Letters · Erster Band · Theil I (1773)

The profit of a simple child-like love amid the many opinions.

Bd I · Th I · Brief 74 · Der vierundsiebzigste Brief

Addressee — "In dem Heilande JEsu geliebte Schwester!" — a married sister with a child (the letter names her household, her child, and her husband, and closes greeting him and die Schwester W., "for whom this little letter is also written"). Intimate (du).
Date — none explicit (a reply to her letter).
Provenance — Translated from the public-domain 1773 first edition (Theil I, pp. 194–196), in GS 1845 orthography, collated against the 1845 Gesammelte Schriften and Hartman's 1819 reprint. All public-domain.

The Seventy-Fourth Letter.

The profit of a simple child-like love amid the many opinions.

Beloved sister in the Saviour Jesus!

I greet you heartily in return. Your kind letter I have duly received, which moves me to offer you up to the Lord, that He may care for you as His own possession, and dandle and lead you in His way, wherein the simple walk most safely and most quietly. Dear heart! I have almost had to laugh that you write of so many opinions, and that the one cries: Here is Christ; the other: there. Have you understanding of opinions, and ears to listen to the clamour of roving minds? This plague God has given only to the clever heads — let them settle it; His little children have nothing to do with it. For your opinion is surely this: that you must love Jesus, your Saviour and Soul-friend, who has bought you to Himself for His own possession, with your whole heart, at all times, in all places, and in all works. With that opinion let yourself, and me with you, be content! Defiance to whoever would dispute this opinion away from you! If something else be brought onto the field, then be as a deaf man who hears not! Your calling and way is simple, and therefore also quite safe. According to the inward [life] you must regard and bear yourself as a peculiar friend of Jesus (how deeply must you humble yourself over such a title, of which you are perhaps not at all worthy); and according to the outward you must regard and bear yourself as a peculiar handmaid of Jesus. As His friend you must love Him heartily, keep more with Him, trust Him all things childlike, reveal to Him all your secrets, give Him your heart and all, and take joy in His goodness, faithfulness, and blessedness, as well as you are able. As His handmaid you must stand resigned to His nod, obey Him with willingness, and all that you do (as: to tend your household, to wait upon your child, to serve your husband or others, and all else that falls to be done) seek to perform out of free love to Jesus, and count no thing mean or hindering that you can perform to Jesus' love and honour.

It is indeed also good, when you have opportunity, now and then to converse a little with your Friend in solitude; but when one cannot always have that, then one remains so much the more solitary with the heart. If we cannot follow Jesus into solitude, then He follows us amid our business and the tumult. O the kindly Saviour! Before Him all is a prayer that one does out of love to Him. I know well that much is still lacking to you, that much still cleaves to you, and that you do not always remain so childlike in the way as you should and would: Jesus sees it still better; to Him resign yourself as to your Redeemer, He will bring it through.

Do it in the present as well as you ever can, out of love to Jesus, and wish, every day, to become more pleasing to Him. For the rest, bear your miseries, weaknesses, and unwilling deviations with meekness, humility, and childlike trust, that it may at last surely turn out gloriously. Jesus the Physician; I the sick one.

See but how much I write you with my very weak head. I meant only, as a testimony of my continuing remembrance, to greet you and your husband, as also the sister W., for whom this little letter is written along [with yours]. I wish her a heart full of the love of Jesus. Fare well in Jesus, who bless you!

Your devoted br.

❦

German

Der vierundsiebzigste Brief.

Nutzen der einfältigen Kinder-Liebe, bei den vielen Meinungen.

In dem Heilande JEsu geliebte Schwester!

Ich grüße dich herzlich wieder. Dein Angenehmes habe wohl erhalten, welches mich veranlasset, dich dem HErrn aufzuopfern, daß Er für dich, als Sein Eigenthum, Sorge tragen, und dich gängeln und leiten wolle in Seinem Wege, worauf die Einfältigen am sichersten und ruhigsten wandeln.

— 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, half-playful letter of direction to a married sister who has written, troubled, about the "many opinions" swirling around her — this teacher says one thing, that one another, "here is Christ… there is Christ." Tersteegen almost laughs. Sorting out competing opinions, he tells her, is a "plague" God has handed to "the clever heads"; God's "little children" have nothing to do with it. Her one opinion, and it is enough, is simply to love Jesus "with your whole heart, at all times, in all places, and in all works" — and to anyone who would argue her out of it, she should be "as a deaf man who hears not." He then gives her a double picture of her life: inwardly she is Jesus' "friend," to love and confide in and give her whole heart to; outwardly she is his "handmaid," tending her household, caring for her child, serving her husband, all "out of free love to Jesus," so that ordinary duty becomes prayer. If she cannot get away to be alone with her Friend, he reassures her, then "he follows us amid our business and the tumult." He closes gently, bearing her weaknesses with her — "Jesus the Physician; I the sick one" — and greets her husband and another sister, "W."

A few words and echoes.

The many opinions. The anxious noise of rival teachers and parties, each crying "here is Christ" — an echo of Jesus' warning in Matthew not to run after them. His remedy is not better arguments but simpler love.
Friend and handmaid. His two-sided model for her life: inwardly Jesus' friend (like Mary of Bethany, who rested and confided at his feet), outwardly his handmaid (like Mary's "behold the handmaid of the Lord") — the one serving in kitchen and nursery what the other loves in the heart.
Duty as prayer. His great encouragement to a busy mother: "before him all is a prayer that one does out of love to him." The household is not a distraction from God but a place to love him.
He follows us into the tumult. When solitude is impossible she need not despair: if we cannot follow Jesus into quiet, he comes after us into the noise and the work.
Jesus the Physician; I the sick one. His humble closing note — himself the fellow-patient, not the doctor — leaning on Jesus as the physician who heals (an echo of Jesus' own saying that the sick, not the whole, need a physician).

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Erster Band, I. Theil, Brief 74 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thi-074.html.

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