Letters · Erster Band · Theil II (1773)

How one is to bear oneself with peaceable humility, and to rejoice over God's perfections.

Bd I · Th II · Brief 53 · Der 53te Brief

Addressee — "Lieber Bruder!" — a male friend (intimate du → you); candidate: Georg Heinrich Fischer (see Apparatus)
Date — Mülheim, 19 April 1732 (dated + signed in 1773)
Provenance — Translated from the public-domain 1773 first edition (Theil II, pp. 163–164), in normalized GS 1845 orthography, collated against the 1845 Gesammelte Schriften (Bd 8) and Hartman's 1819 reprint. All public-domain.

The Fifty-third Letter.

How one is to bear oneself with peaceable humility, and to rejoice over God's perfections.

Dear brother!

To be a burden to oneself, and yet to have to carry oneself, is a brave suffering; but it cannot be otherwise. We must feel ourselves, with loathing and as a burden — otherwise we shall never hate and forsake ourselves. With peaceable humility and meekness we must learn to bear ourselves, and, in such a frame of mind, lay ourselves down at the inner little door of the divine mercies — in case it might please the Lord to open to us, so that we, forsaking ourselves in truth, might enter into Him at a blessed hour. Meanwhile we should also learn, with Paul, in pure love to take pleasure in weaknesses, and not forget often to rejoice heartily, in faith, over the perfections of our God. Song of Solomon 1:4: "We will be glad and rejoice in thee." Our best Friend has no lack; He is full of virtues, full of graces, riches, and blessednesses; He is in no danger of losing them. Ah, what comfort! Enter, O soul, into the joy of thy Lord; in whose love I remain

Your

Mülheim, 19 April 1732.

devoted brother and weak intercessor.

❦

German

Der 53te Brief.

Wie man sich selbst mit friedsamer Demuth zu ertragen, und über GOttes Vollkommenheiten zu erfreuen.

Lieber Bruder!

Sich selbst zur Last seyn, und sich selbst doch tragen müssen, ist ein tapferes Leiden; kann aber doch nicht anderst seyn.

— 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 letter on one of the subtlest problems of the spiritual life: how to live with a self you have come to find unbearable. Tersteegen names the paradox exactly — "to be a burden to oneself, and yet to have to carry oneself, is a brave suffering." His counsel steers between two errors. On one side, we must not paper over our own corruption: "we must feel ourselves, with loathing and as a burden, or we shall never hate and forsake ourselves." On the other, the self-disgust must not curdle into despair or self-torment; it must be carried "with peaceable humility and meekness" — his lovely phrase friedsame Demuth, a humility at peace. The posture he recommends is not struggle but surrender: "lay yourself down at the inner little door of the divine mercies," and wait for the Lord to open. And then — crucially — he turns the soul's gaze away from itself: the cure for morbid self-preoccupation is to "rejoice over the perfections of our God." "Our best Friend has no lack… He is in no danger of losing" His riches. The letter ends by handing the weary soul the master's own welcome from the parable: "Enter, O soul, into the joy of thy Lord."

A few words and echoes.

"Peaceable humility" (friedsame Demuth). Tersteegen's key phrase here — a humility that is not anxious self-flagellation but rests quiet under the sight of one's own poverty. The self-loathing is real, but "at peace."
"Lay ourselves down at the inner little door of the divine mercies." The image of the beggar at the door (Luke 16:20–21) turned inward — the soul waiting at the threshold of God's compassion, in hope He will "open."
"With Paul… take pleasure in weaknesses." 2 Corinthians 12:9–10 — "most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities… I take pleasure in infirmities." The apostolic warrant for turning weakness into occasion for grace.
"Song of Solomon 1:4: We will be glad and rejoice in thee." Tersteegen's citation, quoted in the words of Scripture — the bride's joy in the Bridegroom, offered as the antidote to self-absorption.
"Our best Friend has no lack." The move from the deficient self to the all-sufficient God: whatever we lack, "our best Friend" possesses without measure and cannot lose — so the soul may rest its joy on Him, not on itself.
"Enter, O soul, into the joy of thy Lord." Matthew 25:21, the master's word to the faithful servant ("enter thou into the joy of thy lord"), spoken by Tersteegen to the soul as its invitation now, not only at the end.

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Erster Band, II. Theil, Brief 53 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-053.html.

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