A wish of blessing for some newly-awakened souls. The use of inner passivity.
The Fifty-Seventh Letter.
A wish of blessing for some newly-awakened souls. The use of inner passivity.
Dear brother!
Your kind letter of the —— I would gladly have answered at once; but I have not well been in a condition for it before now, by reason of a weakness of the head and eyes, so that in this respect too I must look upon myself ever more as an unprofitable man. Meanwhile I love, now as before, my brethren in Christ; I embrace them, and unite myself with them in the Spirit, and desire ever more fully to regard them with such an eye as they are regarded by God the Father in Christ; therefore it has also gladdened me to receive news from you of the newly-awakened whom you met upon your journey. I should like, on occasion, to know their names too, in order to write them into my little book for remembrance — namely, the names of such as you found upright and sincere in their mind after Christ. May the Holy Spirit Himself strengthen them, guide them onward, and ground them in Christ, and in such wise write all their names essentially into Him, the Book of Life, that they may forever, with us, shine as glittering pearls on the crown of our King — after they have here, for a little while, honored Jesus through co-suffering and co-dying, and given all the world to know that they love the Father! I wish them this with all the affection of my heart, from Him who is quite near to each one of us with the fullness of His graces. Amen!
Otherwise, I do not quite find it so in my mind that I ought to write directly to such souls as are not further known to me; this can better be done by you, if it be deemed needful. As concerns the objection, that you have a displeasure with all your writing and best doing — that [objection] has nothing to say, i.e. is of no consequence. Were I to make deliberations, as I sometimes do out of weakness, I should leave everything undone, and would have much to say of such a displeasure, and indeed with ground; but I keep silence, because I have the misfortune that it is at once interpreted in me as a humility.
What we ourselves do is truly nothing useful at all, and the less we ourselves are present in our doing, the purer and the more useful it is; this is the real ground why enlightened souls lay much stress upon an inner passivity. For they recognize that man, in his ground, in his powers of mind, and in all other motions, is corrupted; that none and nothing is good but the one God, and what He does in and through us; therefore, after their innermost will has given up sin and creature according to the measure of their light, such a soul keeps herself — in respect of her inner improvement — only as recollected, surrendered, and passive before God's presence as may be, and, in respect of her outward doings, as will-less and dependent upon God in the present moment as may be; desiring only to be inclined and moved by Him alone, unto and in all that is pleasing to Him.
If I am to do or write anything, I commit my willing and working simply to God, as well as I understand it; if I then find no particular resistance, I do it in God's name, as simply and as well as I understand it. Afterward I must, and may, think back but little, knowing anyhow, in general, that my best is not yet pure. If I notice, later on, a marked fault, I bear such annihilation as calmly as possible, and then proceed, as before, simply. It is understood, however, that I too am very unpracticed in all this. I mention this only in case it might perhaps serve you for some clarification — whether you should write to those who desire it, or not?
German
Der siebenundfünfzigste Brief.
Segenswunsch wegen einiger Neuerweckten. Nutzen der inneren Leidentlichkeit.
Lieber Bruder!
Dein Angenehmes vom M. hätte ich gern alsbald beantwortet; ich bin aber nicht wohl eher im Stande darzu gewesen, wegen Schwachheit des Haupts und Augen, so daß ich mich auch in diesem Stück immer mehr als einen unnützen Menschen ansehen muß.
— 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 letter in two movements to a brother who had written with news of some newly-awakened souls met on a journey. Tersteegen first apologizes for his slow reply — "a weakness of the head and eyes," so that "in this respect too I must look upon myself ever more as an unprofitable man." Then he blesses the new believers warmly: he would gladly know "their names… in order to write them into my little book for remembrance," and prays "the Holy Spirit Himself" would "write all their names essentially into Him, the Book of Life," so that "they may forever, with us, shine as glittering pearls on the crown of our King" — having "for a little while, honored Jesus through co-suffering and co-dying." The letter's second half is prompted by something else the brother wrote: that he "hast a displeasure with all thy writing and best doing." Tersteegen takes this scruple and turns it into a small treatise on holy passivity. "What we ourselves do is truly nothing useful at all," he says, "and the less we ourselves are present in our doing, the purer and the more useful it is" — because "none and nothing is good but the one God, and what He does in and through us." So the "enlightened" soul, having surrendered "sin and creature," keeps herself "recollected, surrendered, and passive before God's presence," "will-less and dependent upon God," wanting only "to be inclined and moved by Him alone." He describes his own practice with disarming plainness: commit "my willing and working simply to God," proceed if he finds "no particular resistance," "think back but little" afterward, and if he later notices "a marked fault," "bear such annihilation as calmly as possible, and then proceed… simply." He ends, characteristically, by disowning any mastery: "I too am very unpracticed in all this."
A few words and echoes.
- Names in the Book of Life. His intercession moves from his own "little book" of remembered names to the true register — that the Spirit would write the new believers' names "essentially into Him, the Book of Life" (Revelation 21:27; Luke 10:20). The point is that Christ Himself is the book in which they are inscribed.
- Pearls on the King's crown. His image for the awakened made glorious — "glittering pearls on the crown of our King" — draws on the promise that God's people are His "jewels" (Malachi 3:17), "as the stones of a crown" (Zechariah 9:16).
- Co-suffering and co-dying. He frames the whole Christian life as a suffering- and dying-with Christ — the way believers "honor Jesus" — echoing Paul's "if so be that we suffer with him" (Romans 8:17) and "if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him" (2 Timothy 2:11).
- The one God, and what He does. The theological hinge of the letter — that goodness belongs to God alone, "and what He does in and through us" — is set, in the original, in emphatic full capitals (rendered here in small capitals). It rests on Paul's "it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do" (Philippians 2:13), the charter of his whole account of passivity.
- Inner passivity. The letter's key term (Leidentlichkeit) names not idleness but receptivity: the soul's disposition of letting God act, holding itself "will-less and dependent," moved "by Him alone." It is Tersteegen's answer to the anxious, self-scrutinizing conscience — stop measuring your own work, and let God work.
- Bearing annihilation calmly. His own rule for handling a noticed fault — to "bear such annihilation as calmly as possible, and then proceed… simply" — turns even self-reproach into an exercise of surrender: the failure is felt, released, and left with God rather than brooded over.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thi-057 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.