Upon the complete surrender to God there follows also a complete peace.

The Fifty-first Letter.

Upon the complete surrender to God there follows also a complete peace.

Dear brother!

When the thorough surrender to God is complete, then the peace, or the rest of the spirit in God, is also completely there; there is no middle thing between the two. See, accordingly, how far we still are from it! Meanwhile our surrender should be complete according to the condition of our state: the test of it is simple and easy. Outside the state of temptations and trials, the stirrings of mind and the will of an inward, well-surrendered soul lie still and quiet, as though without motion; and when the will does move, it does so quite freely and quietly. The ground lies fairly open and bare before God, and can also keep itself so for a good while without constraint or trouble. But all this is inward, essential, lasting, and pure in proportion to the soul's surrender — for she is, especially at the beginning of the way, easily displaced from it, and this state of mind scarcely lasts as long as her little time of recollection. I cannot now, in few words, express myself carefully enough in this; therefore one may test it still more surely and simply — and indeed mostly in every walk of life — thus:

One holds oneself a little while inwardly and quietly before God's countenance; then casts a gentle and quite undisguised glance upon the God who is so near, in order to let Him see whether anything, still, outside us or in us, might not be given over — with a witness of our hearty willingness to leave all to Him. In this simple presenting of oneself, in the light of truth, one remains standing undividedly, without one's own searching and scrupling, so long as God gives grace — gently and quietly turning away (N.B.) from all contrary stirrings; whereby the soul is led ever more into a pure meaning-of-God-alone, and so also into complete surrender.

Outward austerities are good, in so far as they further the inner life; the most needful is the sincere weaning of our spirit from all that is not God — to which the little and the mean in all outward things can be very helpful, and more than one thinks.

Your inclination to outer stillness and detachment is at present certainly of grace — of which I doubt the less, because a drawing and inclination to inner stillness accompanies it. I would, as the requirement of my own state might dictate, make myself a rule in it — how long I should perhaps remain at the outward work — and so arrange this order that I always gave the mind's inclination something amply, because it seems to me that the spirit at present has some need of stillness. The quiet longing for outer detachment does no harm even under work, because it can rather help one to remain always detached in inclination, when it cannot just then be done in deed.

Of the character of your prayer you judge according to the truth — namely, that you throughout detain yourself all too long with the own-activity of your head. To remain wholly and always passive your state may indeed not require; but that your activities become more moderate, more childlike, gentler, and happen more with the heart than with the head — that is needful; as also, that your chief or foremost working remain this: to look and wait upon God and His workings in you, so as to stand resigned to Him in everything. Only become a child, and consider how a child trusts itself nothing, but the Father everything, without any suspicion. More when we come together. Remember me meanwhile!

Mülheim, 31 December 1731.

German

Der 51te Brief.

Auf die völlige Ergebung an GOtt, folget auch ein völliger Friede.

Lieber Bruder!

Wann die gründliche Ergebung an GOtt völlig ist; so ist auch der Friede oder die Ruhe des Geistes in GOtt völlig da; es ist kein Mittel zwischen beiden: Siehe demnach, wie weit wir noch davon zurück sind!

— 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).