Letters · Erster Band · Theil II (1773)

To give place not to faintheartedness and fear, but to joy and love.

Bd I · Th II · Brief 125 · Der hundertundfünfundzwanzigste Brief

Addressee — An eine Schwester — "Liebe Schwester!", a woman, intimate du, who had written of "melancholy" (Melancholie) and faintheartedness. Not further identified (1773-only); her letter reached him "in A." (a place suppressed in the print). Intimate du → English you.
Date — Mülheim, 27 July 1737 ("den 27. Julii 1737"; GS/Hartman agree).
Provenance — Translated from the public-domain 1773 first edition (Theil II, pp. 368–369), in normalized GS 1845 orthography, collated against the 1845 Gesammelte Schriften (Bd 8) and Hartman's 1819 reprint. All public-domain.

The Hundred-and-Twenty-Fifth Letter.

To give place not to faintheartedness and fear, but to joy and love.

Dear sister!

Yesterday evening I came back — God be praised! — though weak. I must yet write this by way of greeting. Your little letter I received in A.

But what is this to be, dear sister! that you tell of melancholy? Do you then suppose the Saviour has called you to melancholy? By no means! — but to righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. You, for your own person especially, must not give place to so great a faintheartedness. I know you well: you must be led not by a way of fear, but of love and of childlike trust — which God will work. You have given yourself to Jesus as His own, that He may forgive and take away your sins; this the dear Saviour has now also taken upon Himself. Over this your heart should rejoice, and love the gracious Saviour as your one soul's-treasure. Think much upon this undeserved love; remain childlike near to Jesus, and mark how He will draw all your love-inclinations to Himself away from all other objects, and take away from you your whole heart. Ah Jesus! take it in, and bless the dear sister. I greet ———; and remain

Your

Mülheim, the 27th of July 1737. bound, weak brother.

❦

German

Der hundertundfünfundzwanzigste Brief.

Nicht der Kleinmüthigkeit und Furcht, sondern der Freude und Liebe Raum zu geben.

Liebe Schwester!

Gestern Abend bin, GOtt Lob! wieder kommen, doch schwach. Muß doch dieses zum Gruß schreiben.

— 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, tender note dashed off the very evening Tersteegen got home from a journey — "weak," he says, but he "must yet write this by way of greeting." Her letter had reached him on the road, and in it she had spoken of "melancholy." His whole reply is a gentle but firm refusal to let her settle into it.

Its argument. "Do you then suppose the Saviour has called you to melancholy? By no means! — but to righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." That is Romans 14:17, turned straight against her low mood. "You must not give place to so great a faintheartedness." And he knows her: "you must be led not by a way of fear, but of love and childlike trust" — the very contrast of 2 Timothy 1:7. The ground of the joy is not her feeling but a completed fact: she has given herself to Jesus "as His own," and He has taken her sins "upon Himself" — so "let your heart rejoice, and love the gracious Saviour as your one soul's-treasure." He will himself "draw all your love-inclinations to Himself" and "take your whole heart." The letter ends not with advice but with a prayer said over her head: "Ah Jesus! take it in, and bless the dear sister."

A few words and echoes.

"Not to melancholy… but to righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." Romans 14:17 — "the kingdom of God is… righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." Tersteegen sets the whole verse against her sadness.
"Not by a way of fear, but of love and childlike trust." 2 Timothy 1:7 — "God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."
"Your one soul's-treasure." Christ as the single treasure of the heart — the pearl of great price (Matthew 13:46) named for the soul.
"He will draw all your love-inclinations to Himself." John 12:32 — "I… will draw all men unto me" — here the drawing of the heart's every affection away from lesser objects to Christ alone.
"Ah Jesus! take it in, and bless the dear sister." The letter closes as an apostrophe — Tersteegen turns from her to Christ and puts her whole heart into His hands.

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Erster Band, II. Theil, Brief 125 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-125.html.

← Bd I · Th II · Brief 124 Bd I · Th II · Brief 126 →