God's purposes in the outward disturbances of war.
The Eighty-second Letter.
God's purposes in the outward disturbances of war.
In our dearest Saviour Jesus most inwardly beloved brother!
Your dear letter was the more welcome to me, since in so long a time I had heard nothing of you and of the dear acquaintances there. God strengthen, preserve, and help you and the rest amid the present heavy burdens of war, that above all the inward part be nowhere scattered or weakened! O! this is the gravest harm the circumstances of war can do us, if we do not watch and pray. One sees and hears — ah, alas! — amid all the misery in the world much indignation indeed and complaint against the troops of war, but little bowing-down and complaint over the sin and forgetfulness of God, which are yet the cause of these and other judgments. O that God would make a general day of penance and prayer through the workings of the Spirit of repentance in the hearts of men! — as indeed the Lord has yet promised such a general day of penance and prayer for our last days, Zech. 12:10 and 14. Then would all the misery on earth be stemmed best, and far sooner, than by kings and armies of war. And would that we too might bear ourselves only according to the purposes of God our Lord under these circumstances! God will wake us out of sleep through the din and the pressure; He will not drive the sheep away by the dogs He has sent, but drive and gather them to Himself; He takes from us our idols; He makes it straitened for us in the world, that we may venture ourselves wholly thereby, and turn inward out of all things to Him and to the dear blessed eternity — and so, too, hasten all the more to be made complete. Behold! this is God's purpose regarding us and other called ones: but ah! how poorly is this His holy purpose attained! We often do not rightly bethink ourselves. Meanwhile — be it war or peace — the evening of our life hastens on, and our work lies unfinished. O Jesus! Jesus! have mercy on us! Call to us too, with emphasis — as Thou didst there to Thy disciples — into the heart: Could ye not watch one hour with me? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation! Matt. 26:40 and 41. Even now, amid all the tumult — ah, alas! — Thou findest Thy disciples sleeping.
Behold, dear brother! this is, so to speak, my greatest care in this time: that it looks so wretched within, and that both — godly and ungodly — look only to the outward. Not as though I too had no inward compassion with the outward misery, which in so many places is astonishingly great, and would not gladly see help and rescue: but this I say — the outward is not the main thing. The outward misery comes only because of the inward, and to better us and drive us to God. O! to that let us ever point one another, and encourage ourselves, while we are yet together on the way. Say it too, together with my hearty greeting, to all the other dear acquaintances there. Ah! I fear the dear little sheep also go too scattered and faint, each one his own way.
O Lord! preserve us all, that none may be left behind, but that we may find one another again — together, joyfully, before the throne of the Lamb. I would have written once before, but I too grow old and weak: my outward hut has, in the rough, wet weather, taken many a serious knock, so that I often thought, now I can do no more at all; and withal there still falls to me written and spoken work continually. Thus far the Lord has helped — His name be praised! The other dear members here all send hearty greetings. God keep us unmoved in His divine peace and grace!
I greet and embrace you, my dear heart's-brother, in the Spirit of the love of Jesus, who be with our spirit! I remain through grace, etc.
German
Der zweiundachtzigste Brief.
Absichten GOttes bei den äußeren Kriegesunruhen.
In unserm theuersten Heilande JEsu innigst geliebter Bruder!
Dein Geliebtes war mir um so viel angenehmer, weil in so langer Zeit nichts von dir und dortigen lieben Bekannten vernommen hatte.
— 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 wartime letter (January 1761, in the Seven Years' War) to Tersteegen's Krefeld friend Arnold Goyen. Its whole burden is that the outward calamity is not the real point: the war is God's way of waking a sleeping people — the shepherd driving the sheep home with dogs — to inward repentance, and to hastening one's own completion "before the evening of life." Warm, urgent, and brotherly, it rises at its centre into a Gethsemane cry — Could ye not watch one hour with me? — and closes homely and aging, anxious for scattered friends and longing to meet them all again "before the throne of the Lamb."
A few words and echoes.
- Bowing-down. The word Tersteegen leans on (and sets off in the original) is Beugung — the bending-low of real repentance, which he pointedly opposes to mere complaint about the armies.
- A day of penance and prayer. He longs for a publicly-appointed day of repentance — and hears one promised for "the last days" in Zechariah.
- Could ye not watch one hour with me? The Gethsemane words to the sleeping disciples (Matthew), turned onto his own war-weary generation.
- My outward hut. Paul's image for the body as a frail tent — Tersteegen was about 63 and failing.
- The throne of the Lamb. From Revelation: the hoped-for reunion of scattered friends.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thi-082 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.