To a person who has recovered — that she should possess herself in patience, and look not at herself, but at the ground of the soul.

The Hundred and Forty-second Letter.

To a person who has recovered — that she should possess herself in patience, and look not at herself, but at the ground of the soul.

In the grace of JEsus, beloved sister!

I wish you peace into your heart, in the name of the little Child Jesus — the Child in whom the eternal Father lets it be proclaimed, Peace on earth, and that He would once more have His delight and good pleasure in men.

Your two little letters I have duly received: but it seems to me scarcely needful to answer your latter one, since you will already find the answer in your own soul. In your former one I saw already (dear to me though it otherwise was) that the desire and hope for dying were not rightly ordered. And now it is just as childish — and not at all childlike — that you are not content with His good pleasure, now that it seems otherwise to you, although you are now nearer to death than you were then. Yet indeed, without your own knowing, and in your innermost ground and will, you are heartily content with it. Your ground says: Yea, Father! for so it is well-pleasing in Thy sight. But you are not content with your discontent, unwillingness, sadness, and the like; over these you grow sad and unwilling: and that, too, is surely not good. God has patience with you, and I too have patience with you; so possess yourself, then, in patience, and do not carry on so unruly! What is it, then, now? Are you now so dismayed about it, that you see yourself once again? Do you not know, then, that nothing good dwells in you? When you stand in the childlike ground, then you are, in so far, not in yourself; that is then not your life; it is grace; it is Jesus. But when you say: My whole Christianity is nothing but hypocrisy, falsehood; I seek to slip away from suffering, and the like — that is spoken by you; there you are looking at yourself; and that, too, is, according to the one part, all of it the truth: but according to the other part, according to the ground of your soul, it is not true; that I know better, and you will, I hope, believe me in this, even though you dared not trust yourself.

If I were to look at myself according to that part, as you do, I should despair a thousand times. I desire to be found in Christ, not having my own righteousness: He shall be my All. Let the malicious nature perish in its filth; I will not take its part, nor even so much as look at it. But if you cannot escape it, then suffer it all only quite childlike, as a child bears its belly-aches.

What a poor temptation it is, after all, against the child-state to which God is calling and preparing you — as though one merely wanted to be rid of suffering, and to lie down on the lazy side, and the like! Yes, this is the point of it: to become free of all the hellish sufferings of the law and the conscience, of self-will, of false righteousness, wrath, sin, self-hood, and the like, and of all such evil plague — this is the very point; not in order to run away from Christ's cross, but only, without prying, to let everything rush over one, and to embrace it in quiet love; whereat the great and clever Christians would a thousand times over turn into fools and run away, because in their brain they could not bring it into agreement with God's leading, and would take offence.

If this is "lying down on the lazy side," then I have no notion of it any more. But no! you yourself know better. Only stay nicely in the present, without fearing anything that might yet come. The Father will surely take care of you; only cast yourself trustfully into His bosom, and take no charge of yourself! to the child-state you are called; let no other gospel be preached to you; therein alone will you find rest. What is not yet essential, the Lord will give you.

Never suspect that I would not take your part, or would give you up. With God, such a thing will not happen — even though I cannot always attest it by writing, or otherwise: I do not forget you, for all my much bodily and spiritual weakness. You know that I am much bound. Today my pen has stood still but little from letter-writing, though it is Sunday, and I have no evening's rest yet. Praised be our Immanuel, who would strengthen your soul, and hide it in Himself, eternally! Amen!

Your weak brother.

Mülheim, the 10th of January 1734.

German

Der hundertundzweiundvierzigste Brief.

An eine Person die wieder genesen, daß sie sich in Geduld fassen, und nicht auf sich selbst, sondern auf den Grund des Gemüths sehen solle.

In der Gnade JEsu geliebte Schwester!

Ich wünsche dir Frieden in dein Herz im Namen des Kindleins JEsu, in welchem Kindlein der ewige Vater verkündigen lässet Frieden auf Erden, und daß Er wiederum haben wolle Seine Lust und Wohlgefallen in den Menschen.

— 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).