Letters · Erster Band · Theil I (1773)

By the childlike abiding-with and abiding-in Jesus, one escapes all danger from the enemy.

Bd I · Th I · Brief 70 · Der siebzigste Brief

Addressee — "Geliebte Schwester!" — an unnamed sister, intimate du, living under a wartime threat ("feindliche Völker", enemy troops); closes "Grüße dortige Kinder" (greet the [spiritual] children there).
Date — none explicit (a wartime letter — enemy-troops context; the Rhineland saw such alarms in the 1740s and again 1757–63).
Provenance — Translated from the public-domain 1773 first edition (Theil I, pp. 178–180), in GS 1845 orthography, collated against the 1845 Gesammelte Schriften and Hartman's 1819 reprint. All public-domain.

The Seventieth Letter.

By the childlike abiding-with and abiding-in Jesus, one escapes all danger from the enemy.

Beloved Sister!

Your little letter I have received. I will then greet you, simply but from the heart, though just now I otherwise know of nothing special to write to you.

It is dear to me that you are hitherto so calm under the present circumstances, and I wished from my heart that all were so; for it does not seem to me that one has cause to make so much ado about it. It will not go so badly; and even if it went to the very worst, we have only, in childlike faith, freely to pray the 46th Psalm, or to sing the hymn Luther made upon it, and to let God take care. A little art I will teach you, to stay free and calm whatever befall: everything that so much as occurs to you could be taken from you by the enemy troops — give it, from now on, to the Saviour Jesus; then, when the enemies come, they are deceived, and find nothing more in you. And since this is anyway our work, which the Saviour daily requires of us, every occasion should be dear to us that can be any help or prompting toward it. Through the blind uproar of the world we should not let ourselves be held up nor led astray in our work. I have read of a martyr who, in the greatest torment, prayed on and on in his heart, with a recollected spirit. So too David let his enemies do what they would, but he prayed. See, this is our work — to pray; therein we should only go on.

But by praying is then understood the childlike abiding-with and abiding-in Jesus; whereof 1 John 2:28 and other places say much that is heart-warming: namely, that one gladly seeks to remain in His presence; that one, like David in Psalm 18, says to Him a thousand times through the mute language of the heart: Heartily do I love Thee, O Lord!; that one turns all the heart's inclinations, desire, and pleasure away from all other objects and toward Him, the Friend of the heart, childlike and without guile; sits still, with Mary, at His feet; and for the rest accustoms oneself to do all things purely for His sake. See, dear heart! Therein we should go on, come what may. We will, as ever, say with David (Psalm 62): Yet is my soul still toward God, who helps me. Oh, then we shall experience ever more deeply how near and how infinitely good the Lord is to those who choose Him alone for their portion. Now, may the dear Jesus bless you and take your heart wholly! Greet the children there.

❦

German

Der siebzigste Brief.

Durch das kindliche Bei- und Innebleiben bei JEsu entweichet man aller Feindesgefahr.

Geliebte Schwester!

Dein Brieflein habe bekommen. Ich will dich dann auch einfältig, aber von Herzen, grüßen, ob ich gleich eben sonst nicht weiß, daß dir was Sonderliches zu schreiben habe.

— 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 of steadying comfort to a sister living under the threat of enemy troops in wartime. Tersteegen is glad she has stayed so calm, and gently tells her not to "make so much ado" — it will not go so badly, and even at the worst there is a simple refuge: pray Psalm 46, sing Luther's hymn upon it, and let God take care. Then he teaches her a "little art" for staying free whatever comes: give everything that could be taken from you over to Jesus in advance — so that when the enemy comes, "they find nothing more in you." The heart of the letter is his definition of prayer: not many words, but a childlike "abiding with and in Jesus" — staying in his presence, telling him silently "a thousand times" that you love him, sitting still like Mary at his feet, and saying with David, "yet is my soul still toward God, who helps me." It closes with a blessing and greetings to "the children there."

A few words and echoes.

Danger from the enemy. The occasion is real and external — enemy soldiers in the region. The whole counsel is how to meet outward danger with inward peace.
Psalm 46 and Luther's hymn. For an enemy-alarm he reaches for the psalm "God is our refuge and strength," and Luther's great chorale built upon it — "A mighty fortress is our God."
A little art. His practical "trick": hand everything over to Jesus beforehand, so the soul has nothing left to lose and nothing the enemy can seize.
Prayer as abiding. By "praying" he means less the saying of words than a continual, childlike staying-close to Jesus — a theme he anchors in John's counsel to "abide in him."
With Mary at his feet. The picture of Mary of Bethany sitting quietly at Jesus' feet (in Luke) — the "one thing needful" — is his model for the heart's stillness.
"My soul is still toward God." David's words in the Psalms become the refrain to carry through any alarm: a soul quieted in the God who helps.

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Erster Band, I. Theil, Brief 70 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thi-070.html.

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