Letters · Erster Band · Theil II (1773)

To a person in anxiety about offending God — that she should not look upon her own weakness and misery, but trust in God.

Bd I · Th II · Brief 31 · Der 31te Brief

Addressee — N. N. — an anxious person fearing to offend God (polite plural euch/ihr → you); undated
Date — undated (no dateline or signature in 1773)
Provenance — Translated from the public-domain 1773 first edition (Theil II, pp. 85–86), in normalized GS 1845 orthography, collated against the 1845 Gesammelte Schriften (Bd 8) and Hartman's 1819 reprint. All public-domain.

The Thirty-first Letter.

To a person in anxiety about offending God — that she should not look upon her own weakness and misery, but trust in God.

N. N.

On your welcome word lately received, I assure you in simplicity that I hold you, in these present circumstances, especially before God, and will hold you, by the grace that He Himself will supply. Do not fail, for your own part, to keep to prayer all the more, the more the weakness and danger press. But it sounds all too incredible in your letter, when you report that you saw beforehand you would offend the dear God. No — rather die than offend God! The poor child looks at its tender little legs and at the great mountain, and would weep: I cannot get over there. Weep not, you good child! Give the Father, who is so near, just a good word, and lean on His arm — then you come gently and without trouble over the mountain.

You offend God by turning away from Him to seek faithfulness in yourself, where there is only weakness and misery. Forget yourself very much; think of your affairs as far as is needful, but also no further. Do everything for the Lord, and not for people. Overlook much, when others do not do it after your mind.

Trust yourself, in all things, childlike, to the Heart-Friend who is so near; be secret and familiar with Him, for He loves you and knows your misery well; so will He be mighty in your weakness. Because the occasion is in haste, I must close. I greet you heartily. Remember me too before God!

❦

German

Der 31te Brief.

An eine Person, die in Sorge GOtt zu beleidigen, daß sie nicht auf ihre Schwachheit und Elend sehen, sondern auf GOtt vertrauen müsse.

N. N. Auf euer jüngst erhaltenes Angenehmes versichere in Einfalt, daß ich euch bei jetzigen Umständen sonderlich vor GOtt fasse und fassen werde durch die Gnade, die Er selbst wird darreichen.

— 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 letter to a soul tormented by the fear of sinning — she had written that she could foresee herself offending God, and Tersteegen meets the fear not with a rebuke but with a picture. The image of the child at the mountain is one of his loveliest: a little one looks at its "tender little legs" and the great mountain ahead and despairs of ever crossing — until it gives its near Father "a good word" and simply leans on His arm, and so goes over "gently and without trouble." His diagnosis of her anxiety is acute: the very effort to guarantee her own faithfulness turns her eyes onto herself, "where there is only weakness and misery," and that turning-away is the real offense. The cure is the opposite motion — forget yourself, do the day's work "for the Lord and not for people," and lean, childlike, on the "Heart-Friend who is so near," who "will be mighty in your weakness."

A few words and echoes.

"He will be mighty in your weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9, "my strength is made perfect in weakness" — spoken here in the third person, as promise.
"Do everything for the Lord, and not for people." Colossians 3:23, "whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men."
the child at the mountain. Tersteegen's own image, not a scripture quotation — the essence of his "way of childhood": not strength to climb, but a hand to lean on.
"the Heart-Friend who is so near" (der so nahe Herzens-Freund). One of his recurring names for the indwelling Christ; the whole letter turns on His nearness against the soul's felt distance.
"be secret and familiar with Him" (heimlich und vertraulich). Not secretive but intimate — an old sense of heimlich, "at home with," the confiding closeness of a child.

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Erster Band, II. Theil, Brief 31 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-031.html.

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