Letters · Erster Band · Theil II (1773)

God alone works all good in the inward man.

Bd I · Th II · Brief 62 · Der 62te Brief

Addressee — "Lieber Bruder!" — a male friend (intimate du → you), away on a journey abroad; candidate: Georg Heinrich Fischer (in Amsterdam) (see Apparatus)
Date — Mülheim, 22 November 1733 (dated in 1773; no name-subscription — the closing greeting runs into the dateline)
Provenance — Translated from the public-domain 1773 first edition (Theil II, pp. 178–179), in normalized GS 1845 orthography, collated against the 1845 Gesammelte Schriften (Bd 8) and Hartman's 1819 reprint. All public-domain.

The Sixty-second Letter.

God alone works all good in the inward man.

Dear brother!

Be assured that I do not forget you and your state. True, my prayer counts for little — nay, nothing — because of my unworthiness; but since I unite my poor intercession with the Saviour's, who is anyway so inclined to love and to do good, I do not believe it will be in vain.

Praised be this ever-loving Love, that so kindly bears you too upon your journey! It must indeed be ascribed to Him alone whenever things go a little well: for — besides that no soul can set itself into the least inward good frame, nor bring forth a single good impression, even with its best will and power, but the smallest measure of surrender or cleaving-to-God is a sheer and special grace-working of the divine hand — so it is, moreover, not at all native to your nature, dear brother, to walk rightly detached, upright, and in childlike abandonment; and therefore it is so much the more to be prized as a supernatural working and grace of the Lord, whatever His divine Majesty may give of it.

For this reason it has come to pass that God now and then lets you feel your weaknesses in it, that you may the more prize everything as grace, and leave yourself wholly to that grace, and remain dependent upon it: His name be so heartily blessed in all! He is such a good God; I would gladly always make the slip of the pen, and set "Good" everywhere in place of "God" — for that is what He is. May the Lord bless you, then, and be further with you on your journey and in the foreign land! In Him I embrace you heartily, together with the friend and the lady-friend N.

Mülheim, 22 November 1733.

❦

German

Der 62te Brief.

GOtt allein wirket alles Gute im Inwendigen.

Lieber Bruder!

Sey versichert, daß ich deiner und deines Zustandes nicht vergesse. Zwar ist auf mein Gebet wenig ja nichts zu achten wegen meiner Unwürdigkeit: Da ich aber meine arme Fürbitte mit des Heilandes seiner vereinige, der ohnedem so geneigt ist, zu lieben und wohl zu thun …

— 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 to a friend abroad — Fischer in Amsterdam — on a single, humbling truth: "God alone works all good in the inward man." Everything of worth in the soul is grace, not achievement. Tersteegen states it at full strength: "no soul can set itself into the least inward good frame, nor bring forth a single good impression, even with its best will and power" — even "the smallest measure of surrender… is a sheer and special grace-working of the divine hand." He applies it personally and gently: it is "not native to your nature" to walk detached and abandoned to God, so wherever the brother finds himself doing it, he should read it as pure gift — "so much the more to be prized as a supernatural working of the Lord." This is also why God "lets you feel your weaknesses": not to discourage, but to teach the soul to "prize everything as grace, and remain dependent upon it." The letter's warmth peaks in a piece of wordplay that only works in reverent affection: "I would gladly always set 'Good' everywhere in place of 'God' — for that is what He is." It closes as a travel-blessing: "be further with you on your journey and in the foreign land."

A few words and echoes.

"God alone works all good in the inward man." Philippians 2:13, "it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure"; the title-thesis of the letter.
"No soul can… of itself… bring forth a single good impression." 2 Corinthians 3:5, "not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God"; cf. John 15:5, "without me ye can do nothing."
"I unite my poor intercession with the Saviour's." Romans 8:34 and Hebrews 7:25 — Christ "ever liveth to make intercession"; our weak prayers made effectual by being joined to His.
"Set 'Good' in place of 'God' — for that is what He is." Mark 10:18, "there is none good but one, that is, God" — a pun in German (GOtt / Gut) that turns the very name of God into His definition: God is Goodness itself.
"On your journey and in the foreign land" (in der Fremde). The letter is addressed to a friend literally abroad (Amsterdam), but Fremde also carries Tersteegen's constant note that the Christian is a pilgrim and stranger on earth (Hebrews 11:13, "strangers and pilgrims").

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Erster Band, II. Theil, Brief 62 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-062.html.

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