On the use and harm of images.
The Hundred-and-Twenty-Fourth Letter.
On the use and harm of images.
Dearly beloved friend and brother!
Your kind little letter I have duly received, and I send, according to your request, a Hidden Life and a Little Flower-Garden. —— I wish from my heart that Bernières' portrait may accomplish in many what it has done in you by divine appointment; then I should not be wholly deceived in my aim — for at least it has given you occasion to look into the little book itself, which was precisely the purpose: namely, by such a bait, to catch the little fish happily.
Otherwise, images are certainly only images, and no essence: to let oneself be led through them to the Essence is God's kind intent; but to hang upon them with heart and senses is vanity and idolatry. But it is not only the living or lifeless images of the saints that are subject to this misuse: all the visible being of this world — ourselves too, and our poor life, together with all that our mind may fall upon, outside of God and the Eternal — is all only a frail, unstable, but easily-enticing image and painting. The fools stop at it, and sacrifice their heart, time, and powers to a base vanity; but the wise pass by stooping, and scarcely look at it (2 Corinthians 4:18). God alone, His eternal goods and truths (of which, by nature, we have so slight an impression), are the only essential and truly great things. Over a little moment we shall see this with open eyes and utmost emphasis, when the curtain that hides eternity from us shall fall away; yet it may also happen already in bodily life, if we lay ourselves, with true earnestness, upon the Eternal.
Rouse yourselves then, with me, thereto, my worthy friend! We have already slept away so much time. The God who so gladly wills to help us onward in all things is unspeakably near to us in the name of Jesus. Happy is he who loses all, only to find this One! I hope to be mindful of you, too, in my poor prayer. Pray also for me! —— I remain
Your
Mülheim, the 4th of June 1737. devoted friend and brother.
German
Der hundertundvierundzwanzigste Brief.
Vom Nutzen und Schaden der Bilder.
Vielgeliebter Freund und Bruder!
Euer angenehmes Brieflein habe behörig empfangen, und sende, folgends Begehren, ein verborgenes Leben und ein Blumen-Gärtlein. —— Ich wünsche von Herzen, daß des Bernieres Bildniß bei vielen das ausrichten möge, was es bei euch durch göttliche Schickung gethan hat, so würde ich in meiner Absicht nicht gänzlich betrogen werden …
— 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, luminous letter of 4 June 1737, sent along with two books: "a Hidden Life and a Little Flower-Garden." The first is Bernières' Hidden Life with Christ in God (which Tersteegen had edited — see Brief 120); the second is Tersteegen's own beloved Spiritual Flower-Garden of Inward Souls. What sparked the letter is a small thing: the portrait at the front of the Bernières book had first drawn this friend to open it — and that starts Tersteegen thinking about images.
Its argument. He is delighted at the portrait's work — "by such a bait, to catch the little fish happily" — but immediately sets it in its place: "images are only images, and no essence." To be led through an image to the Reality is "God's kind intent"; to "hang on it with heart and senses" is "vanity and idolatry." Then he widens the thought until it takes in everything: not only pictures of the saints, but "all the visible being of this world, ourselves too, and our poor life," is "only a frail, unstable, but easily-enticing image and painting." "The fools stop at it… the wise pass by stooping, and scarcely look at it" — and here he names his text, 2 Corinthians 4:18. Only "God alone, His eternal goods and truths… are the essential and truly great things," which we shall one day see "with open eyes, when the curtain that hides eternity falls away" — though, he adds, that seeing can begin "already in bodily life." The letter ends as a summons: "Rouse yourselves… we have slept away so much time. Happy is he who loses all, only to find this One!"
A few words and echoes.
- "A Hidden Life and a Little Flower-Garden." The two books sent: Bernières-Louvigny's Das verborgene Leben mit Christo in Gott (Tersteegen's edition) and Tersteegen's own Geistliches Blumengärtlein inniger Seelen — the hymn-and-aphorism book for which he is still loved.
- "By such a bait, to catch the little fish." Matthew 4:19 — "I will make you fishers of men." The portrait is the lure; the catch is the soul.
- "The wise pass by stooping, and scarcely look at it." 2 Corinthians 4:18, which Tersteegen cites — "while we look not at the things which are seen… for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."
- "The curtain that hides eternity." The veil of 2 Corinthians 3:14–16 and the "through a glass, darkly" of 1 Corinthians 13:12 — the seeing that waits on the veil's falling.
- "We have slept away so much time." Romans 13:11 — "now it is high time to awake out of sleep."
- "Happy is he who loses all, only to find this One." The pearl of great price (Matthew 13:46) and "one thing is needful" (Luke 10:42), fused into a single sentence.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-124 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.