On the hidden life with Christ in God, and on self-denial.
The Thirty-seventh Letter.
On the hidden life with Christ in God, and on self-denial.
Beloved friend and brother in Christ!
Just now I get an opportunity toward D., for which I have long been waiting, so that I may send you, according to my promise, one of the newly-printed booklets, which accordingly comes herewith. I have not without reason called it The Hidden Life: not only because it can be a good guide to an inward, spiritual, detached walk and hidden dealings with God, but also because the truths which the dear man has set forth in it are hidden — not only from mere natural reason, but in many places also from other good souls, who have perhaps not yet been simplified enough, or have not yet come up to such a measure of light and of experience.
But this must not trouble us at all; I am fully certain that they are precious truths; the more we bring them into practice, the easier and the more agreeable they will become to us. The third booklet is nothing but sayings, of which one should not read much at a time; but that a still and gathered mind is required, both for the reading and for the practising of them, you will yourself soon be able to notice.
Only good courage, dear brother! we are going toward the great eternity, and are called to have fellowship with God in the spirit; what have world and creatures to do with us? Only, with a firm and full will, let us venture into the denial of our dearest lusts and pleasures in all things outside of God, and accustom ourselves to God with a devout, inward-turned heart; He is indeed infinitely better than the creature, and than all that the creature can give. Whoever finds Him in his heart goes joyfully and sells all the rest — which unspeakably great happiness I wish to us all from the heart.
I greet you heartily in the name of Jesus, our blessed High Priest, and also, as occasion allows, V., and remain
Your
Mülheim, 17 December 1727.
well-disposed friend and brother.
German
Der 37te Brief.
Von dem verborgenen Leben mit Christo in GOtt, und von der Verläugnung.
Geliebter Freund und Bruder in Christo!
So eben bekomme ich Gelegenheit nach D., worauf ich schon lange gewartet habe, damit ich dir dem Versprechen nach eines von denen neu gedruckten Büchlein überschicken könne, welches dann hiebei kommt: Ich hab es nicht ohne Ursach das verborgene Leben genannt, nicht allein weil es zu einem inwendigen …
— 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 cover-note (December 1727) that lets us watch Tersteegen the writer and publisher at work. He has at last found a courier and is sending his friend a booklet he has just had printed — one he "not without reason called The Hidden Life." The title, he explains, is doubly apt: the book is a guide to a hidden, inward walk with God, and its truths are themselves hidden — opaque to "mere natural reason," and even to devout souls "not yet simplified enough" to receive them. A companion volume of "sayings" is to be read slowly, "not much at a time," with "a still and gathered mind." But the note does not stay bibliographic for long. It rises, as Tersteegen's letters always do, into exhortation — "Only good courage, dear brother! we are going toward the great eternity" — and lands on the letter's real theme, the self-denial named in its title: venture into "the denial of our dearest pleasures in all things outside of God," for God "is infinitely better than the creature," and "whoever finds Him in his heart goes joyfully and sells all the rest." The closing salutation, "in the name of Jesus, our blessed High Priest," is characteristic.
A few words and echoes.
- "the hidden life with Christ in God." Colossians 3:3, "your life is hid with Christ in God" — the title of Tersteegen's booklet and the theme of the letter.
- "the dear man has set forth." The booklet presents another writer's truths — Tersteegen was a tireless translator and editor of the mystical authors; here he is passing on one such work under the title The Hidden Life.
- "goes joyfully and sells all the rest." Matthew 13:44, the treasure hid in the field, "for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field."
- "our blessed High Priest." Hebrews 4:14 / 2:17 — Christ the great High Priest, in whose name Tersteegen signs.
- "a still and gathered mind" (ein stilles und gesammeltes Gemüth). His constant precondition for spiritual reading: not quantity but recollection.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-037 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.