Encouragement in inner sufferings.
The Hundred-and-Nineteenth Letter.
Encouragement in inner sufferings.
In Jesus dearly beloved sister!
As I was at my poor prayer, I found myself moved to say to you once more: that you would only, as much as possible, bear your present state of suffering calmly and undismayed, as being a way of God to your glorifying and His; though the contrary may sometimes seem so to you. To all that can gladden, enlarge, and quiet your heart, give childlike room; but seek nothing with unrest. What is taken from you, only let go; God Himself you will keep forever — or rather, He will keep you. Seek nothing with anxiousness; your treasures are best kept in God's hand. Bear all that is adverse as passively, without taking it to yourself, and as calmly as God gives grace. There is no danger; God is not thereby offended; and should it even seem so, or be so, yet we have an Advocate with the Father. What does it matter, as concerns us? We will forget and lose ourselves in the bosom of His eternal love and mercy. In the same, my soul greets you.
Your
Mülheim, the 6th of March 1737. devoted brother in the Lord.
German
Der hundertundneunzehnte Brief.
Aufmunterung in inneren Leiden.
In JEsu vielgeliebte Schwester!
Wie ich in meinem armen Gebet war, fand mich bewogen, dir nochmals zu sagen: daß du doch nur so viel möglich ruhig und unverzagt deinen jetzigen Leidens-Stand tragen möchtest, als welcher ein Weg GOttes zu deiner und Seiner Verherrlichung ist; ob dir gleich das Gegentheil bisweilen zuscheinen möchte.
— 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 letter of encouragement, written 6 March 1737 to a sister passing through an inner trial. It has the mark of something written from prayer itself: "As I was at my poor prayer, I found myself moved to say to you once more…" — as if the counsel had come to him while he prayed for her.
Its argument. Bear the suffering "calmly and undismayed," he says, for it is "a way of God to your glorifying and His" — however much "the contrary may sometimes seem so." The counsel is all in the direction of release: give "childlike room" to whatever quiets the heart, but "seek nothing with unrest"; "what is taken from you, only let go." And then the exchange that anchors the letter: "God Himself you will keep forever — or rather, He will keep you." Her "treasures are best kept in God's hand." Even the fear of having offended Him is met: "There is no danger… and should it even seem so, yet we have an Advocate with the Father." He ends where the letter began, in self-forgetting love: "We will forget and lose ourselves in the bosom of His eternal love and mercy."
A few words and echoes.
- "An Advocate with the Father" (einen Fürsprecher beim Vater). 1 John 2:1 — "we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." The one line of doctrine in the letter, set exactly where the anxious conscience needs it.
- "He will keep you." The gentle correction — "God Himself you will keep… or rather, He will keep you" — echoes the keeping of John 10:28–29 and 1 Peter 1:5; the soul does not hold God so much as it is held.
- "Your treasures are best kept in God's hand." Cf. 2 Timothy 1:12 — "he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him" — and the treasure laid up where no thief comes (Matthew 6:20).
- "A way of God to your glorifying and His." The suffering is not an interruption of the way but the way itself — for God's glory and, in Him, for hers (cf. John 11:4).
- "The bosom of His eternal love." The image of resting in the Father's heart (cf. John 1:18); the letter's last movement is not endurance but self-loss in love.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-119 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.