Letters · Erster Band · Theil II (1773)

On sweet littleness, and the contentment that arises from it.

Bd I · Th II · Brief 13 · Der dreizehnte Brief

Addressee — An eine ungenannte, verheiratete Schwester — "Werthe Schwester!", a married woman ("opfere ich euch… auf, wie auch euren lieben Mann") → English polite you. Not identified (1773-only).
Date — Undated in the print (no dateline, no signature; ends on the commendation). No year attested.
Provenance — Translated from the public-domain 1773 first edition (Theil II, pp. 37–38), in normalized GS 1845 orthography, collated against the 1845 Gesammelte Schriften (Bd 8) and Hartman's 1819 reprint. All public-domain.

The Thirteenth Letter.

On sweet littleness, and the contentment that arises from it.

Worthy sister!

If the Lord has perhaps so ordered it that a word spoken by me has served you, then you already know that all good is from the Lord, and that we have only to look to Him alone. Take nothing, either from me or from any creature, except what leads you to God, and quiets and enlarges your ground — not your sensuality. —

I do believe, though, that I recognize your calling in general: the Lord will have you wholly for Himself, and unite Himself with your spirit by the way and drawing of the heart, parting you from all life and lodging in the created and in your own self. What mercy! Follow childlike the gentle inclination of the heart toward His inward nearness — an inclination that you must rather find in yourselves than make. Love and follow the Lord simply, without wanting to distinguish so exactly how and where you are, so that the way may be cut off from self-love. We must want to be, not high, but little — yet gladly have as much love to God as the most perfect. Faint-heartedness is indeed of no use; but sweet littleness is the nearest way to the highest degrees of union with God.

What the Lord gives us, or does not give, we must always be right well content with Him, and press ourselves into nothing else; yet also fix ourselves fast in no occupation or exercise, but only in God. Light or darkness, savour or dryness — all must be good to us, when the Lord gives it. We ourselves must neither clothe nor strip ourselves. To Him and His workings we give ourselves up in the present, without so much reflecting on high and low. Ah! we have nothing to do but to please our God — or, better said, to be content with Him who is, who He is. To Him, our dearest Immanuel, I offer you up from the heart, as also your dear husband.

❦

German

Der dreizehnte Brief.

Vom süßen Kleinseyn, und der daraus entstehenden Zufriedenheit.

Werthe Schwester!

Hat der HErr es etwa gefüget, daß ein von mir geredtes Wort euch gedienet, so wisset ihr schon, daß alles Gute vom HErrn ist, und wir nur auf Ihn allein zu sehen haben.

— 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 to a married "worthy sister," on the theme its own title names: "sweet littleness" (Kleinseyn) — the glad willingness to be small — and the deep contentment that grows out of it. It is one of Tersteegen's clearest statements of holy passivity: that union with God is reached downward, by becoming little, not upward by achievement.

Its argument. He begins by deflecting all credit: if a word of his has helped her, "all good is from the Lord" — "take nothing, from me or any creature, except what leads you to God." Then he names her calling as he reads it: "the Lord will have you wholly for Himself," uniting Himself with her spirit "by the way and drawing of the heart," and drawing her off from resting "in the created and in your own self." The response asked is receptive, not strenuous: "follow childlike the gentle inclination of the heart toward His inward nearness — an inclination you must rather find in yourselves than make." Hence the heart of it: "we must want to be, not high, but little" — yet without timidity, loving God "as much as the most perfect"; for "sweet littleness is the nearest way to the highest degrees of union with God." And so, whatever comes — "light or darkness, savour or dryness" — "all must be good to us, when the Lord gives it"; "we ourselves must neither clothe nor strip ourselves," but leave ourselves "to Him and His workings… without so much reflecting on high and low." The one thing left to do is "to be content with Him who is, who He is." He ends by laying her and her husband "before our dearest Immanuel."

A few words and echoes.

"All good is from the Lord." James 1:17 — "every good gift and every perfect gift is from above."
"We must want to be, not high, but little… the nearest way to the highest union." Matthew 18:4 ("whosoever… shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest") and Matthew 11:29 ("I am meek and lowly in heart") — the paradox that the way up is down.
"We ourselves must neither clothe nor strip ourselves." The image of holy passivity — we are the clay, not the potter (Isaiah 45:9; Romans 9:20–21); we neither add to nor take from what God is doing, but give Him "a free hand."
"Content with Him who is, who He is." Exodus 3:14 — "I AM THAT I AM." The soul's rest is not in God's gifts but in His sheer being — He who simply is.
"Our dearest Immanuel." Isaiah 7:14 / Matthew 1:23 — "they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us." (In the 1773 print the sacred name is set, unusually, in Roman type — see the apparatus.)

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Erster Band, II. Theil, Brief 13 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-013.html.

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