A loving encouragement to a complete surrender to Jesus.
The Sixty-third Letter.
A loving encouragement to a complete surrender to Jesus.
Faith is the victory that overcomes the world.
In the grace of the Lord, beloved friend and sister!
After I have waited in vain until today for a little letter from your hand, wherein you had promised to give me some news of your state, it grows at last too long for me. I must forestall you, that you may see from it both my sincere love and my care for your soul, and be thereby also stirred up to report to me shortly, at the first, how it goes with you.
Do not think that I forget your state, or look upon it with indifferent eyes; no, it is laid upon my mind, so that I must offer you up to God many times over. Though this may sound strange, I must say it nonetheless, and I say still the least of it. I may assure you once again, on God's behalf, that His grace and love are over you, and that He is, even to this hour, willing and very inclined to help your soul. This I say and confirm, though you may see or feel nothing of it — yea, notwithstanding all your miseries, sins, and deviations, of which I know still far more from you than you have told me. Come only with good cheer; give yourselves now, now, to the dearest Jesus, the unchangeably-faithful Soul-Friend, with full trust, once again anew! Renew yourselves in the thorough resolution to give the world and all its follies the letter of divorce. Jesus will have you for Himself; so bind yourselves, then, to Him in eternal love, though body and soul should pine away. Jesus will have you for Himself, my dear friend! what a comforting Gospel this is, for a poor, captive soul, lost in itself! Whose heart should not break for humility and sorrow? "But, ah dear Jesus! I am so wretched, so perverse, so unclean, have so offended Thee, and deserved nothing but hell." And I (says the Saviour to you) am Jesus; I have earned heaven; I will surely cleanse you from sins; I will have you, just as you are, for Myself. Raise no further objection. I will it so; My good pleasure is the cause, and My grace the ground, why I will have you. Look not at yourself, but at Me. What think you, dear friend? Could you bring it over your heart to refuse the dearest Saviour His high and most gracious desire? No, you must love Him; you must yield yourselves to Him; and I may boldly, in your name, conclude and confirm the blessed and eternal covenant. If it is then to be so, Thou infinitely-loving Friend of man, let it be ventured in Thy name; I can restrain myself no longer; Thy love and kindness allure me far too much; I must come, even had I the sin of the whole world upon me. Since it is now Thy most gracious good pleasure that Thou wilt have me for Thine own, I give myself over, then, with closed eyes, at Thy mercy and discretion. Take me from the world and from myself; take me wholly, and forever Thine alone — heart, will, understanding, body, soul, and spirit; take it all merely for Thyself, and unto Thy eternal possession. Whatever else I find in me, let it be handed over to Thy gracious judgment for complete deliverance. Thou, O Jesus, art He who has grasped me by my hand; Thou wilt lead me according to Thy counsel of love, and help me out to Thine honor. Amen, Jesus! (See "Harp-Play," the last four verses of the hymn "O how blessed are the souls.")
My beloved friend, I know not how I come unexpectedly to such a manner of writing: perhaps it was to be so for you. I add only this further: that I remain, before God, certain in the matter — that the state of the hiding of His felt grace, and the corresponding feeling of your poverty, darkness, and corruption, has been good and needful for you: and though it is indeed true that you have not borne yourself as you ought therein, yet your unfaithfulness does not annul God's faithfulness, so that He should not, notwithstanding, reach His purpose — namely, to bring you to thorough self-knowledge and sanctification. Therefore leave yourselves to His hand, and believe, without seeing, in a God who cannot deceive; He has said it: "I will not leave thee nor forsake thee." In His love I greet you heartily, as also your father and the rest in the house. ——
I rely wholly on this: that I shall, one of the first days, receive a word in answer from you; be but truly free and simple — such is well-pleasing to the Lord. Meanwhile I shall, through God's grace, remain
Your
Mülheim, 30 March 1734.
devoted friend and brother.
German
Der 63te Brief.
Liebreiche Aufmunterung zu einer völligen Uebergabe an JEsum.
Der Glaube ist der Sieg, der die Welt überwindet.
In der Gnade des HErrn geliebte Freundin und Schwester!
Nachdem ich bis heute vergeblich auf ein Briefgen von eurer Hand gewartet, worin mir einige Nachricht von eurem Zustand zu geben versprochen habt, so will es mir endlich zu lang werden.
— 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. One of the most remarkable letters in the collection — a letter that catches fire as it is written. It begins as an ordinary pastoral note to a discouraged woman (Anna Maria Kohl), assuring her, against all her feelings, that God's "grace and love are over you… even to this hour." But halfway through, the assurance turns into drama. Tersteegen stages a three-part dialogue: first the soul's despairing objection ("ah dear Jesus! I am so wretched… deserved nothing but hell"); then Jesus's astonishing reply, which brushes every objection aside ("I will have you, just as you are… look not at yourself, but at Me"); and finally the soul's total self-surrender, a prayer that hands over everything — "take me wholly, and forever Thine alone — heart, will, understanding, body, soul, and spirit." Only after the prayer ends does Tersteegen seem to notice what has happened to his pen: "I know not how I come unexpectedly to such a manner of writing — perhaps it was to be so for you." The whole is framed by the motto over the letter, 1 John 5:4: faith, not feeling, is "the victory that overcomes the world." And it closes on the one word that outweighs all the soul's self-accusation — God's own: "He has said it: I will not leave thee nor forsake thee."
A few words and echoes.
- "Faith is the victory that overcomes the world." The motto over the letter — 1 John 5:4, "this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." The whole letter is an argument for believing God's love against what one sees and feels.
- "Jesus will have you for Himself." The refrain of the appeal; cf. Titus 2:14, Christ gave Himself "that he might… purify unto himself a peculiar people." The bold claim that Christ desires the poor soul — and that to refuse Him is the real sin.
- "The letter of divorce" to the world (den Scheide-Brief). Deuteronomy 24:1's bill of divorcement, turned to the soul's renunciation of "the world and all its follies"; the decisive, documented break.
- "I will not leave thee nor forsake thee." Hebrews 13:5 (echoing Joshua 1:5, Deuteronomy 31:6) — God's own promise (KJV: "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee"), here in Tersteegen's slightly shorter wording; the letter's final and unanswerable word against the soul's despair. (Here Christ speaks to the soul, so the scriptural "thee" is preserved as a citation.)
- "Take me wholly… heart, will, understanding, body, soul, and spirit." The total consecration; cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 ("your whole spirit and soul and body") and Romans 12:1. Note that in the surrender-prayer the soul addresses Christ directly, so the reverent "Thou / Thy / Thee" is used, as throughout these letters for direct address to God.
- "Harp-Play… O how blessed are the souls." A reference to a hymn ("Harfenspiel"; "O wie selig sind die Seelen") whose last four verses Tersteegen recommends — the letter overflows into song, as several of these do.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-063 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.