Letters · Erster Band · Theil II (1773)

To a tempted soul, how she is to bear herself.

Bd I · Th II · Brief 66 · Der 66te Brief

Addressee — "In der Gnade GOttes geliebte Freundin!" — a woman (intimate du → you); candidate: Anna Maria Reinertz (see Apparatus)
Date — Mülheim, 5 May 1734 (dated in 1773; subscription "Dein schwacher Mitstreiter" — "your weak fellow-combatant," no personal name)
Provenance — Translated from the public-domain 1773 first edition (Theil II, pp. 193–194), in normalized GS 1845 orthography, collated against the 1845 Gesammelte Schriften (Bd 8) and Hartman's 1819 reprint. All public-domain.

The Sixty-sixth Letter.

To a tempted soul, how she is to bear herself.

In the grace of God, beloved friend!

Speak with Asaph to God out of the 73rd Psalm: "I am as a beast before thee; nevertheless I am continually with thee, for thou holdest me by my right hand." The right hand, wherewith God so faithfully holds you, is even the drawing of His grace and love in your heart, whereby He draws and allures you to heart's-inwardness and fellowship with Him, and whereby He calls you back again and reminds you when you are turned away. Ah! that you might more simply give heed to this Hand of love, which holds you so faithfully, and let yourself be rightly grasped by Him and wholly taken in; it will not cease to hold you and to draw you, until it shall have drawn you out of yourself and all creatures, as my soul wishes for you.

You do well in that you write to me simply, what kind of beast you are; for although I should not exactly advise telling every one of all your temptations, yet it is good that you are open-hearted before me. Yea, surely one must often regard oneself as a beast before God; partly because of one's inward ill-nature; partly also because of the heedlessness, dryness, and barrenness one finds oneself in. But be it with you as it will, you must only ever turn again with trust to God, and say: "Nevertheless I am continually with thee." This is the best, yea the only medicine for all your sicknesses — namely, the ever-repeated, gentle, innocent, loving turning to God in your heart, and the laying-open and reverent stillness in His presence, whereby you will surely be helped. God alone be to us eternally enough!

I greet heartily N. and N. May the Lord be to us all inwardly and eternally near! Which wishes,

Your

Mülheim, 5 May 1734.

weak fellow-combatant.

❦

German

Der 66te Brief.

An eine angefochtene Seele, wie sie sich zu verhalten.

In der Gnade GOttes geliebte Freundin!

Sprich mit Assaph zu GOtt aus dem 73ten Psalm: Ich bin wie ein Thier vor Dir; dennoch bleib ich stets bei Dir, dann Du hältst mich bei meiner rechten Hand.

— 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, tender letter to a soul under temptation, built entirely on one Psalm. Tersteegen does not argue the soul out of her distress; he hands her words to pray: Psalm 73:22–23, where Asaph, having called himself "a beast before God," immediately adds "nevertheless I am continually with thee." That "nevertheless" is the whole letter. The felt beastliness is real and may be freely confessed — "surely one must often regard oneself as a beast before God" — but it is not the last word; God's holding hand is. That "right hand," he explains, is nothing other than "the drawing of His grace and love in your heart," a Hand that draws, allures, calls back, and "will not cease… until it shall have drawn you out of yourself and all creatures." So the remedy for temptation is not self-scrutiny but return: "you must only ever turn again with trust to God, and say: Nevertheless I am continually with thee." He calls this "the only medicine" — the "ever-repeated, gentle, loving turning to God in your heart, and reverent stillness in His presence." The signature, "your weak fellow-combatant," places him beside her in the same fight.

A few words and echoes.

"I am as a beast before thee; nevertheless I am continually with thee." Psalm 73:22–23 (Asaph's psalm; KJV: "I was as a beast before thee. Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand"), rendered in Tersteegen's present tense — the text the whole letter expounds. The self-abasement ("a beast") and the confidence ("continually with thee… thou holdest me") held together.
"The drawing of His grace" (der Zug… Seiner Gnade). John 6:44, the divine Zug that draws the soul; here identified with the very "right hand" that "holds" it fast.
"Regard oneself as a beast before God." Not a counsel to despair but to humility — the honest sight of one's "inward ill-nature," which (as Asaph found) throws the soul back on God rather than self.
"The only medicine… the ever-repeated turning to God." The Zukehr (turning-to) as therapy of the soul: temptation is healed not by fighting it head-on but by turning away to God; cf. Isaiah 45:22, "look unto me, and be ye saved."
"Reverent stillness in His presence." Psalm 46:10 ("Be still, and know that I am God"); Habakkuk 2:20 ("let all the earth keep silence before him") — the "laying-open and reverent stillness" that is the soul's true posture.
"Weak fellow-combatant" (schwacher Mitstreiter). Tersteegen's signature here and in Brief 67 — the spiritual life as a shared warfare (2 Timothy 2:3, "a good soldier of Jesus Christ"; Philippians 2:25, "fellowsoldier").

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Erster Band, II. Theil, Brief 66 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-066.html.

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