To a nobleman. On the little Child Jesus in the stable at Bethlehem.

The Eighty-third Letter.

To a nobleman. On the little Child Jesus in the stable at Bethlehem.

In the grace of Jesus, much-beloved brother!

Both your latest and your former letter I have duly received, and it is always pleasant to me to get some news of you and your dear family, of which I assure you in simplicity. ——

It rejoices me indeed that the dear brother is now becoming free of the court-life; I believe this too is God's will, and that it will be very serviceable to you both. When the Lord looses one, then — especially in these days — retiring is the best thing. There remains world-spirit enough even at the courts, where things are supposed to go most Christianly of all, whereby the mind is either oppressed or swept along with it. It is at last time to live only for God and for eternity, and to forget, too, what we no longer wish to love. If we have hitherto let ourselves be detained in Jerusalem in more ways than one, then let our heart now rejoice that the Star rises, which wants to lead us down to Bethlehem, to show our devotion to the lonely, poor Child.

O dear brother! what a mercy it is, to feel within oneself an inward drawing toward the childlike mind of Jesus — especially in these days, when the spirit of Jesus is as though banished from the face of the earth: namely, the spirit of inward dying and of the emptying-out of all life outside of God; the inclination toward the cross and toward being despised; the spirit of unceasing prayer of the heart, and of childlike fellowship with Jesus — now that His littleness, simplicity, and naked innocence have grown so utterly rare, even among the called. One has, in these days, studied out the whole of theology — the mystical too — with the intellect; but with the heart one stays far behind. Not so with us, dear brother! May grace be unwilling to leave us any rest in any mere show, or in a mingled being! We will follow the leading of our Star childlike, let it lead ever so deep in and down as it will; for even from afar we already mark this much: that the peace and the wideness in our spirit grows in the measure in which we follow this gently indrawing power, and satisfy the demands of this inner Leader — an incontestable proof that our spirit is nearing its resting-point; whereas, on the contrary, the least turning-away or resistance, however good it may seem, causes nothing but distress and confusion.

Moreover, Love itself wants to work everything in us; we are only to love, and to refuse Love nothing, but, by a hearty letting-go and Yea-saying, to content it in all its drawings and leadings, above all conception and feeling of reason. At last one finds the Child, and in Him all things, in the Bethlehem-like solitude, stillness, and poverty of spirit; and the word of the prophet, Hosea 2, is fulfilled: "I will allure her, and will lead her into a wilderness, and speak kindly with her."

Now to this end, may the Lord also make mightily blessed the liberation from the outer servitude, that he may — so much the more unhindered, with me and all the rest of the pilgrims — be led into the childlike mind, and become an eternal bondslave-worshipper in Bethlehem's stable: which is surely a greater grace and honor than to be a Court-Marshal, yea, than to be Marshal of France. I greet you very heartily.

Mülheim, 28 September 1735.

German

Der 83te Brief.

An einen Edelmann. Vom Kindelein JEsus im Stalle zu Bethlehem.

In der Gnade JEsu vielgeliebter Bruder!

Sowohl dessen jüngstes, als auch voriges Schreiben habe wohl erhalten, und ist mir allemal angenehm, von ihm und lieben Angehörigen einige Nachricht zu bekommen, welches einfältig versichere.

— 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).