Instruction toward inner work-lessness, that the Lord Himself alone may work.
The Fifty-sixth Letter.
Instruction toward inner work-lessness, that the Lord Himself alone may work.
Dear brother!
No wonder that nature is against us, when we are against her! Let her rage, the malicious thing! She does not deserve that one give her a hearing, and still less that the spirit should trouble itself and turn outward on her account.
My unpresuming counsel is: to dwell as little as possible in the senses and the reason; the weak ground of the inward life is thereby only the more weakened. Besides, one thus walks on hostile ground, where one sometimes not only hears the raging of the natural powers, but is often even surrounded by enemies, so that scarcely courage or a way out can be seen.
For a second thing, I counsel not only prayer and recollection, but also, now and then, within that very prayer, an inner work-lessness in the childlike ground — as if you had, could, would, and knew nothing at all — so that the Lord Himself may be and work all that in you. What is ours is worth nothing; the divine must come in its place. I am myself full of darknesses, else I would tell you it were now the time to exercise yourself chiefly in this latter thing; of a false idleness you would have, in doing so, nothing to fear. I commend myself to your prayer! Do not forget it. God will grant us grace on every side.
Mülheim, 25 September 1732.
German
Der 56te Brief.
Anweisung zur inneren Wirklosheit, damit der HErr selbst allein wirke.
Lieber Bruder!
Kein Wunder, daß die Natur uns zuwider ist, wann wir ihr zuwider sind! Laß sie rasen, die Boshaftige!
— 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 compact letter of practical direction, built around one of Tersteegen's most easily-misread terms: Wirklosheit, here rendered "work-lessness." It does not mean laziness or inactivity of soul — as he is careful to say at the end — but the deliberate stilling of self-activity, so that "the Lord Himself" becomes the one who "is and works all that in you." He frames it against the constant friction with our own fallen "nature." That friction is no surprise, he says — "no wonder nature is against us, when we are against her" — and the worst response is to argue with her: "let her rage, the malicious thing," and refuse her a hearing. Two counsels follow. The first is negative: do not "dwell in the senses and the reason," since brooding there weakens the tender inward ground and exposes the soul on "hostile ground." The second is the positive core: alongside ordinary prayer and recollection, to sink now and then into "an inner work-lessness in the childlike ground — as if you had, could, would, and knew nothing at all." His fourfold "nothing" (had, could, would, knew) is a small masterpiece of the via negativa: possessions, powers, willing, and knowing all laid down, that God may fill the emptied space. Typically, he will not preach what he has not attained — "I am myself full of darknesses" — but he presses her toward it and quiets the obvious fear: this is not "false idleness."
A few words and echoes.
- "Work-lessness" (Wirklosheit). Tersteegen's term for the soul's ceasing from its own operation so that God alone operates — closely tied to Gelassenheit (Brief 55). Not quietist passivity but a childlike un-self-activity; cf. Psalm 46:10, "Be still, and know that I am God."
- "That the Lord Himself alone may work." Philippians 2:13, "it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" — the whole point of the "work-lessness."
- "Let her rage… give her no hearing." The refusal to dispute with temptation or with the corrupt nature; a recurring counsel (cf. Brief 59, on not "disputing" with reason and the Tempter). To attend to nature's ravings is already half to concede.
- "As if you had, could, would, and knew nothing." The fourfold self-emptying — a practical form of the poverty of spirit of Matthew 5:3; the soul made "nothing" that God may be all (cf. 2 Corinthians 12:9–10).
- "Of a false idleness you would have nothing to fear." Tersteegen guarding, as always, against the quietist misunderstanding: true inner rest is not sloth. The distinction matters to him because the "stillness" he teaches was easily caricatured in his day.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-056 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.