A Christian and very comforting word of consolation to a friend upon his deathbed.
The Twenty-seventh Letter.
A Christian and very comforting word of consolation to a friend upon his deathbed.
My dear brother!
Should this sheet still find you in the temporal misery, then I visit you herewith to take my leave, on the pilgrim- and cross-way, that we may find one another again forever before God and in God — which will soon come to pass. Set your hope wholly on the precious grace of God in Christ Jesus, who came to save sinners. Seek nothing in yourself. In Jesus it is all, and eternal, that can quiet you and make you blessed. All your sins and failings, committed from childhood until now, are heartily grievous to you: Yea, Lord! Thou knowest it! Ah, that I had never offended Thee, Thou God of love, nor laid the least thing in the way of Thy grace! You believe that God, for the sake of His dear Son Jesus, can, will, and shall forgive you all your sins and failings abundantly, and is mighty to help you out of all your misery, into His eternal heavenly kingdom. O Thou great grace of God in Jesus! O Thou thoroughly-quieting blood of my dear Redeemer, who for my sins' sake suffered and died on the trunk of the cross! On Thee I believe, upon Thee I cast myself; Jesus! Jesus! In the eternal-great glow of Thy merciful love all my sins are like little stubble. Into this Thy Jesus-love will I sink myself, and lose myself as I am; Thou canst redeem me, Thou Friend of man!
You have, in your life, often given and entrusted yourself to Jesus, and have wished to be His wholly and eternally, and to love and cleave to Him alone. This you now confirm once more before the door of eternity with a hearty Amen! Yea, Jesus! Thine am I, Thine will I remain, in life, in death, and in all eternity! Thou hast bought me for Thy own possession. Thou hast a right to my soul; to Thee I hand it back again, as Thy property; into Thy hands I lay down forever my spirit, Thou faithful God in Jesus! Keep Thou this precious pledge in Thy hand! Hold Thou fast, as Thou hast promised: My sheep are in my hand, and no one shall pluck them out of my hand. If I have served and loved Thee poorly on earth, Thou most lovable Being, then I now await from Thy mercy an eternity, in which I may love, serve, and adore Thee perfectly, with all Thy saints. Jesus! I bow myself under Thy discipline; cleanse, prepare, and perfect me! Should this mortal life sink away, then be Thou my eternal life, and the whole glory of my soul!
So go then hence in peace, my dear brother, and behold your Saviour; may He strengthen, refresh, and help you through! Yea, He will do it. May He bless you out of His sanctuary, and accompany you through the valley of death, to the life that is eternal! Amen, Jesus! Amen, Jesus! Jesus, Amen! In this name I greet and kiss you once more from the heart, and remain, through His mercy, now and forever,
Your
faithfully-bound brother.
German
Der 27te Brief.
Christlicher und sehr tröstlicher Zuspruch an einen Freund auf seinem Todt-Bette.
Mein lieber Bruder!
Findet dich dieses Blatt noch in dem zeitlichen Elende; so besuche ich dich hierdurch zum Abschied auf dem Pilger- und Kreuz-Weg, um uns ewig vor GOtt und in GOtt wieder zu finden, welches bald geschehen wird.
— 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 letter to a dying friend, and the most sustained piece of prayer in the collection so far. After a brief farewell, Tersteegen does something remarkable: he writes out, in the friend's own voice, the confession and surrender a dying Christian would make — so that the sheet itself becomes a prayer the friend can pray. It moves through penitence ("that I had never offended Thee, Thou God of love"), to a great cry of trust in "the thoroughly-quieting blood of my dear Redeemer," to the renewal of a lifelong self-giving ("Thine am I, Thine will I remain, in life, in death, and in all eternity"), and finally to the committal of the spirit — "into Thy hands I lay down forever my spirit" — where the dying man holds Christ to His own promise. Only at the very end does Tersteegen step back into his own voice to bless: "go then hence in peace… behold your Saviour… He will accompany you through the valley of death to the life that is eternal." It is tender, unflinching, and entirely turned toward Christ.
A few words and echoes.
- "who came to save sinners." 1 Timothy 1:15, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners."
- "into Thy hands I lay down… my spirit." Luke 23:46, Christ's own dying word ("into thy hands I commend my spirit"), placed now on the friend's lips.
- "My sheep are in my hand, and no one shall pluck them out of my hand." John 10:28–29 — the dying man reminds Christ of His promise; the words are Christ's, spoken in the first person, so the sentence stays "my hand," not "Thy."
- "the valley of death." Psalm 23:4, "the valley of the shadow of death," through which the Shepherd accompanies.
- "Thou Friend of man" (Menschen-Freund). Philanthrōpos — a title for Christ the lover of humankind, from the "kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man" (Titus 3:4).
- "the trunk of the cross" (am Stamme des Kreuzes). Tersteegen's vivid phrase — the cross as the tree-trunk on which the Redeemer suffered.
- register. The letter alternates between Tersteegen speaking to the friend ("you") and the friend's prayer to God ("Thou"); the pivot is the "hearty Amen" before the door of eternity, after which nearly everything is direct address to Christ.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-027 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.