That one must suffer for the love and honor of God, whereby good resolutions grow ever more complete.
The Twenty-third Letter.
That one must suffer for the love and honor of God, whereby good resolutions grow ever more complete.
N. N.
You are near to me, worthy sister, and I ask the Lord that He would visit you in my stead, as He gladly and mightily will.
The lonelier and more withdrawn one is from created comfort and resources, the more our heart's door stands open to the Lord, and the more freely and purely can our spirit unite itself with Him. There, where all creatures are silent, there the Lord can speak freely; and perhaps He has willed to take you aside by this very illness precisely because He has something heartfelt to say to you. Hosea 2:14. So speak, then, O Lord, of peace, for Thy handmaid heareth! Assuredly, God's nearness and inward speaking can well make a sickbed into a paradise.
For one thing, I trust that your sickness will be not unto death, but to the glory of God; for God never crosses in vain. So hold still, then, to the wisest and kindest Saviour in every way, believing that you are in His hand; and since you can do little, for love and honor of Him, then suffer, for love and honor of Him, as it is given from moment to moment. O great happiness! to be able to please a God through a passing suffering. God has for this end given you, some time now, good resolutions to bear the cross more willingly than before, and to venture natural tenderness more thereby — as I saw with pleasure in your last. Only do not be surprised if you should find that the buds and blossoms of the good resolution have not yet become perfect fruit in you; only let them stand unbroken upon their root, and it will grow more complete of itself. I mean to say: with all the good will and purpose that God gives, sink yourself ever again into God; in a quiet acknowledgment of your own weakness, and stay lying there, like a child, at the breast of grace, so that He who has given you the willing may also work the doing in you, according to His good pleasure.
For the rest, give yourself over to God, just as you are, in the sweet name of Jesus; and let even this be given you by Him: do this in the present, and take no care for what is to come. Love God, who loves you so much; think more of Him than of yourself; He will carry it through. I greet you heartily, and will remember you before God in your weakness, and by His grace remain,
Worthy sister,
Your
bound and feeble brother.
German
Der 23te Brief.
Daß man GOtt zu lieb und Ehren leiden müsse, wodurch die gute Resolutionen immer völliger werden.
N. N. Ihr seyd mir nahe, werthe Schwester, und ich bitte den HErrn, daß Er euch an meiner Statt besuchen wolle, wie Er gerne und kräftig thun will.
— 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. The fourth and — unlike the previous three — a signed letter to the same ailing sister, gathering the whole series into a single consolation: suffering borne "for the love and honor of God" is the very thing that ripens her good resolutions. Its most memorable turns are three. First, the paradox of solitude: the more the soul is cut off from every created comfort, the wider its heart-door swings open to God, "for where all creatures are silent, the Lord can speak freely." Second, a short prayer breathed in the middle of the letter — "Speak, O Lord… for Thy handmaid heareth" — that fuses Hosea's promise to "speak comfortably" to the wilderness-led soul with young Samuel's answer in the temple. Third, the image of resolutions as buds and blossoms: not yet fruit, and not to be forced — "only let them stand unbroken upon their root," and God, who gave the willing, will work the doing. The letter closes tenderly and, for once, with his signature.
A few words and echoes.
- Hosea 2:14. Cited by reference: "I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her." Tersteegen reads her sickness as just such a leading-aside, that God may speak.
- "Thy handmaid heareth." The prayer echoes Samuel's "Speak; for thy servant heareth" (1 Sam 3:9–10), recast in a woman's voice — the one place in the letter where the soul turns to address God directly.
- John 11:4. "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God" — spoken of Lazarus, applied here almost verbatim to the sister's illness ("not unto death, but to the glory of God").
- Philippians 2:13. The close paraphrases Paul: God "who has given you the willing may also work the doing… according to His good pleasure" ("it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure") — kept in the third person, not as address.
- "the breast of grace" (Gnaden-Brust). A nursing image for the soul's dependence: to lie like a child at grace's breast and simply receive.
- "bound and feeble brother" (verbundener schwacher Bruder). His recurring self-subscription — verbunden both "obliged/devoted" and "bound to you"; the same closing he uses to the male friend of the 19th letter.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-023 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.