How one should heed the gentle love-drawing of Jesus, and follow it.
The Forty-fifth Letter.
How one should heed the gentle love-drawing of Jesus, and follow it.
Beloved brother!
Your welcome letter, together with N.'s, I have received; I will look into it as soon as I can. Otherwise I am at present rather weak in body and head. With A. I have spoken somewhat, as God gave; she too told me one thing and another, though not freely and not so particularly as might well have been serviceable. Meanwhile I have strongly advised her against hiring herself out abroad, and advised her rather to bend herself under obedience, and otherwise to deny her desires by God's grace, and so forth. God have mercy on the poor child, and bring her right at last! Otherwise she has conducted herself here quite quietly, so that there is nothing much to complain of.
God give grace that we remember one another, in His power, before the Lord! In Jesus is all salvation, power, and life. He, Jesus, is the opened, pure love and mercy of God, which is so inwardly near to us, and would, with its hidden gentle drawings, lure us into the ground of our soul, to itself. Blessed is he who, in a still spirit, heeds this, and lets himself go wholly to this drawing, in detachment from all that is created: he will find in Jesus all that he lacks. Ah, that all who, with me, see, feel, and grope at their misery and their impotence, might, with me, sink themselves into this deep sea of pure mercy and lose themselves forever in it! This is what my soul heartily wishes you, dear brother, and all your household, and the rest of your acquaintance too. Jesus with us!
Your
Mülheim, 9 February 1731.
brother in Him.
German
Der 45te Brief.
Wie man auf den sanften Liebes-Zug JEsu merken, und folgen solle.
Geliebter Bruder!
Dein Angenehmes nebst N. habe erhalten; ich werde, so bald ich kann, nachsehen. Sonst bin gegenwärtig ziemlich schwachen Leibes und Hauptes.
— 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 brief note that turns, halfway through, into something luminous. It opens with ordinary business: Tersteegen is "weak in body and head," acknowledges a letter, and reports on a young servant-woman ("A.") whose situation he has been advising — steering her away from "hiring herself out abroad" and toward obedience and the quiet denial of her own desires — and commends her to God with real tenderness: "God have mercy on the poor child." Then, in the second half, the letter lifts into its theme: the "gentle love-drawing of Jesus." Christ, he says, "is the opened, pure love and mercy of God," so "inwardly near" that it is always trying, "with its hidden gentle drawings, to lure us into the ground of our soul." The whole of the spiritual life is compressed into the response he asks for: "in a still spirit heed this, and let yourself go wholly to this drawing, in detachment from all that is created — and you will find in Jesus all that you lack." It ends with his recurring image of the ocean: a wish that all his friends might "sink themselves into this deep sea of pure mercy and lose themselves forever in it." Signed "your brother in Him."
A few words and echoes.
- "The gentle love-drawing of Jesus" (der sanfte Liebes-Zug JEsu). The letter's keyword. Behind it lie Jesus' "No man can come to me, except the Father… draw him" (John 6:44), the bride's "Draw me, we will run after thee" (Song of Solomon 1:4), and God's "I drew them… with bands of love" (Hosea 11:4). Grace works as attraction, not compulsion — a drawing to be heeded.
- "He will find in Jesus all that he lacks." Colossians 2:3, 9–10 — in Christ "are hid all the treasures," and "ye are complete in him." The soul that follows the drawing finds its every lack supplied in Him.
- "This deep sea of pure mercy… lose themselves forever in it." One of Tersteegen's most characteristic images — the divine mercy as a boundless ocean into which the soul may sink and be lost. To "lose oneself" here is not annihilation but the end of self-preoccupation in God.
- "Detachment from all that is created" (Abgeschiedenheit von allem Geschaffenen). The same word as the previous letter's title (Brief 43) — the heart set loose from creatures so as to be free for the divine drawing.
- "Jesus with us!" (JEsus mit uns!). An Immanuel-cry — "God with us" (Matthew 1:23) — used as a parting blessing.
- "A." and "N." Redacted initials, as throughout the collection — "A." a servant-woman under Tersteegen's spiritual care, "N." a person named in the brother's enclosed letter. The discretion is deliberate.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-045 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.