Of the wretched self-preoccupation with our miseries. Important instruction and conduct therein.

The Ninety-sixth Letter.

Of the wretched self-preoccupation with our miseries. Important instruction and conduct therein.

Beloved friend in the grace of Jesus!

From your letter I see that my last little letter was pleasant and blessed to you — which is dear to me; not because I wrote it, but because, so far as I remember, there stand in it divine truths that are very needful and wholesome for us all, and for you in particular, to practice. May the Lord strengthen you in His truth, and keep you in that known childlike disposition; then in time you will experience wonders, more than can be told you.

It often seems to me a thing to be pitied, that so many otherwise well-meaning souls torment themselves so miserably, year in and year out, within themselves, and make for themselves much vain trouble and unrest without knowing it — when they could so easily be helped, if only they knew how, as inward, gentle, and innocent children, to remain in their hearts with and in Jesus, who is nearer to us than we know. Ah, all you who are so weary and heavy-laden, do come, and turn yourselves with trust, as children, inwardly to Jesus, and you shall find rest for your souls!

But no one rightly grasps what this means until the Lord's hour is come to open it to the soul. Thank God, who lets you see and taste something of this way; keep this grace in a quiet heart, without talking too much of it, for men are little capable of it. And, on account of the newness of such a little light, do not give too much room to the stirrings of your sensuality or sensitivity; cover the fire nicely over, and then it will burn — gently, indeed, but all the more steadily! That your nature, or reason, has much to object is no wonder; it is so used to being consulted that it imagines the soul is obliged to give it account and answer for everything it undertakes. Let it stand outside and grumble! Children do not reason; they trust the mother, as it were, blindly. Days will come, within us and without us, when all the cleverness of men will be put to shame by the childlikeness of Jesus. Yea, Amen!

As an answer to the rest of your letter — on the occupation with your miseries, or with God's love in Jesus — this serves: that in the beginning it is very useful to search out one's inward and outward self in word, work, thought, and desire, and to consider one's sins and miseries freely, so that the soul may be preserved and furthered in the knowledge of itself and in the fear of God; it is good and profitable that people be directed to this. Yet this exercise can make no one perfect, righteous, and holy according to the law; rather it is "a bringing in of a better hope" (see Hebrews 7:19, after Reitz's translation) — which better hope, better way, better exercise is this: that we, in faith, in the blood of Jesus, draw near again to God as simple children (mark it well!), and deal familiarly with Him in our hearts, as Paul there implies. And I believe in particular that this latter exercise will be far more useful and profitable to you, as I have several times reminded you.

Could it displease God, if — in order to think on Him and to remain with Him — you sought to forget yourself, together with all your miseries? Seeing you well know that you can help yourself in nothing, and He alone must redeem. There is, moreover, no danger that you will then know yourself and your corruptions less than when you examine yourself deliberately and stare at your sins; rather you will know your miseries and self-hoods in a far more fruitful way, and much more exactly, without your laying yourself out expressly upon it — namely, in the infallible light of God and of His presence. There the sins humble, but they do not disquiet; they do not make fainthearted; one does not linger over them, but sinks oneself all the more inwardly into the sweet love of Jesus. God will have it so, that we are to trust Him, and to deal with Him as children, however wretched we may be. So it is His gracious good pleasure to dwell and walk in us, and to become right familiar with us; and let all reason take offense at it and play the fool over this graciousness and condescension of God. Let us not, through a sham humility, be a hindrance to God's honor and to our own well-being!

Finally, strive to abide ever more within yourself, in the childlike ground of your heart, with God! If you become aware in yourself of a childlike reverence before God's presence — a gentle well-being, a drawing of love toward recollection and inner stillness — then believe that your best Friend wants to visit you; give Him room, as well as you can, and hold still to His workings. Still, then, with affections, thoughts, will, and your own working! This being-still is no idleness. Let all your images and human concepts of God fall away! He is incomprehensible. Only believe that He is present! This concerns your inward part; but if you carry such an inward frame of mind with you into your affairs, as much as you can, then your outward part too will be good and pleasing to God.

I meant to write you only a couple of lines, and it still becomes so much — and of such important truths at that: may God unlock them, and lead us into them!

The books of Arnold, which you name, are indeed good: but read little just now! The Married and Unmarried Life — of that you may look once at the contents of the … chapters, and then read perhaps a couple of chapters that you believe may be of use to you; afterward you may well lay it aside again for now. The Memorial of Ancient Christianity is perhaps the best book that remains from the earliest time; but do not scatter yourself with reading; one must read little, and such little books as can help us toward recollection. Read one, in stillness — the sixth and seventh hymn in the Blumengärtlein — with longing, so as to become such. Go to God, and pray for my soul; otherwise forget me, and all that is mine. When you write to me in future, call me simply your friend; such a one I hope to remain, in the grace of Jesus Christ.

Mülheim, the 11th of February, 1730.

German

Der sechsundneunzigste Brief.

Von der jämmerlichen Selbst-Beschäfftigung mit unsern Elenden. Wichtiger Unterricht und Verhalten darinnen.

Geliebte Freundin in der Gnade JEsu!

Aus eurem Schreiben sehe ich, daß euch mein letzteres Briefgen angenehm und gesegnet ist, welches mir lieb ist; nicht darum, weil ichs geschrieben, sondern weil, so viel ich mich erinnere, göttliche Wahrheiten darin stehen, die uns allen, und euch insbesondere, sehr nöthig und heilsam sind …

— 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).