A greeting of love, and a sigh.
The Fifty-Second Letter.
A greeting of love, and a sigh.
Dear brother!
Both your earlier, under cover of N. N., and your latter, by the post, I have duly received, and both have been welcome to me. I desire to greet you, and you all together, heartily once more in the sweet love of Jesus — which love grant us a withdrawn mind and an open mouth toward it, to experience its pure outpourings ever more essentially and steadfastly, unto our healing, sanctification, and delight in Him, the highest Good, alone.
Ah, Jesus! I see the full breasts of Thy grace drip, which Thou bringest and offerest to us before our mouth. How inattentive we are, so sated, so turned away, Thou Love-of-mankind! Set a bolt at last upon all our wanderings; hold us fast, made captive with Thee, through the unconquerable might of Thy grace and love, that we may abide in Thee and live forever! Yea, Amen! for me and my brethren.
German
Der zweiundfünfzigste Brief.
Liebesgruß und Seufzer.
Lieber Bruder!
Sowohl dein ersteres p. Couvert der N. N. als auch dein letzteres mit der Post habe ich wohl erhalten, und sind mir beide angenehm gewesen.
— 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 short, warm note — "a greeting of love, and a sigh." Tersteegen tells a brother he has received two of his letters, "both… welcome to me," and returns his greeting "heartily once more in the sweet love of Jesus." He wishes that this love would give them "a withdrawn mind and an open mouth toward it," so as to taste "its pure outpourings ever more essentially and steadfastly, unto our healing, sanctification, and delight in Him, the highest Good, alone." Then, almost mid-sentence, the greeting becomes a prayer — the Seufzer, the sigh, of the title — and turns startlingly tender and bodily: "Ah, Jesus! I see the full breasts of Thy grace drip, which Thou bringest and offerest to us before our mouth." The grief is that we will not drink: "How inattentive we are, so sated, so turned away, thou Love-of-mankind!" And so the letter's last movement is a plea to be held: "Set a bolt at last upon all our wanderings; hold us fast, made captive with Thee, through the unconquerable might of Thy grace and love, that we may abide in Thee and live forever! Yea, Amen! for me and my brethren."
A few words and echoes.
- A greeting that becomes a sigh. The whole letter enacts its title: a brief acknowledgment of correspondence that cannot help sliding into prayer. For Tersteegen, ordinary friendship and yearning for God are continuous, not separate registers.
- The breasts of grace. His most arresting image — grace as "full breasts" that "drip" and are held "before our mouth" — draws on Isaiah's picture of God nursing His people, "that ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations" (Isaiah 66:11). Grace is not withheld; it is offered like milk to an infant who turns away.
- Love-of-mankind. His vocative to God — "thou Love-of-mankind" — renders a single German word (Menschenliebe) for the divine philanthropia, "the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man" (Titus 3:4). God is addressed not just as loving but as Love-toward-us in person.
- Made captive with Thee. The closing paradox: he asks to be imprisoned — "set a bolt… upon all our wanderings," "hold us fast, made captive with Thee." Surrender is imagined as a glad captivity, the restless soul finally bolted in with God so that it can "abide in Thee" (John 15:4).
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thi-052 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.