Comfort and instruction to a woman with child. The nearest means to reunion with God is to become as a child.
The Hundred and Ninth Letter.
Comfort and instruction to a woman with child. The nearest means to reunion with God is to become as a child.
May the sweet Jesus-child bless you, and the fruit of your body!
In the Same, beloved sister!
Your kind letter, which I received only about eight days ago, I have had no earlier occasion to answer than today. It is right dear to me that you have a good hope toward the Lord, and await the fulfillment of His good pleasure in resignation. Well then! Let it go as it will, to life or to death; we are in the hand of one — yea, of our merciful God: it will always be good, and the best, that He does with us. Offer yourself up to the Lord for everything, like a captive martyr who awaits with gladness the day when she shall have the happiness to suffer for the love of Jesus. Yea, so look upon your coming sufferings! The remembrance of the birth of our Jesus can be to us a new seal of the love-to-mankind and favor of our God, whereby also are atoned all the defilements of our own birth, and so forth. Let us admit into ourselves no wicked thought of unbelief concerning God, since He makes over to us, as our own, the bowels of His mercy!
There are manifold means, ways, and preparations for attaining to reunion and fellowship with God: but the nearest and easiest means thereto — yea, the very little point in which this union is accomplished — is when we become children. God's Son united Himself with humanity as a child; and humanity, too, is united with God only in the state of spiritual childhood. Assuredly, dear sister, the child Jesus urges us anew to this — namely, to enter in with Him into the most innocent child-mind. Away, then, with all scrupling, brooding, suspicion, disquiet, and with all lovelessness! Of all such and the like dispositions we must be afraid, because they are contrary to Jesus. Since now, especially, your present circumstances, dear sister, could soon carry you over into eternity, sink yourself, then, with me, right deep into this child-mind, that the Lord, when He comes, may find you a still, gentle, simple, friendly little child!
The above I had written up to this point, when I get the news that the Lord has so graciously eased you of your body's burden; for which may He be inwardly adored, praised, and glorified, that He is so kind and so gracious!
Now, dear child! resign yourself to God's will, and believe that it is thus the best. Offer up to Him your body and your life anew, for all the sufferings and trials still before you! There is only a little yet remaining in the cup of suffering. The God who has helped hitherto will be with us further: to that end He has become our Immanuel — a God with us, by us, and in us.
Most holy child Jesus! look upon the miseries of Thy handmaid. Thou hast delivered her of a burden; go on, and tear also the remaining bonds that Thou knowest! Make her right full of childlikeness and love toward Thee and all men, and keep her unmoved and gentle amid all the storm-winds of the manifold vexations of this life, that Thou, sweet child, mayest rest undisturbed in her spirit! Amen.
May your young little son, too, be sanctified to the Lord, in the name of Jesus!
The time constrains me to close; I have, on account of much company these days, written at this little letter four or five times over. Remember me too in your bed, who through grace remain
Your least brother.
Mülheim, 26 December 1730.
P.S. I will ask the child Jesus to stand godfather, since your little son was born in the very night on which the memorial of that One's own holy birth is kept.
German
Der hundertundneunte Brief.
Trost und Unterricht an eine schwangere Person. Das allernächste Mittel zur Wieder-Vereinigung mit GOtt, ist das Kinder-werden.
Das süße JEsus-Kindlein segne euch, und die Frucht eures Leibes!
In demselben geliebte Schwester! Euer Angenehmes, welches erst vor etwa acht Tagen empfangen, habe nicht eher Gelegenheit zu beantworten gehabt, als heute.
— 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 Christmas letter — and among the tenderest in the collection — written to Christiana Maria Griesenbeck as she came to the end of a pregnancy, and finished across the birth itself. The first half is written before the news: comfort in the real danger of childbed ("let it go as it will, to life or to death; we are in the hand of our merciful God"), and a beautiful seasonal turn — the surest way back to God, he says, is simply "to become a child," for "God's Son united Himself with humanity as a child," and so we are joined to God only in "the state of spiritual childhood," fitting for a woman about to bear one. Then the letter breaks off and resumes: "The above I had written up to this point, when I get the news that the Lord has so graciously eased you of your body's burden." He prays over her and over the newborn, twice turning to speak directly to "the most holy child Jesus" — once to bless the mother, once to sanctify the son. And the postscript is unforgettable: he will ask the child Jesus himself to be the boy's godfather, since the child was born on Christ's own birth-night.
A few words and echoes.
- "The fruit of your body." The angel's and Elizabeth's blessing of Mary (Luke 1) — here spoken over another expectant mother.
- "Become as a child" (Matthew 18). The letter's hinge: "Except ye… become as little children, ye shall not enter." Tersteegen ties this to the Christmas mystery — God came as a child, and we return to Him as children.
- The bowels of His mercy. An old, physical biblical word for the deepest tenderness of God (Luke 1; Colossians 3) — God gives us His very mercy "to be our own."
- Immanuel — God with us. Isaiah's name for the Christ (Matthew 1): "to that end He has become our Immanuel — a God with us, by us, and in us."
- "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." Samuel's Ebenezer (1 Samuel 7) — "The God who has helped hitherto will be with us further."
- The godfather postscript. Since the boy shares Christ's birth-night, Tersteegen will ask the Christ-child to stand as his godfather — an image of the whole letter's theme, the newborn and the newborn Savior joined.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thi-109 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.