Letters · Erster Band · Theil I (1773)

The excellence of the will-less child-form; for a New Year's wish.

Bd I · Th I · Brief 88 · Der achtundachtzigste Brief

Addressee — A "vielgeliebte Schwester" (a sister) — unnamed in every witness; she belongs to a circle Tersteegen greets as "den übrigen lieben Bekannten daselbst" (the other dear friends there). A Dutch version exists (van Andel Nr. 284), so plausibly a Lower-Rhine/Dutch correspondent — not identified. Companion of Brief 87 (the "vom 11ten Sept." sister, same salutation frame + willenlose Gestalt theme); plausibly the same sister, but unconfirmed.
Date — Ende Dezember 1760. A New-Year letter ("zum Neujahrswunsch"; "vor 1760 Jahren in Bethlehem").
Provenance — Translated from the public-domain 1773 first edition (Theil I, pp. 236–239), in GS 1845 orthography, collated against the 1845 Gesammelte Schriften, Hartman's 1819 reprint. All public-domain.

The Eighty-eighth Letter.

The excellence of the will-less child-form; for a New Year's wish.

In our sweet Saviour Jesus, dearly beloved sister!

Your heartily welcome little letters have all come safely across, and each time been answered more than once by the swift postilion of the eternal Spirit of the love of Jesus — that must surely have authenticated itself at the heart.

From without I cannot as I would. Through the weakness of my still-continuing catarrhs, and still more through much work, I am hindered on every side. Our God-Child Jesus is Lord and Master, and our work and salvation consist in the momentary dependence upon His leading, and in the sweet submission to all — even the seemingly contrary — dispositions of His adorable providence. All my rest is in indifference; and my great secret is to will nothing, says a French writer.

This inward and outward will-lessness, pliancy, and suppleness disposes us so that Jesus may make of us, out of us, in us, and through us, whatever pleases Him; it holds us in the order of God, and thereby in rest, spaciousness, and constancy. Apply this, my dear sister, without exception to everything — pleasant or bitter, from without or from within — that befalls you! The pleasant must be pleasant to us only because God gives it, because it pleases God. O how lovely and lovable is God! How good is the highest Good! I give the glance back in humility. And the bitter too must be respectable to us — worthy of regard — because God gives it and wills it. Should I not drink the cup which my Father has given me?

Suppleness and will-lessness take from all trouble and death their sting; and the contrary, the incomprehensible, is good to us, and very good; for the children reason best thus: that their Father makes all things good; they need not understand it; they only sign their names: Yes, Father! for so it is Thy good pleasure before Thee. How I come to this without my own thinking, I myself do not know.

Now I wish you, dear sister, and the other dear friends there, this child-form for the New Year — even as our adorable God-Child in the manger really brings and imparts this child-form to us through His holy birth. Come, let us then, with all who worshipped and adored Him in Bethlehem 1760 years ago, cast ourselves down before Him in spirit, with deepest adoration and wonder at His love for mankind, and with a renewed giving-over of our heart, will, and understanding — yea, of our whole self — into His unbounded power and governance. Yes, Jesus! make Thyself present to our spirit according to Thy good pleasure! Touch us with a ray of Thy lovely majesty, that we may fall down before Thee like all who once beheld Thee! Take our poor heart as it is, and rule it with free sovereignty, for Thine is the kingdom. Pour essentially into us Thine innocence and child-form, that Thou mayest have Thy delight in us. Amen, Jesus! Amen!

❦

German

Der achtundachtzigste Brief.

Vortrefflichkeit der willenlosen Kinder-Gestalt, zum Neujahrswunsch.

In unserm süßen Heilande JEsu, vielgeliebte Schwester!

Eure herzlich angenehme Brieflein sind sämtlich richtig übergekommen, und jederzeit mehr als einmal durch den geschwinden Postillion des ewigen Geistes der Liebe JEsu beantwortet worden: das muß sich doch am Herzen legitimirt haben.

— 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 New-Year letter to a sister and the little circle of friends around her, written from Mülheim at the very end of 1760. Its theme is the "child-form" — the will-less, supple, childlike littleness that lets Jesus do with us as He pleases. Tersteegen's own secret, he says (quoting a French writer), is "to will nothing": to take whatever comes, sweet or bitter, purely because God gives it and God wills it — so that even the bitter becomes something to be received with regard, since "should I not drink the cup my Father has given me?" Will-lessness, he adds, draws the sting from every trouble and even from death, because the children simply trust that their Father makes all things good without needing to understand. He closes by wishing his sister this child-form for the New Year — the very form the Christ-child in the manger brings and imparts through His birth — and then breaks, mid-sentence, into a prayer that Jesus would make Himself present and imprint His own innocence upon their hearts.

A few words and echoes.

The child-form. The heart of the letter — the will-less, childlike smallness that the Christ-child both shows and gives; Tersteegen's recurring picture of the soul made little before God.
To will nothing. "My great secret is to will nothing" — a saying Tersteegen takes from "a French writer"; the surrender of self-will that is the whole burden of the letter.
Should I not drink the cup? Christ's word in the garden (John's Gospel), taken as the pattern for receiving the bitter from the Father's hand.
Yes, Father — so it is Thy good pleasure. Jesus' own prayer of glad assent (Matthew), which the children "sign" without needing to understand.
Thine is the kingdom. The close of the Lord's Prayer (Matthew), turned into surrender — rule our poor heart freely, "for Thine is the kingdom."
The sting of death. Will-lessness takes the sting from trouble and death — the note of Paul's "O death, where is thy sting?" (First Corinthians).
Bethlehem, 1760 years ago. The Nativity — Tersteegen counts the years to his own December and joins himself to all who worshipped the child at Bethlehem.

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Erster Band, I. Theil, Brief 88 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thi-088.html.

← Bd I · Th I · Brief 87 Bd I · Th I · Brief 89 →