Letters · Erster Band · Theil II (1773)

An encouragement to full surrender to God.

Bd I · Th II · Brief 16 · Der sechzehnte Brief

Addressee — N. N. (open direction; formal Ihr/euch, and "liebe Schwester" within → a woman). Not identified (1773-only).
Date — Undated in the print (no dateline, no signature). No year attested.
Provenance — Translated from the public-domain 1773 first edition (Theil II, pp. 43–44), in normalized GS 1845 orthography, collated against the 1845 Gesammelte Schriften (Bd 8) and Hartman's 1819 reprint. All public-domain.

The Sixteenth Letter.

An encouragement to full surrender to God.

N. N.

Often, for some time now, you have come into my mind. Your condition is by no means a matter of indifference to me. I know the precious call of God upon your soul. I know that He loves you and will have you wholly for Himself. Nothing will rejoice me more inwardly than to see you fully surrendered to the call and leading of this eternal Love. The weaker, the more wretched, the poorer we find ourselves, the more bound and the more fit we are for this full surrender: in Him is all that we lack, and He Himself will be all in us. There is nothing in us that moved Him to love us; nothing in us, either, must hold us back from loving Him in return, and from leaving ourselves to His hands.

Only, now and then, a few moments still, dear sister! Then the Lord will say to you the very thing I have said above: that He, namely, will have you and your love wholly for Himself. Give yourself up, then, childlike, without looking at yourself; take good heart toward the God who has already done so much for you — and His divine presence will teach and give you, within you, all that may be needful in every case, and His divine peace will be your confirmation.

❦

German

Der sechzehnte Brief.

Aufmunterung zur völligen Ergebung an GOtt.

N. N. Oft seyd ihr mir einige Zeit her ins Gemüth gekommen. Euer Zustand ist mir keineswegs indifferent.

— 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, warm letter of encouragement, sent open ("to N. N.") but plainly to a "dear sister" whom Tersteegen has been carrying in mind. Its one theme is full surrender (völlige Ergebung) — and its gentleness is the point: the letter argues that our very weakness is not an obstacle to surrender but the qualification for it.

Its argument. He opens with affection — "your condition is by no means a matter of indifference to me; I know the precious call of God upon your soul" — and states the whole hope: "He loves you and will have you wholly for Himself." Then the reassuring reversal: "the weaker, the more wretched, the poorer we find ourselves, the more bound and fit we are for this full surrender: in Him is all that we lack, and He Himself will be all in us." Surrender rests on pure grace, cutting off both pride and despair at once: "there is nothing in us that moved Him to love us; nothing in us, either, must hold us back from loving Him in return." And the practice could not be simpler: "only, now and then, a few moments still" — in that stillness the Lord Himself will say what the letter says. So — "give yourself up, childlike, without looking at yourself; take good heart toward the God who has already done so much for you," and His presence will supply all, and "His divine peace will be your confirmation."

A few words and echoes.

"The precious call of God upon your soul." Romans 8:30 / 2 Timothy 1:9 — the effectual call of God, here felt as a personal drawing on one particular soul.
"Nothing in us moved Him to love us." Deuteronomy 7:7–8 ("not because ye were more… but because the Lord loved you"), Titus 3:5 ("not by works"), 1 John 4:19 ("he first loved us") — love that has no cause in us is love that our unworthiness cannot cancel.
"In Him is all that we lack, and He Himself will be all in us." Colossians 2:9–10 ("ye are complete in him") and 1 Corinthians 15:28 ("that God may be all in all").
"Only, now and then, a few moments still." Psalm 46:10 — "Be still, and know that I am God." The whole method of the letter: not effort, but stillness, in which God speaks.
"His divine peace will be your confirmation." Philippians 4:7 ("the peace of God… shall keep your hearts") and John 14:27 — peace itself as the seal that the surrender is real.

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Erster Band, II. Theil, Brief 16 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-016.html.

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