Letters · Erster Band · Theil II (1773)

Our imperfections compel us to forsake ourselves, in order to find the divine perfections in Jesus.

Bd I · Th II · Brief 17 · Der siebzehnte Brief

Addressee — N. N. (open direction) — a "liebe Schwester" (woman) who had written a question. 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. 45–46), in normalized GS 1845 orthography, collated against the 1845 Gesammelte Schriften (Bd 8) and Hartman's 1819 reprint. All public-domain.

The Seventeenth Letter.

Our imperfections compel us to forsake ourselves, in order to find the divine perfections in Jesus.

N. N.

The dear sister asks: how may a soul hope that it can ever have part in the perfections of God, so long as it finds itself so very poor and stripped of all virtues, etc.? And I answer: that a soul can never rightly and duly have part in the perfections of God, so long as it still supposes that it has perfections in itself, or can bring them about of itself.

Our supposed perfections hold us captive in ourselves. Far more blessed are we when the experiences of our miseries and imperfections make us — not disheartened, but poor and stripped — and so compel us to forsake ourselves, and to unite ourselves with Jesus, and to have part in His divine perfections.

I repeat it: let your defects and miseries, dear sister, greatly displease you, but not make you faint-hearted; seek the remedy against them not in your own exertions, but in a quiet sinking into Jesus, and in a trustful leaving of yourself into His hands. O how beautifully will He form you after His own mind, when you let yourself fall, so unformed and childlike, into His full power! He Himself will work all perfection and faithfulness in you. —

Take heart, dear sister, avail yourself of such occasions with joy! You are called not for the world, but for God and for eternity. God loves you, and has shown you many mercies. O how great is His long-suffering, to gather us to Himself again a thousand times! Love, then, this God in return, and do not look so much upon yourself. — Let the heart of Jesus be our gathering-place; in Him abide, through grace.

❦

German

Der siebzehnte Brief.

Unsere Unvollkommenheiten nöthigen uns, uns selbst zu verlassen, um in JEsu die göttliche Vollkommenheiten zu finden.

N. N. Die liebe Schwester fraget: Wie eine Seele hoffen darf, daß sie jemals Theil haben könne an den Vollkommenheiten GOttes, so lang sie sich so sehr arm und entblößet befindet von allen Tugenden, etc.?

— 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 reply to a specific question. A "dear sister" had asked, in effect: how can I ever share in the perfections of God when I feel so empty of every virtue? Tersteegen's answer is one of his most characteristic reversals — the very emptiness she laments is not the obstacle but the door.

Its argument. He turns her question on its head. A soul cannot share God's perfections "so long as it still supposes that it has perfections in itself, or can bring them about of itself" — because "our supposed perfections hold us captive in ourselves." So the honest experience of one's own poverty, rightly taken, is a mercy: "far more blessed are we when the experiences of our miseries… make us — not disheartened, but poor and stripped — and so compel us to forsake ourselves, and unite ourselves with Jesus, and have part in His divine perfections." The failings are to be felt ("let them greatly displease you") without being despaired of ("but not make you faint-hearted"). And the remedy is emphatically not self-improvement: "seek it not in your own exertions, but in a quiet sinking into Jesus… O how beautifully will He form you after His own mind, when you let yourself fall, so unformed and childlike, into His full power! He Himself will work all perfection and faithfulness in you." The letter ends where it means all souls to end: "let the heart of Jesus be our gathering-place; in Him abide, through grace."

A few words and echoes.

"Have part in the perfections of God… in His divine perfections." 2 Peter 1:4 — "partakers of the divine nature" — not by attaining virtues but by union with Christ.
"Poor and stripped… our supposed perfections hold us captive." Revelation 3:17 (Laodicea: "thou… knowest not that thou art wretched… and poor, and blind, and naked") and Matthew 5:3 ("blessed are the poor in spirit") — the felt poverty that grace requires.
"Not in your own exertions, but in a quiet sinking into Jesus." Isaiah 30:15 ("in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength") and Galatians 3:3 (not perfected "by the flesh"). Tersteegen's Einsinkung — a resting-down into Christ rather than a striving-up.
"He will form you after His own mind… work all in you." Galatians 4:19 ("until Christ be formed in you"), Philippians 2:13 ("it is God which worketh in you"), with the potter and clay of Jeremiah 18:6 — the forming is His work on unresisting material.
"His long-suffering, to gather us a thousand times… the heart of Jesus be our gathering-place." 2 Peter 3:9 (God's "longsuffering") and Matthew 23:37 ("how often would I have gathered thy children together") — the patient re-gathering of the straying soul into Christ's heart.

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Erster Band, II. Theil, Brief 17 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-017.html.

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