh you everlastingly upon Mount Zion!
Praised be His gracious name of Jesus, in which there is given to you, out of pure grace, a complete and eternal reconciliation of all your sins, and a free access to God in childlike spirit. In this name of Jesus may every desire of your heart and all your breaths go up to God as a pleasing incense, so long as your heart still moves; and in this name of Jesus may you eternally bow your knees with joyful thanksgiving! Praised be the eternal Love, the source of all good, which moved your heart to its surrender to her! Praised be He for all the good He may ever have worked in you — for all good thoughts, good desires, good words, good doings; for all deeds of adoration, of faith, of hope, of love, and of self-offering unto Him! Let every frailty be atoned for, the good given back to Him, and once more and for ever established, repeated, and subscribed with a hearty Amen — and so let it stand!
He, the compassionate High Priest, who has been tempted in all things, and knows well how you are now in your mind, may He sustain you in secret, unto patient endurance in suffering and in trust! May He stand at your side; may He be inwardly near to you, even in the hour of your departure; may He at last give you eternal rest and glory in His perfect fruition, amid the multitude of the many thousand angels and the spirits of the perfected righteous! There, too, I hope — unworthy though I am — to see and love you eternally, before God's countenance. Herewith I take a brief leave of you, and lay you and your spirit into the hands of the heavenly Father. Amen — Jesus!
German
Der einundvierzigste Brief.
An dieselbe; um auf die Ewigkeit Abschied von ihr zu nehmen.
In der Gnade JEsu geliebte Schwester!
Im Namen JEsu, der unser einige Hoffnung ist, grüße und segne ich deine Seele, und wünsche sehnlich, daß dieser segensvolle Hohepriester, der deinem Geist gewißlich nahe ist, dich selbst kräftig und ewig segnen und erfreuen möge, daß du deine Hoffnung ganz setzen mögest auf die überschwängliche Gnade …
— 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. The farewell that closes the little sequence to this dying sister (Briefs 38 through 41) — written, as the heading says, "to take leave of her, for eternity." It is not really an argument at all but one long, unbroken blessing, spoken over her in the name of Jesus. Tersteegen greets and blesses her soul, praying that "this blessing-laden High Priest, who is assuredly near to thy spirit," would bless and gladden her, so she may "set thy hope wholly upon the overflowing grace which is offered to us poor sinners." He praises "the faithful Shepherd of souls, who has sought and found thee, as a lost little sheep, in the wilderness of this world" — "may He bear thee now home upon His shoulders." A second wave of praise blesses "His gracious name of Jesus," in which she has "a complete and eternal reconciliation of all thy sins" and "a free access to God"; in that name he prays her every breath may "go up to God as a pleasing incense, so long as thy heart still moves." He gives thanks for every good God ever worked in her — "good thoughts, good desires, good words, good doings" — and asks that "every frailty be atoned for, the good given back to Him… and so let it stand." The final blessing calls on "the compassionate High Priest, who has been tempted in all things, and knows well how thou art now," to "stand at thy side… even in the hour of thy departure," and to give her at last "eternal rest and glory… amid the multitude of the many thousand angels and the spirits of the perfected righteous." He closes by taking his leave and laying her "into the hands of the heavenly Father. Amen — Jesus!"
A few words and echoes.
- The lost sheep carried home. The letter's tenderest image — the dying woman as "a lost little sheep" whom the Shepherd "has sought and found" and now bears "home upon His shoulders" — comes straight from Christ's parable of the lost sheep (Luke 15:4–6) and the "Shepherd… of your souls" (1 Peter 2:25).
- Every breath as incense. His prayer that her every remaining breath rise "as a pleasing incense, so long as thy heart still moves" draws on the psalm's "let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense" (Psalm 141:2) — dying itself made into worship.
- The compassionate High Priest. The final blessing rests on Hebrews' High Priest "tempted in all things," who therefore "knows well how thou art now" (Hebrews 4:15) — the ground of his confidence that Christ will stand by her "in the hour of thy departure."
- The assembly on Mount Zion. His picture of where she is going — "the many thousand angels and the spirits of the perfected righteous" — is the heavenly assembly of Hebrews 12:22–23, into which he commends her.
- Into the Father's hands. As in Brief 38, he ends by echoing Christ's dying words — "into thy hands I commend my spirit" (Luke 23:46) — laying her and her spirit into the Father's keeping.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thi-041 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.