An edifying meditation on the words of Jesus: Peace be unto you.
The Hundred and First Letter.
An edifying meditation on the words of Jesus: Peace be unto you.
In Jesus, beloved sister!
Jesus, who could well find His sorrowing, dear disciples though it was dark and the doors were shut, who set Himself in their midst and said, "Peace be unto you!" — may He visit your soul there also, step into your midst, and say: Peace be unto you!
This one visits us, and that one visits us; the one says this, the other again something else; but their visiting and their talking do not always give peace. Ah, that we and all things might be silent — then should we hear what God the Lord speaks in our ground! He will speak to us of nothing but peace. Ps. 85. The Lord does indeed ever speak this peace to His people and to His saints; but it is not always heard and understood by us, because He speaks this peace only in our inmost midst, in the center-point of our spirit, which one cannot easily perceive in the outer court and outside the door. If we are scattered into what is outward, or into the senses, He lures us by His voice of peace so gladly inward again into the stillness. "Return, return, O Shulamite," you child of peace! So also, when fear and sadness would cover and becloud our ground, He then seeks to make it bright and clear again through His strengthening consolations in the spirit. "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you: let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." Joh. 14. Yea, in all disquietudes, darknesses, sufferings and sorrow He reminds us continually — if only we could hear and believe it — that we should not be anxious for anything at all, but rather give thanks, and through the deep peace of God let our hearts and thoughts in Christ Jesus be kept in His bosom, and held as it were captive. Phil. 4, 6 and 7. In sum, we have the best and surest Guide, and the whole law and the prophets, if only we let this peace of God reign in our hearts.
This lesson will doubtless be needful to you also in that place, beloved sister; yet I trust withal that the Lord will richly bestow it. It is not to be wondered at if we weak ones are often dislodged from our stronghold; that very thing must by no means rob us of peace. Not our virtue, but Jesus is our peace, in whom we keep an open access, in a childlike spirit, to the Father. Nor does it hinder, though outside us — yea, in our sensual man — all manner of unrest and disturbance go on. In the midst is the place where Jesus speaks His peace; in the dark ground of the soul, when all the doors are shut, whereof David says: "I lay me down and sleep wholly in peace; for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety." Ps. 4, 9. To lie in peace is the resigned stillness in God's good pleasure. In the time of drought, darkness, and suffering, to sleep in peace is the savory enjoyment of the peace of God in the ground of the soul, by whose anointing the spirit and all its powers are most inwardly gladdened, drawn off from the senses, and sweetly lulled to sleep: in the one as well as in the other, the Lord helps, so that one may dwell and walk securely and without danger, at home and abroad; to this may the Lord help us, Amen! Remember me also before Him — as I, too, shall not fail, according to my weakness, to wish you peace. I remain, through divine grace,
Your inclined, weak fellow-combatant.
Mülheim, 25 April 1730.
German
Der hundertunderste Brief.
Erbauliche Betrachtung über die Worte JEsu: Friede sey mit Euch.
In JEsu geliebte Schwester!
JEsus, der Seine betrübte liebe Jünger wohl finden konnte, ob es gleich finster, und die Thüren verschlossen waren, der sich selbst in ihrer Mitten darstellete, und sprach: Friede sey mit euch!
— 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, radiant letter of comfort, written at Eastertide 1730 to an unnamed "sister" of Tersteegen's circle. Its whole burden is Christ's Easter greeting — "Peace be unto you" — spoken to the disciples behind shut doors, and Tersteegen's prayer that the risen Jesus would speak that same peace into the reader's own ground, the still, inmost center of the soul. He sets the noise of many voices and visits, which never quite give peace, against the one voice of God, heard only in the stillness within. Even in fear, dryness, and suffering, he says, the soul may "lie down and sleep in peace," resting in God's good pleasure — for "not our virtue, but Jesus is our peace."
A few words and echoes.
- Ground (Grund). Tersteegen's word for the still, inmost center of the soul — "the center-point of our spirit," where God's peace is spoken — deeper than thought or feeling.
- "Peace be unto you." Christ's greeting to the disciples on Easter evening, the doors being shut (John's Gospel) — the text the whole letter meditates.
- "Return, O Shulamite." An image from the Song of Songs: the beloved called back home — here the scattered soul lured inward again to the stillness.
- "Lie down and sleep in peace." A psalm of David (Psalm 4): resting secure in God alone, even in the dark.
- Lesson (Lection). Plainly, the "lesson" of this peace — something to be learned and practiced, not merely felt.
- Fellow-combatant (Mitstreiter). How he signs himself: not a master over her soul but a fellow-soldier in the same struggle.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thi-101 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.