Letters · Erster Band · Theil I (1773)

The mother-love of Jesus toward His children in their miseries.

Bd I · Th I · Brief 97 · Der siebenundneunzigste Brief

Addressee — Christiana Maria (Mechthild) Griesenbeck, née Engels (1707–1741), of Mülheim/Essen — the same correspondent (Briefe 92–96), here sick ("daß ihr sollet krank seyn"). Addressed "Vielgeliebte Freundin und Schwester!" with the polite Ihr/euch.
Date — 15 March 1730, from Mülheim. (Tersteegen was ~32.)
Provenance — Translated from the public-domain 1773 first edition (Theil I, pp. 274–276), in normalized GS 1845 orthography, collated against the 1845 Gesammelte Schriften, Hartman's 1819 reprint. All public-domain.

The Ninety-seventh Letter.

The mother-love of Jesus toward His children in their miseries.

Dearly beloved friend and sister!

Last Sunday I did indeed receive your little letter, but found no time to answer it. Now I hear that you are said to be ill, on which account I feel myself inclined to visit you herewith. I fear — and scarcely doubt it — that this weakness is caused by a pressure and disturbance of the mind; but for all that, it must be taken quite childlike from the hand of the Lord, who lets the weaknesses of our mind and our blood no less than the faults, and so on, of those with whom we have to do, work together for our good, according to the greatness of His wisdom and goodness.

Just as a kindly mother looks upon the pains, the miseries, and the sicknesses of her child, and lets so much the more of her care and love come to it the more wretched it is, even so is our Lord and Father also minded toward us, who would so gladly be pleasing to Him in all things, and yet find ourselves still so full of miseries. He knows what manner of creature we are.

Be of good cheer in God! Love and embrace Him in the little chamber of your heart, and then nothing can harm you! God's holiness is not defiled by our impurities, which are in truth a burden to us. Does He hate the evil? — by His mercy we too hate it. He knows well how to find the innermost little corner of our upright ground that means Him truly; there He can dwell — yea, there He does really dwell, even then, when everything else is taken over, against our will, by a thousand temptations and all manner of evil. There we must seek to keep ourselves, and to hide ourselves ever again within, with Him, in all simplicity and stillness. There is the hand of our Saviour, of which He says: "My sheep are in my hand," and so on.

I must break off, for the messenger is hastening away. I commit you, from my heart, to the true and mighty hand of love of this our chief Shepherd, who would lead, pasture, and protect you eternally! Yea, Amen! He will do it. Think of me too, who am so wretched, and just now especially stuck in many vexatious matters; I too shall probably have to travel in a couple of days. I hope in God, who is so wise and good. Jesus bless you! — in whom I remain

Your weak fellow-brother.

Mülheim, the 15th of March, 1730.

❦

German

Der siebenundneunzigste Brief.

Mutter-Liebe JEsu gegen seine Kinder in ihren Elenden.

Vielgeliebte Freundin und Schwester!

Vorigen Sonntag habe zwar euer Briefgen empfangen, funde aber keine Zeit, darauf zu antworten. Jetzt höre ich, daß ihr sollet krank seyn, weßwegen ich mich geneigt finde, euch dann hiemit zu besuchen.

— 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, tender note of consolation, written 15 March 1730, when Tersteegen heard that Christiana Maria Griesenbeck had fallen ill. He suspects her bodily "weakness" springs from a "pressure and disturbance of the mind" — but tells her to take even this "quite childlike from the hand of the Lord," who makes all things, even our infirmities and the faults of those around us, "work together for our good." Then comes the image the letter is named for: just as a good mother pours out more care and love on her child the sicker and more wretched it is, "even so is our Lord and Father minded toward us" — for "He knows what manner of creature we are." So be of good cheer, he says; embrace God "in the little chamber of your heart," where no impurity of ours can defile His holiness. He can always find "the innermost little corner of our upright ground that means Him truly," and there He dwells even when everything else in us is overrun by temptation. The letter ends by commending her to "the true and mighty hand of love of this our chief Shepherd," with Christ's own promise, "My sheep are in my hand" — and, characteristically, by asking her prayers for himself, "who am so wretched."

A few words and echoes.

Work together for our good. Paul's great promise — "all things work together for good to them that love God" (Romans 8:28).
He knows what manner of creature we are. Almost verbatim from the Psalm — "he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust" (Psalm 103:14).
A mother's love, more for the sicker child. The letter's central image; cf. God's own word, "as one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you" (Isaiah 66:13).
The innermost corner … there He dwells. The soul's deepest "ground," where Christ lives in us (Galatians 2:20, "Christ liveth in me") even while the surface is besieged.
My sheep are in my hand. Christ's promise of the good Shepherd — "neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand" (John 10:27–28).
This our chief Shepherd. The "chief Shepherd" (Erzhirte) of First Peter — "when the chief Shepherd shall appear" (1 Peter 5:4).
He will do it. Paul's assurance — "Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it" (1 Thessalonians 5:24).

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Erster Band, I. Theil, Brief 97 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thi-097.html.

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