On the presence of God, and on the uncovering of sin and self-will.

The Sixty-eighth Letter.

On the presence of God, and on the uncovering of sin and self-will.

In the grace of Jesus, dearly beloved brother!

In answer to your kind letter, concerning your state, I report the following: that in it I sufficiently recognize the guidance of God, and you have accordingly nothing therein to fear.

One would not, without experience, be able to believe that two so contrary conditions can have place at once in one soul; yet it is, so to speak, quite natural and clear. The presence of God is a light that uncovers all the darknesses of sin and self-will: but that this does not happen at every experience of some presence of God is a real wonder-work, and a sheer effect of divine goodness and wisdom, which would otherwise kill His weak creature; but because He wills to heal it, He moderates everything according to the powers of the soul. Thank God that He reveals His presence to you, and thank Him also that He shows you the darknesses of your self-will, which can only be made known in this light; and bear the pains thereby caused in resignation, that the flames of His love may burn up your self-will — which has not yet come to pass.

According to the one part, you see your own natural form in some measure, which is a right serpent-form, a tree of self-love with countless great and small branches; the axe is to be laid to the root of this tree. According to the other part, the spirit feels in some measure what God is — inwardly present and infinitely good — and that in His inward presence all life and the highest delight are to be found. There the spirit too wills to be, although the lower or outer part is quite otherwise minded. The separation of these parts has by no means yet taken place, though it may seem as if each part stood for itself and against the other. Sometimes the inner part goes too much into the outer, and sometimes the inner is quite drawn in and, as it were, deepened by the presence of God, so that there is too little attention to the outward. Yet you must not want to help yourself in any other way than only this: that you bear as passively as possible, and without much taking to yourself, what goes on in you — the evil by a simple denying and not-noticing; the good, and what God works, by a simple approving and yielding.

Only be peaceable! it will surely go well, even should it become more painful. God wills to have you wholly for Himself, however much the self-life may take fright at this sentence. I close, and commend you to the watch of the near God.

Mülheim, 27 August 1734.

German

Der 68te Brief.

Von der Gegenwart GOttes, und von der Entdeckung der Sünde und Eigenheit.

In JEsu Gnade herzlich geliebter Bruder!

Auf dein Angenehmes berichte folgendes wegen deines Zustands: Daß ich in demselben die Führung GOttes genugsam erkenne, und du demnach nichts dabei zu fürchten hast.

— 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).