Refutation of the rumor of the author's moving away. Counsel on how one is to behave when one is disturbed in the exercise of inward recollection.
The Hundred and Seventeenth Letter.
Refutation of the rumor of the author's moving away. Counsel on how one is to behave when one is disturbed in the exercise of inward recollection.
Beloved brother!
To your kind letter, received yesterday evening, this serves briefly for answer.
As concerns my moving away, the rumor of it is quite unfounded: true, very favorable proposals and offers have been made me thereto, from various places and persons, for some time past; but it is as yet far enough from my having resolved on any such thing — whereof, I pray, assure all who might ask after it. It might well be, though, that I should henceforth withdraw now and then, for a few days, into the stillness, for the refreshing both of body and of mind, according to God's good pleasure; but of that it is not exactly needful that everyone know. In spirit I nevertheless remain bound with all who seek God; nor will I ever wholly withdraw from their outward fellowship, without a special divine leading.
Dearly as I love outward seclusion and disentanglement from the manifold affairs, and useful as I judge it to my own mind, just as gladly would I grant it to you also: but obedience is better than sacrifice. We must serve God in His way, and not in ours: only this is assuredly to be heeded therein — that all manifoldness be, so far as ever possible, cut off and restrained; but the rest, which must needs be done or kept, be set in a good order, and then faithfully performed with a pure meaning-of-God. And in such a way there would then, through a holy frame of mind amid the affairs, be won back again a neglected time of withdrawal.
The reluctant stirrings, or risings of some impurity at the time of ingathering, are cleansing through the working of grace. One must therein seek to possess one's soul in patience, without making it yet worse through one's own labor, or through too great a disturbance; this is well enough known to you: only I add this further — that all such stirrings and temptations must not so much hinder us in the inward recollection, but rather that they should lead and help us to a purer and more spiritual kind of recollection; and that comes about through the following secret little art: In the midst of such disturbances and confusions, you would fain turn yourself most inwardly into God, and hold still to Him; there is now nothing else to do than that your devotion sink quite softly away from the whole confused part, and hold itself just as gently and quite unperceived by the deeper part — which so gladly would — and incline itself into God; as indeed this happens of itself already, without one's needing to trouble much about it. Could one not, even in this manner, escape the enemies all at once, then one must quite calmly repeat just such an exercise, and always, so long as one could, hold with attentiveness by the inmost will of the ground: and should one not this time come to rest thereby, yet one would thereby gain the needful power out of God, so as not to be lightly overcome.
The time does not allow of writing more. May the Lord draw ever nearer to us, that we may be able to draw near to Him! May He lead us ever more essentially out of all creature and selfhood into the divine element of His peace, and give also sufficient grace and wisdom, to walk circumspectly in the outward! I commend myself to your remembrance, and remain, together with hearty greeting,
Your weak fellow-pilgrim.
Mülheim, the 27th of October 1731.
German
Der hundertundsiebzehnte Brief.
Widerlegung des Gerüchts von des Verfassers Wegziehen. Rath, wie man sich zu verhalten habe, wann man in der Uebung der Einkehr gestöret wird.
Geliebter Bruder!
Auf dein Angenehmes, so gestern Abend bekommen, dienet dieses kürzlich zur Antwort. Mein Wegziehen anlangend, davon ist das Gerücht ganz ungegründet: Zwar sind mir darzu von verschiedenen Orten und Personen sehr günstige Vorschläge und Anbietungen einige Zeit her geschehen; es ist aber bis dato noch weit genug davon …
— 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 letter that does two very different things beautifully. First, it quietly puts down a rumor: word had gone round that Tersteegen was leaving Mülheim. Not so, he says — though he admits he has had "very favorable proposals" from elsewhere, and may indeed slip away "into the stillness for a few days" now and then, for the refreshing of body and mind. But he will never cut himself off from his fellow God-seekers "without a special divine leading." Out of this comes a small rule for the busy soul: don't romanticize seclusion — "obedience is better than sacrifice." Cut back all the "manifoldness" you can; put the rest that must be done into good order; and then do it "with a pure meaning-of-God" — his lovely phrase for the single inward intention that keeps God in view through the day's work.
Then the letter turns to its real gift: what to do when your inward prayer is disturbed. This is Tersteegen the master of the interior life at his most practical. The unwanted stirrings that rise up "at the time of ingathering" are not the enemy — they are actually "cleansing." The mistake is to fight them, which "makes it worse"; instead, "possess your soul in patience." Then comes the "secret little art" itself, described with great delicacy: don't wrestle the noisy, "confused part" of yourself into silence. Rather, let your attention sink — "quite softly," "unperceived" — down beneath the disturbance to "the deeper part that so gladly would" rest in God, and let it simply "incline into God." Do it calmly; repeat it as often as needed. Even if it doesn't bring you all the way to rest, "you gain the needful power out of God, so as not to be lightly overcome." The letter ends on the note the whole thing has been circling: "May the Lord draw ever nearer to us, that we may draw near to Him" — carried "out of all creature and selfhood into the divine element of His peace."
A few words and echoes.
- "Obedience is better than sacrifice." 1 Samuel 15:22 — the hinge of the first movement: self-chosen seclusion is "sacrifice"; doing God's will in one's actual duties is the higher thing.
- "Meaning-of-God" (GOtt-Meinen). A characteristic Tersteegen coinage — the pure, single intention that "means" God alone in the midst of ordinary business. Not a feeling but a direction of the will.
- "Possess your soul in patience." Luke 21:19 — the counsel for the moment of disturbance: don't grab at the soul or force it, hold it patiently.
- The "secret little art." The heart of the letter: not suppression but a gentle descent below the disturbed surface to the "ground" (Grund) — the deep will that already leans toward God — and resting there "unperceived." Tersteegen's whole doctrine of the Einkehr in miniature.
- "The ground" (der Grund). His term for the innermost point where the soul meets God; the "inmost will of the ground" is the deep, God-ward orientation that persists beneath surface turmoil.
- "Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you." James 4:8 — inverted into a prayer at the close: "May the Lord draw ever nearer to us, that we may draw near to Him."
- "Walk circumspectly in the outward." Ephesians 5:15 — the balancing petition: inward recollection is matched by wise, careful conduct in outward life.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thi-117 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.