Letters · Erster Band · Theil II (1773)

On the excellence of the child-form in Christ.

Bd I · Th II · Brief 57 · Der 57te Brief

Addressee — "Lieber Bruder!" — a male friend (intimate du → you); candidate: Georg Heinrich Fischer (see Apparatus)
Date — Mülheim, 21 November 1732 (dated in 1773; no name-subscription — the closing "Amen. Gedenke mein!" runs into the dateline)
Provenance — Translated from the public-domain 1773 first edition (Theil II, pp. 169–170), in normalized GS 1845 orthography, collated against the 1845 Gesammelte Schriften (Bd 8) and Hartman's 1819 reprint. All public-domain.

The Fifty-seventh Letter.

On the excellence of the child-form in Christ.

Dear brother!

I thank the Lord with you, from the heart, for the grace He shows you through the impressions of His goodness, and for the insight into the undisguised, innocent child-being, which alone can essentially unite us with this Good. Such graces are markedly different from those you have hitherto experienced; they come forth more from within than in from without; they do not pass through the senses, yet do come into the senses through felt stirrings, because it is something so wholly new and unhoped-for to the mind. You now see, in some measure, how little God needs our reason and our own activity in order to give us His truths and Himself to be known; and how the virtues of Jesus are something far more essential and more beautiful than one ever thought. I write confusedly and with a running pen, but you will feel me well enough. Just as you have given yourself nothing of this, so hold yourself too in an undisguised passivity, and let yourself — according to God's will — be thoroughly penetrated by His goodness and by the child-form, that the Spirit and mind which was in Christ may come wholly and essentially into you. Take heed that you do not speculate much upon what the Lord does, but give yourself over only with closed eyes. Read now, please, not a single book that requires particular reflection. ——

May He who has begun the good work in us bring it to completion in us, to His praise! Amen. Remember me!

Mülheim, 21 November 1732.

❦

German

Der 57te Brief.

Von der Vortrefflichkeit der Kinder-Gestalt in Christo.

Lieber Bruder!

Ich danke mit dir von Herzen dem HErrn für die Gnade, so Er dir erweiset, durch die Eindrücke Seiner Gutheit und Einsicht in das unverstellte unschuldige Kinder-Wesen, welches uns allein mit diesem Gut wesentlich vereinigen kann.

— 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 letter written to interpret an experience. The brother has been given a new kind of grace, and rather than let him mistake it, Tersteegen names it: the "child-form in Christ" (Kinder-Gestalt), the innocent, undisguised child-being that "alone can essentially unite us with" God, the "Good." The pastoral care is in the distinctions. This grace is not like the earlier ones the brother has known: it rises "more from within than in from without," bypassing the senses even while it stirs them; it is "so wholly new and unhoped-for" that the mind cannot manufacture it. That is exactly the point — "how little God needs our reason and our own activity" to give Himself. So the counsel is receptive, not active: hold yourself "in an undisguised passivity," let yourself "be penetrated," and above all do not "speculate upon what the Lord does" — receive it "with closed eyes." He even asks the brother to set aside, for now, "any book that requires particular reflection," lest analysis crowd out the childlike receiving. The whole is written in haste — "confusedly and with a running pen" — with the trust of old friendship: "you will feel me well enough." It ends on Paul's confidence that the God who begins the good work will finish it.

A few words and echoes.

"The child-form" / "child-being" (Kinder-Gestalt / Kinder-Wesen). Tersteegen's version of the Gospel child-theme (Matthew 18:3, "except ye… become as little children"): not childishness but the undisguised, un-self-conscious openness of a child, the form in which Christ Himself came and in which He unites the soul to God.
"The Spirit and mind which was in Christ." Philippians 2:5, "let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" — the Gesinnung of Christ, coming "wholly and essentially" into the receptive soul.
"They come more from within than from without." Luke 17:21, "the kingdom of God is within you" — the mark of true grace, for Tersteegen, is its inwardness; it works from the ground outward, not from the senses inward.
"An undisguised passivity." Not idleness (cf. Brief 56 on Wirklosheit) but the soul's receptivity — letting itself "be penetrated." The recurring guard against self-activity crowding out grace.
"Speculate not… receive with closed eyes." The refusal of analysis in the moment of grace; cf. the counsel of Brief 59 against "disputing" with reason. "Closed eyes" = the surrender of the understanding.
"He who has begun the good work…" Philippians 1:6, "he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" — the letter's closing benediction, verbatim in substance.

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Erster Band, II. Theil, Brief 57 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-057.html.

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