The inward impression of the loving presence of God is a refreshment and a preparation for suffering. How one is to behave in stumblings.
The Hundred and Twenty-third Letter.
The inward impression of the loving presence of God is a refreshment and a preparation for suffering. How one is to behave in stumblings.
Beloved friend and sister!
It was very dear to me to hear something of the state of your mind, whereupon I write this little (since I have little time) in answer.
The inward impression of the loving presence of God, and your happy, still occupation in, before, and with the same, has been of God and of His grace, as is to be seen from its effects: were it of nature, you would doubtless have set yourself into it far sooner.
As Jesus, with His disciples, rose up from the love- and supper-meal, He went with them into the garden of Gethsemane: even so He is still wont to journey with us. By such a rich meal, as you call it, the dear Jesus has meant to strengthen you for the trials to follow. The hearty willingness for suffering and dying are the nearest and best fruits of a true divine communication. Rising from this table of believing fellowship with God, the soul must be able to say with the Savior: That the world may know that I love the Father… arise, etc. John 14.
Your stumbling-blocks pain me: but God be praised, who ever again raises us up with His hand of love, that we do not lie fallen in unbelief! A tender grief and humility are good; only the disquiet does harm. Were I your confessor or guide, I would lay upon you, as a wholesome penance, that as often as you transgressed in such vehemences, you should at once confess it openly to those who are present and see it — be it maid, or child, or husband — which, for various reasons, seems to me profitable. Meanwhile you see, dear sister, what we are capable of in ourselves, and what we are in ourselves, and how utterly needful it is for you to remain — much, and where possible always — turned inward in the childlike ground with God, who is our only strength and virtue. The effect of our stumblings must be this: to remain ever humbler and barer in God. Psalm 73:23.
Now, we then forget our filth again, and sink ourselves with everything into the sea of this infinite Love, which is surely nearer to us than we think. Only love this Love, and hold it the dearer the more wretched you are. As much and as long as you are in this ground, so much and so long has your Christianity a ground; no more and no less. Were such an exercise only a bare imagination, as the temptation calls it, then would to God that this imagination might but last unto eternity — so shall you be essentially holy and blessed. Only walk on without misgiving upon this way; so will the actual fruits in time prove incontrovertibly that the tree is good. Let all the doubts that fall in fall out again, and give yourself over to the Lord without scrupling.
Your outward station and bond cannot bind God, that He should not be able to make you into a great saint. I assure you that the plasters God uses are truly serviceable to your wounds. Only keep yourself, in everything, gentle and detached in God, and toward all who try you.
The time compels me to break off. God will have you for His whole and eternal possession. It is surely too great and too much for us: yet so it is His good pleasure. What shall we say, but only love Him who loves us without cause? He deals with us as a God — that is, wondrously, above and against all merit — so that His glory may shine forth so much the more in the most wretched objects. May He live eternally in us! —
I too have a short journey before me; I offer myself, in this and in everything, up to God, as I also do not forget you, and in the Same remain.
Mülheim, the 17th of March 1732.
German
Der hundertunddreiundzwanzigste Brief.
Der innige Eindruck der liebreichen Gegenwart GOttes, ist eine Erquickung und Vorbereitung zum Leiden. Wie man sich in Strauchelungen zu verhalten.
Geliebte Freundin und Schwester!
Es ist mir recht lieb gewesen, etwas von deinem Gemüths-Zustand zu vernehmen, worauf dann dieses Wenige (weil wenig Zeit frei habe) zur Antwort schreibe.
— 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 letter of direction to Christiana Maria Griesenbeck (cf. the Christmas letter, Brief 120), joining two things she had written of: a season of felt sweetness in prayer, and some troubling lapses of temper. Tersteegen's first move is to reframe the consolation. That "rich meal, as you call it," was truly "of God and of His grace" — but its purpose was not comfort for its own sake; it was strength "for the trials to follow." His image is unforgettable: "As Jesus rose from the Supper, He went straight into the garden of Gethsemane; even so He is still wont to journey with us." The sweetest communions are preparations for the cross, and their surest fruit is "a hearty willingness for suffering and dying."
Then, gently, to her failures. "Your stumbling-blocks pain me," he says — but the answer is not anxious self-torment. "A tender grief and humility are good; only the disquiet does harm." He even prescribes a homely, humbling "penance": whenever she loses her temper, to confess it openly, at once, to whoever witnessed it — "be it maid, or child, or husband." The point is to keep her small and honest, "turned inward in the childlike ground with God, who is our only strength." The remedy for every stumble is the same movement: "we forget our filth again, and sink ourselves into the sea of this infinite Love, which is nearer to us than we think" — and, in one of his loveliest lines, "love this Love the dearer the more wretched you are."
The letter's last third is pure encouragement against discouragement. If the whole inward way feels like "a bare imagination," as the tempter whispers — well, "would to God that this imagination might last unto eternity!" Walk on "without misgiving"; the fruit will prove "the tree is good." Neither her ordinary domestic station nor her faults "can bind God, that He should not make you a great saint" — indeed "the very plasters God uses are serviceable to your wounds." And the close soars: God "deals with us wondrously, above and against all merit, so that His glory may shine forth the more in the most wretched objects. May He live eternally in us!" The letter then breaks off mid-courtesy — "the time compels me" — with no signature, a small human trace of a man writing in haste before a journey.
A few words and echoes.
- From the Supper to Gethsemane. The governing image (John 13–18; Matthew 26:30, 36): consolation is given to fortify the soul for the coming trial, as Christ's Supper led straight to the garden.
- "That the world may know that I love the Father… arise." John 14:31 — Christ's own word rising from the table to go to His passion; the soul is to make it its own after every time of communion.
- "A tender grief and humility are good; only the disquiet does harm." The pastoral heart on failure: contrition and self-lowering heal; agitated self-torment (Unruh) only wounds further.
- The "penance" of open confession. A concrete, humbling discipline — to own each fit of temper aloud, at once, even to servant or child — meant not to shame but to keep the soul honest and small.
- "Sink into the sea of this infinite Love… love this Love the dearer the more wretched you are." The one remedy for every stumble — not effort but return; the more miserable, the more reason to love.
- "The tree is good." Matthew 7:17–20 / 12:33 — the true way is proved not by feelings but, in time, by "actual fruits."
- Psalm 73:23. "Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand" — the psalm's assurance behind "to remain ever humbler and barer in God" after every fall.
- "His glory in the most wretched objects." The final paradox: God deals "above and against all merit," so that His glory shines the brighter in the poorest, least deserving vessels.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thi-123 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.