Letters · Erster Band · Theil II (1773)

To look upon Jesus alone in everything is what alone makes glad, calm, and holy.

Bd I · Th II · Brief 33 · Der 33te Brief

Addressee — N. N. — a "liebe Schwester" and the circle of "children" at her place, some sick (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. 90–91), in normalized GS 1845 orthography, collated against the 1845 Gesammelte Schriften (Bd 8) and Hartman's 1819 reprint. All public-domain.

The Thirty-third Letter.

To look upon Jesus alone in everything is what alone makes glad, calm, and holy.

N. N.

Praised be the Lord for the fatherly chastening with which He has visited you and the other children with you; and also for this, that with you, and with the dear sister N. and N., things are again looking toward recovery — the continuation of which I hope for, according to God's will, and heartily wish you the fruit of peaceable righteousness.

The state of your mind in these circumstances I perceive, too, from both your letters. It goes with us as with Peter: when we look at Jesus, then we can walk over the waves and are of good courage; but when we look at ourselves and at the waves, then we sink. We must be holy, it is true; and that too we would be: but the looking at ourselves does not make us holy; rather the calm, loving looking at Jesus, with forgetfulness of ourselves and of what is created. In this world one has, from morning to evening, on all sides almost nothing but sad and vexing reproaches, even when we should have nothing to reproach but ourselves: therefore, if we would not become sad and vexed, then we must look at Jesus only, as Jesus, in all things. Then all things are fair, and all reproaches and encounters calm, agreeable, and even joyful. This great truth we would learn, with God, to spell out (not to skim over it hopping), as a daily and hourly lesson.

Walk, dear sister, in that way, heartily and courageously, in the beholding of Jesus, and let even the experiences of your weaknesses and miseries give you only occasion for it. It will all yet go well. — I greet you and all the dear fellow-called-ones there, especially the sick sister N.

❦

German

Der 33te Brief.

JEsum in allem nur anzusehen, macht allein frölich, ruhig und heilig.

N. N. Der HErr sey gelobet für die väterliche Züchtigung, womit Er euch und die andere Kinder bei euch besuchet hat; und auch dafür, daß sich's bei euch, bei der l. Schwester N. und N. wieder zur Besserung ansehen lässet; wovon die Continuation nach GOttes Willen verhoffe …

— 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, luminous letter to a sister and her little circle in a time of illness. Its whole burden is one image and one verb: looking. "It goes with us as with Peter" — as long as Peter kept his eyes on Christ he walked on the water, but the moment he looked at himself and the waves, he sank. So holiness, Tersteegen says, is not achieved by scrutinizing ourselves ("the looking at ourselves does not make us holy") but by "the calm, loving looking at Jesus, with forgetfulness of ourselves." The world hands us, "from morning to evening," a steady stream of "sad and vexing reproaches"; the cure is not to fix them but to change what we look at — "to look at Jesus only, as Jesus, in all things," until "all things are fair." He asks her not to skim this truth but to "spell it out" like a child learning to read — slowly, letter by letter, "as a daily and hourly lesson." The letter ends with a promise that carries its whole tone: "It will all yet go well."

A few words and echoes.

Peter on the water (Matthew 14:28–31). The governing image: courage while the eyes are on Christ, sinking the moment they turn to self and storm.
"the beholding of Jesus" / "look at Jesus only." Hebrews 12:2, "looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" — the steady gaze that this whole letter commends.
"fatherly chastening" / "the fruit of peaceable righteousness." Hebrews 12:5–11: God dealing with them "as with sons," whose discipline "yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness."
"spell it out… not skim over it hopping" (buchstabiren… nicht überhin hüpfend lesen). A charming pedagogical image: learn this truth the way a child sounds out a word, letter by letter, rather than skipping across the surface.
"reproaches" / "encounters" (Vorwürfe / Begegnungen). Vorwurf here in its older, broad sense — not only a reproach spoken by others but any vexing thing "cast before" us; seen in Jesus, even these turn "agreeable, and even joyful."

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Erster Band, II. Theil, Brief 33 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-033.html.

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