Of the necessity of losing all counsel and help in oneself, and of becoming a child in the Child Jesus.
Addressee, date, and source
The Hundred-and-Tenth Letter.
Of the necessity of losing all counsel and help in oneself, and of becoming a child in the Child Jesus.
The God-Child greet and bless your soul!
In the Same, beloved sister!
Your welcome letter, through Brother N., I answer more with the heart than with the pen. Praised be the Lord, for His ways are sheer goodness and truth! The corruption is out of us, the redemption solely from Him. Both are quickly said, but are not experienced in essence without need. Yet — blessed the soul that gives itself over blindly to the counsel and leading of God! In us and out of us there is no good to be hoped for. The gate of redemption stands open in the ground of the soul, in the love-full Name of Jesus; whoever has become counsel-less and helpless in himself lets himself fall in, and is rescued. To lose! To lose! Jesus must become everything in us. The riches are found in poverty, the greatness in littleness. It is marvelous in our eyes. Who should have said that the great Messiah — of whom, for so many thousand years, so much was promised, such great things prophesied, who was so gloriously prefigured and so long, so longingly awaited — would present Himself to the senses no more imposingly than this? The sum and fulfillment of it all is a poor little Child at Bethlehem. There you have it now, the great matter! Little children, yea poor little children, we are to become in Him, who became a little child for us, and wills to become one in us. So let us now go over unto Bethlehem, and see the thing which the Lord has made known to us. I bow myself with you toward the manger, to adore this God-Child, and to lose myself, with you, in His littleness, innocence, and entire child-form. Little Jesus! take us in, that we may be Thine, and children as Thou art! Amen.
Mülheim, the 23rd of December, 1736.
German
Der hundertundzehnte Brief.
Von der Nothwendigkeit, allen Rath und Hülfe in sich selbst zu verlieren, und ein Kind in dem Kinde JEsu zu werden.
Das GOtt-Kind grüße und segne deine Seele!
In demselben geliebte Schwester! Dein Angenehmes durch Bruder N. beantworte mehr mit dem Herzen, als mit der Feder.
— 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 Christmas letter to a “beloved sister,” greeting her not from himself but from “the God-Child.” Its theme is the one Tersteegen returns to every Advent: that the way up is down, and the treasure is found in poverty. He answers her, he says, “more with the heart than with the pen.”
A few words and echoes.
- His ways are sheer goodness and truth. Psalm 25:10 — “all the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth” (the same word that opens the countess-letter, Brief 105).
- It is marvelous in our eyes. Psalm 118:23 — “this is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes” — turned to the wonder of the manger.
- A poor little Child at Bethlehem… the great matter. The Christmas paradox of Isaiah 9:6 and Luke 2 — the promised Deliverer arriving unrecognizably small.
- Little children… we are to become in Him. Matthew 18:3 — “except ye… become as little children” — here fused with becoming a child in the Child.
- Let us now go over unto Bethlehem… which the Lord has made known to us. Luke 2:15 — the shepherds’ word, verbatim, made the reader’s own.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-110 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.