To remain, upon the discovery of self-propriety, in childlike trust in God, is a proof of grace.
The Hundred and Eighteenth Letter.
To remain, upon the discovery of self-propriety, in childlike trust in God, is a proof of grace.
Beloved friend and brother!
Short as the time is for answering your kind little letter, I nevertheless find myself inwardly inclined to testify to you, in few words, how your present leading and state appears to me as good, and as proceeding from grace: for it is a proof that the light of truth is drawing near to us, when the most hidden self-proprieties, nothingnesses, and corruptions are shown to us in such a way that we nevertheless, therein, remain in childlike trust toward God, in the most gracious name of Jesus, who, even in the ground of our heart, will ever again reconcile and cleanse us.
What could our own power and our own working avail, to heal the so deep-rooted cancer of our ground-corruption? Both at the sight of our self-proprieties, and also in all temptations, distractions, and the like, there is truly nothing better nor safer than, so far as possible, to leave all the evil where it is, and, with the inmost will, calmly to incline away from it — into God, who is nearer to us than we are to ourselves: in this unfathomable sea of the divine presence all our impurity must vanish, when we sink ourselves therein in childlike faith. The Lord has the winnowing-shovel in His hand, and will sweep the threshing-floor of our heart, and clear away all the chaff: our spirit is to be one therein with the Lord, and to give up to death and judgment all that His eyes condemn in us. Yea, Lord! slay, slay, till Thou alone livest in us eternally!
This work in us, beloved friend, is not yet at an end: yet only be still and of good cheer in God! He will surely carry it through, who has begun it. Trust yourself in nothing, but God in all! May He be your constant occupation and rest, even when you might feel nothing of Him!
I greet you, as also Brother H., heartily, together with your sister Anna Maria; may God bring her ever nearer by His hidden discipline! Greet also your other sister, together with her husband, and the rest who dwell with them, whose names do not just now occur to me. If you find it serviceable, greet also your father and mother: the Lord bless them, and us all! In the same I remain
Your weak fellow-combatant.
Mülheim, the 31st of December 1731.
German
Der hundertundachtzehnte Brief.
Bei Entdeckung der Eigenheit im kindlichen Vertrauen zu GOtt bleiben, ist ein Beweis der Gnade.
Geliebter Freund und Bruder!
Wie kurz die Zeit auch ist, auf dein angenehmes Brieflein zu antworten, so finde mich doch innerlich geneigt, dir mit wenigem zu bezeugen, wie daß mir deine gegenwärtige Führung und Stand als gut, und von der Gnade herrührende, vorkommt: Denn das ist ein Beweis, daß uns das Licht der Wahrheit nahe kommt …
— 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 New Year's-eve letter (31 December 1731) that turns a discouraging experience inside out. Dietrich Reinertz has evidently written of a hard stretch — God has been exposing to him "the most hidden self-proprieties, nothingnesses, and corruptions" of his own heart. Tersteegen's answer is bracing and tender at once: this is not a sign of God's absence but a proof of His grace. The very fact that the light can now reach into those hidden places, and that Reinertz can still "remain in childlike trust toward God" while seeing them, means "the light of truth is drawing near." What, then, can our own effort do against "the deep-rooted cancer of our ground-corruption"? Nothing. The counsel is pure Tersteegen: don't wrestle the evil — "leave it where it is," and with "the inmost will" simply "incline away from it — into God, who is nearer to us than we are to ourselves." In "the unfathomable sea of the divine presence," impurity dissolves of itself.
Then the letter rises to its great image, borrowed from John the Baptist: "The Lord has the winnowing-shovel in His hand" — let Him sweep the threshing-floor of the heart and blow away the chaff; our part is only to be "one with the Lord" in it, surrendering to death and judgment everything "His eyes condemn in us." It crests in a startling prayer — "Yea, Lord! slay, slay, till Thou alone livest in us eternally!" — the soul asking to be emptied of self so that only God remains. And it lands gently: the work "is not yet at an end — yet only be still and of good cheer in God: He will surely carry it through, who has begun it." "Trust yourself in nothing, but God in all." The letter closes with warm greetings to Reinertz's household — his sister Anna Maria, another sister and her husband, his parents — and a blessing on them all.
A few words and echoes.
- "A proof of grace." The letter's hinge: being shown one's own hidden corruption, and still resting in childlike trust, is evidence that grace is at work — not that it has withdrawn.
- Self-propriety (Eigenheit). Tersteegen's term for the self-will and self-possession that grace must dismantle — here seen in its "most hidden" forms, and named a "deep-rooted cancer."
- "Incline away from it — into God." The characteristic counsel: not to fight evil head-on but to turn the deep will gently away from it toward the God who is already nearer than the self.
- "Nearer to us than we are to ourselves." An echo of Augustine's interior intimo meo — God more inward to us than our own inmost.
- The winnowing-shovel and the threshing-floor. From John the Baptist (Matthew 3:12) — the Lord purges the floor of the heart and burns the chaff; the image of God's purifying work that we are to consent to, not perform.
- "Slay, slay, till Thou alone livest in us." The boldest note — a prayer for the death of self so that only God's life remains; the one place the letter addresses God directly, in the old reverent "Thou."
- "He will carry it through, who has begun it." Philippians 1:6 — the ground of the whole comfort: the work is God's, begun by Him and to be finished by Him.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thi-118 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.