Letters · Erster Band · Theil II (1773)

A brotherly call to renewal in the service of God at the beginning of a new year.

Bd I · Th II · Brief 58 · Der 58te Brief

Addressee — "Lieber Bruder!" — a male friend (intimate du; also plural euch to the household → you); candidate: Georg Heinrich Fischer (see Apparatus)
Date — Mülheim, 9 June 1733 (so 1773 and GS 1845) — but the New-Year argument and content point to 9 January 1733; a likely shared "Jun."/"Jan." misprint, flagged, not emended. No name-subscription.
Provenance — Translated from the public-domain 1773 first edition (Theil II, pp. 171–172), in normalized GS 1845 orthography, collated against the 1845 Gesammelte Schriften (Bd 8) and Hartman's 1819 reprint. All public-domain.

The Fifty-eighth Letter.

A brotherly call to renewal in the service of God at the beginning of a new year.

Dear brother!

It is fitting that we, with the beginning of the new year, renew ourselves in the service to which we are called — a service in spirit and in truth, in which not only lips and thoughts, but the spirit itself really and in truth performs, in the presence of God, what before was well said and thought but not done: namely, to confess to the Lord that He is good, and the sole cause of all good; and to deliver over to Him, as a willing offering in truth, what unconditionally belongs to Him — namely, our whole self without exception. I unite myself herein with your mind and expression, and my inmost being says: Amen, in Jesus' name!

This our gracious Saviour, who came to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord — to Him be this year and all its moments given, that we in our inward and outward walk may bear witness that it is a year of the Lord!

I greet all the household, wishing that God's visitations may have left a blessing within. Seek, all of you, to establish yourselves in the favor of the faithful Friend in need and in death, of whom Paul says in 2 Timothy 4:16 and 17: "They all forsook me, but the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me," and so forth — because heavier judgments may follow.

Mülheim, 9 June 1733.

❦

German

Der 58te Brief.

Brüderlicher Zuruf zur Erneuerung im Dienste GOttes beim Anfang eines neuen Jahrs.

Lieber Bruder!

Billig ist es, daß wir mit dem Anfang des neuen Jahrs uns erneuren in dem Dienst, worzu wir berufen sind; ein Dienst im Geist und in der Wahrheit, da nicht nur Lippen und Gedanken, sondern der Geist dasjenige wirklich und in der Wahrheit verrichtet, in der Gegenwart GOttes …

— 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 New-Year letter — a "brotherly call" to make the turning of the year a real spiritual renewal rather than a formality. Its keynote is truth against mere words: the service God asks is "in spirit and in truth," where "not only lips and thoughts, but the spirit itself really… performs… what before was well said and thought but not done." Tersteegen then states the renewed resolve in two matching clauses — a confession and an offering: to confess that God "is good, and the sole cause of all good," and to deliver over to Him "what unconditionally belongs to Him — namely, our whole self without exception." That total self-surrender is the heart of the "service." He seals his agreement with the brother's own resolve — "my inmost being says: Amen, in Jesus' name" — and then pronounces the New-Year blessing by way of Isaiah's and Christ's own phrase: Jesus "came to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord," so let this year and its every moment be given back to Him. The letter closes outward, to "all the household," with Paul's testimony from prison that "the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me" — a word of steadying, since (Tersteegen adds soberly) "heavier judgments may follow." (On the puzzling June dateline of a New-Year letter, see the editorial note; the content is unmistakably that of the year's beginning.)

A few words and echoes.

"In spirit and in truth." John 4:23–24, "the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth" — the standard against which Tersteegen measures all mere "lips and thoughts."
"Our whole self without exception" (unser Ganzes ohne Ausnahm). The complete self-offering; Romans 12:1, "present your bodies a living sacrifice… which is your reasonable service." The pun on Dienst (service/worship) is exactly Paul's latreia.
"The acceptable year of the Lord." Isaiah 61:2, quoted by Christ at Nazareth in Luke 4:19 — "the acceptable year of the Lord." Tersteegen turns the calendar new year into "a year of the Lord," each moment given back to the Saviour "who came to proclaim" it. The 1773 print emphasizes the word "the" (DAS) in full capitals — pointing the phrase at this year.
"The faithful Friend in need and in death." Proverbs 17:17, "a friend loveth at all times"; the "Freund in der Noth" of the German proverb, here identified with Christ.
"The Lord stood with me, and strengthened me." 2 Timothy 4:16–17, Paul's account of his first defense — "all men forsook me… Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me." Quoted as encouragement against "heavier judgments."

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Erster Band, II. Theil, Brief 58 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-058.html.

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