A travelling friend is reminded of his spiritual journey and the disdain of all visible things.
The Forty-seventh Letter.
A travelling friend is reminded of his spiritual journey and the disdain of all visible things.
Dear brother!
I have duly received your welcome letter. God be praised, who has helped thus far! He will do well henceforth too. You are not only on a journey outwardly; you are so also in another respect, inwardly, or according to the spirit. All travel through this world to that one; but not all travel from this world to that one: this is done only by the chosen and the redeemed from the earth. The former travel as if on a stroll — with pleasure, ease, and security, as dwellers and not as travellers; but these travel as strangers — namely, as those whose life is "hid with Christ in God," who, out of love to the God of their heart, divest themselves of all the life and comfort of this present time, from whatever side and under whatever appearance it may be offered them, so that they may find and have eternal life, the Son of God Himself, from now on in the spirit — since they too, as God's children and household, according to His precious promise (2 Corinthians 6:17), are received and taken in by Him.
Since, then, we are now called with so holy a calling, and know too that these things and all the divine promises are not empty words or imagination, but power and substance — how should we not bless and exalt our precious Redeemer with folded hands, who has so loved us unworthy ones! How should we not look with contemptuous eyes on the shadow-images of this visible world, together with all their imagined delights! Yea, how should we not give and dedicate ourselves to Him and to His service of the spirit, with body and soul, wholly and forever — reserving our All for Him in chaste love, that He may have us wholly and alone! Ah, how greatly are we bound to it! — the more so since the Lord, through the secret demands of His grace, constantly directs and lures us thither. Yea, He who has said, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world," will also there, in every way, announce and show Himself to you as such a one; so you are, in body and soul, sufficiently kept. I ask Him for it from the ground of my heart; I embrace and greet you in the spirit, together with all true pilgrims you may meet there. I would gladly name a few, but do not know where this letter will find you. Brother H. S. and others greet you too. Remain
Your
Mülheim, 31 October 1731.
friend bound to you in the love of Jesus.
German
Der 47te Brief.
Ein reisender Freund wird an seine geistliche Reise und Verschmähung alles Sichtbaren erinnert.
Lieber Bruder!
Habe dein Angenehmes richtig erhalten. GOtt sey gelobet, der bis daher geholfen!
— 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 travel-letter, written to a friend who was on the road, that turns his journey into an image of the whole Christian life. Everyone, Tersteegen says, is "travelling through this world to the next" — but only the "chosen and redeemed" are truly travelling out of this world to the next. The difference is a difference of bearing: the worldly go "as if on a stroll, with pleasure, ease, and security, as dwellers and not as travellers"; the pilgrim goes "as a stranger, whose life is hid with Christ in God," holding loosely to "all the life and comfort of this present time." Out of that contrast the letter breaks into a series of ardent rhetorical questions — how should we not bless our Redeemer "who has so loved us unworthy ones," not look with "contemptuous eyes on the shadow-images of this visible world," not give ourselves wholly to Him? — that read almost like a hymn of consecration. It closes by handing the traveller the one promise that covers every road: "Lo, I am with you alway" — so that "wherever this letter finds you," he is kept.
A few words and echoes.
- "Whose life is hid with Christ in God." Colossians 3:3, quoted almost verbatim — the definition of the true traveller, whose real life is invisible, held safe in God.
- "Strangers" / "pilgrims" (Fremdlinge). Hebrews 11:13 ("strangers and pilgrims on the earth") and 1 Peter 2:11 ("strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts") — the pilgrim who does not settle in the country he is passing through.
- "According to His precious promise, 2 Corinthians 6:17." Tersteegen's citation: "come out from among them, and be ye separate… and I will receive you." The "receiving in" of God's children follows on their coming-out from the world.
- "The shadow-images of this visible world" (die Schatten-Bilder). The visible order as mere shadow beside the "power and substance" (Kraft und Wesen) of the divine promises — a Platonic-sounding phrase Tersteegen bends to a biblical purpose (cf. Colossians 2:17, the law "a shadow of things to come").
- "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Matthew 28:20 — Christ's closing word in that Gospel, quoted as the traveller's guarantee: the One who said it will "announce and show Himself" wherever the friend goes.
- "Brother H. S." An unidentified fellow-member of the circle who sends greetings — the initials preserved, the name withheld, as throughout the collection.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-047 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.