Comfort in the burden and unrest of war.
The Eighty-third Letter.
Comfort in the burden and unrest of war.
In Jesus, our Saviour, dearly beloved brother!
Your kind letter I received in good time, and saw from it with compassion both your weakness and that of the others, and also the much unrest, burden, and agitation that has been among you in these warlike times. I well knew something of it, but only in a general way, and in part uncertainly; yet this does not surprise me, since I know it is forbidden to write of particular matters.
Praised be the Lord that He has helped through thus far, and has in grace turned away greater calamity! May He, according to His gracious good pleasure, soon give command that the sword be put into the sheath and an end be made of the raging; but meanwhile may He grant and preserve to us His dear peace of heart, which the world cannot give — nor any enemy, nor outward loss, can take away — because it is too deep, and grounds itself upon God and His testimony in us, that He is our God.
What a noble ground for the soul's repose does this not give, even in need and in death, when God speaks to our soul: I am the Lord thy God. Then may all go topsy-turvy, as the Lord wills. If God be for us, who will be against us? Therefore let the Lord give us now so much the more grace and faithfulness for prayer, gathering of the heart, and inward retirement in the spirit, that we may experience the power of this great word — I am the Lord thy God — to our strengthening and repose; whereupon the weighty sequel will then be impressed upon us, namely: Thou shalt have no other gods before My face! For indeed a God-devoted child of God has a great prerogative above other men — granted that one should become partaker also of all the temporal judgments and chastisements; for these too serve only for purifying and grounding, and afterward bring forth a peaceable fruit of righteousness in those who are exercised thereby. Wind and waves of temporal sufferings do, moreover, rush by like a short, wearisome dream; and then we shall rest eternally in God, according to the hope which He has given us in Christ. Amen!
German
Der dreiundachtzigste Brief.
Trost in Kriegeslast und Unruhe.
In JEsu, unserm Heilande, herzlich geliebter Bruder!
Dein Angenehmes habe zu rechter Zeit erhalten, und daraus mitleidig ersehen, sowohl deine, als der anderen Schwächlichkeit, auch die viele Unruh, Last und Alteration, die bei diesen kriegerischen Zeiten bei euch 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, bracing letter of comfort written amid the upheavals of war (a companion to the previous letter). Its consolation is not that the fighting will stop but that a peace no enemy or outward loss can reach rests on God's own covenant word — I am the Lord thy God. So even the hardships become purifying, and the whole storm rushes past "like a short, wearisome dream" before the soul's eternal rest in God.
A few words and echoes.
- The covenant word. The letter turns on the opening of the Ten Commandments — "I am the Lord thy God," with its "weighty sequel," "Thou shalt have no other gods." Tersteegen hears in it not a demand but a comfort: the God who claims us also keeps us.
- If God be for us. The ringing question from Paul — "If God be for us, who will be against us?" — thrown against the powers of war.
- The sword into the sheath. His prayer for the war's end borrows the old biblical image of a sword sheathed.
- A peaceable fruit. The thought that suffering, borne rightly, ripens into "a peaceable fruit of righteousness" echoes the letter to the Hebrews.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thi-083 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.