On openheartedness toward one another, and on faith-willingness in suffering.
The Twenty-second Letter.
On openheartedness toward one another, and on faith-willingness in suffering.
N. N.
Your little letters are always welcome to me, though I do not always find it needful to answer them with ink, and cannot always do so either: yet I should think it would be good for you to write now and then how things stand with you; for you must know that you stand within the fellowship, that God and His children have an eye upon you — yes, this must be truly dear and weighty to you. We are not worthy that other children should look upon us and take us up in their prayer. And because God has let us meet one another so specially and wonderfully in this strange world, and has given us a certain openness toward one another, I gladly let it be so, and must urge it upon you, that you keep up this openness toward me in the Lord, and always believe that your furtherance is truly welcome to me, even when I show it least.
Because I know how little, and how much of nothing, there is in me that could further others, I must indeed say it to the Lord, that He not leave stuck fast those hearts that, for His grace's sake, have confidence in me. I grow ever less of use, also on account of this wretched body. For eight to ten weeks now I have been quite laid low, so that I could just barely walk and stand about the house: on a few days, which now and then had some relief between, I then had to venture again beyond my strength with writing and visits. And then I do as those merchants pressed with debts, who first pay off those by whom they are most plagued. Now for eight days I have been weaker than before. In the night between Saturday and Sunday I thought: one might well find me dead some day, for the ailment in the head and the fever assailed me beyond measure and left me no rest at all. Since then I still have catarrhal fever every evening, and great weakness in the head. — God be loved, praised, and adored in all things! Should my weakness grow more serious, I will then have it written to you.
That your constitution still remains frail, I perceive with compassion, but also with adoration of the wise and faithful leading of God. The Lord gives cross according to strength, or strength according to cross: He will stand by you; trust Him for that, as a child. You seek to compose yourself and to submit — that is good; but do it, so far as possible, if not with a felt willingness, yet with a willingness of faith; that is, even when the outer part feels the load and would gladly have air, let the spirit nevertheless cast a quiet glance upon the Lord, and say: Yes, Lord! it is as good as Thou makest it. I too will have it so, from the heart. I do not ask to be let out, even if it should cost me but a single sigh. Nor does it hinder anything if such avowals are brought forth without any relish.
Be of good cheer, dear sister! let us suffer when God wills: He suffers with us and in us: What does it matter about us? What would we have more, if only we please God? We belong to the Lord with body and soul, and must take little thought for ourselves. Truly! whoever would serve God with a right freedom of spirit must not take counsel with tender nature, but give himself over to it, and live as one raised above nature. Oh, His strength is mighty in the weak! Much occupation with God, little with yourselves!
German
Der 22te Brief.
Von der Offenherzigkeit gegen einander, und von der Glaubens-Willigkeit im Leiden.
N. N. Jederzeit sind mir eure Brieflein angenehm, ich finde aber nicht allezeit nöthig, mit Dinten darauf zu antworten, kann es auch nicht allezeit: Dennoch sollte glauben, daß es euch gut, wann ihr bisweilen einmal schreibet, wie es um euch stehet, dann ihr müsset doch wissen …
— 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 third letter to the same sick "dear sister," and the most personal of the three. Its first counsel is about openheartedness — Tersteegen wants her to keep telling him how her soul fares, not for information's sake but because it belongs to the "fellowship" in which God's children watch over one another. Then the letter turns, remarkably, to his own body. He describes a severe illness in unguarded detail: weeks laid low, a fever and "ailment in the head" so bad that one night he thought he might be found dead, still running a "catarrhal fever" every evening. Out of that condition he presses on her the letter's second theme, faith-willingness (Glaubens-Willigkeit): a submission that need not be felt to be real — the outer man may feel the whole weight and long for air, while the spirit quietly turns to the Lord and says, "it is as good as Thou makest it." He closes with Paul's word about strength perfected in weakness, and a motto: "Much occupation with God, little with yourselves."
A few words and echoes.
- "faith-willingness" (Glaubens-Willigkeit). Tersteegen's coinage for the letter's heart: a willingness that rests on faith rather than on feeling. He is careful to distinguish it from a felt ("empfindliche") submission — even an avowal made "without any relish" still counts.
- 2 Corinthians 12:9. "Oh, His strength is mighty in the weak!" paraphrases Paul's "my strength is made perfect in weakness" — spoken here in the third person, of God, not as a direct address.
- "the ailment in the head" / "catarrhal fever" (Kränkung im Haupt / Fluß-Fieber). Eighteenth-century medical language: Fluß is a "flux" or catarrh, Kränkung a bodily affliction. The passage is one of the rare places where Tersteegen speaks plainly of his own chronic ill health.
- "take us up in their prayer." The image of the community of "God's children" holding one another before God — the same fellowship he urges her not to withdraw from by silence.
- "give himself over to it, and live as one raised above nature." Not a denial that suffering is felt, but a refusal to "take counsel with tender nature" — to let the flesh's aversion set the terms.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-022 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.