Love-communion with our sweet Immanuel. On the arrest of two friends. On duty toward authority and Church.
Addressee, date, and source
The Hundred-and-Twenty-Seventh Letter.
Love-communion with our sweet Immanuel. On the arrest of two friends. On duty toward authority and Church.
In the grace of our Jesus, beloved sister!
You well know that your little letters are always agreeable to me, were there but a greeting in them. I greet you, then, now also with the pen, as I do it in spirit. Jesus bless you, dear heart, and draw you ever deeper into Himself and into His childlike mind! My soul wishes nothing more than to be kept, safely, with you, in this pure, gentle, unconstrained ground of simplicity, through Him Himself, who is our Immanuel — God with us and in us. Is it not the truth? Do you not experience it ever more and better, that He wills to possess and quicken us wholly, and that we, in simple, will-less sinking-away from our own selves, should only let Him work and live in us? Yes, He is willing to be it, and shall be it, even in our poor heart: Him will we love, and in Him trust, for He is good, and He is good to us also, and will remain so unto eternity. Now you know it — what great things we say, when one calls to the other: God is good; yes, He is good to sinners, Selah!
That the brothers N. and N. have been fetched to D. was dear to me to learn more particularly of — though yesterday, too, a couple of brothers spoke with me of it by word of mouth. I do not doubt the Lord will be with them, for they surely suffer for the truth and for the Lord’s cause: their joyfulness has refreshed me — which the Lord be pleased to uphold and to ground, according to His good pleasure and for the transfiguration of His name! The day before yesterday I wrote a little letter to the arrested brothers, but do not yet know whether they have received it. Only, yesterday evening, I got a greeting from brother N. — —
I ought not, indeed, to suppose that this arrest will be heavy, or last long with them; yet occasion might be taken from it to press our little flock further, which we leave to the heavenly Father, without whose will not a hair from our head can fall. Something like this had to come, lest the power spoil through too strong a fermentation; now it will precipitate to the ground, and so be preserved.
We, meanwhile, love Jesus and one another ever on, and now even so much the better; that no power of hell can forbid us, nor hinder. In the meantime, it is also most at rest with me that one should — as has been done hitherto, so also in the future — render not only to the authority its due debt, after God, but that the outer Church, too, be given satisfaction as far as possible, so long as nothing against conscience is demanded — as Jesus and His disciples also did. (Romans 14:14) If, then, the Adversary will yet not rest — as he impossibly can nor will — then one suffers thereafter all the more comforted, and one has certainly cause to rejoice then, for one suffers for the truth, and for the sake of such a Jesus, whose reproach is honorable, and whose cross is blessedness. His glory breaks through at last, after all; for His is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, unto eternity! Amen.
I greet once more heartily you and your husband, and all the rest of the children of the heart, and those who would gladly become such. Jesus bless you! May He be in your midst, and make Himself glorious in you and among you! I remember you all in weakness. Forget me not either, who am, and through grace shall remain,
Your and the others’ devoted brother.
Mülheim, the 28th of September, 1737.
German
Der hundertundsiebenundzwanzigste Brief.
Liebes-Gemeinschaft mit unserm süßen Immanuel. Von Arrestirung zweier Freunde. Von der Pflicht gegen Obrigkeit und Kirche.
In der Gnade unsers JEsu geliebte Schwester!
Du weißt wohl, daß mir deine Brieflein allezeit angenehm sind, wär gleich nur ein Gruß darin. Ich grüße dich dann nun auch mit der Feder, wie ichs thue im Geist.
— 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 letter of 28 September 1737 written into the middle of a persecution. Two brothers of the Mülheim awakened circle had been arrested — “fetched to D.” — and this letter is Tersteegen’s response: part consolation, part counsel to the whole little community about how to bear it, and about how a quiet people should carry themselves toward the civil authorities and the established Church.
A few words and echoes.
- Immanuel — God with us and in us. Matthew 1:23 / Isaiah 7:14 — the name that carries the whole opening; Tersteegen adds “and in us.”
- He is good to sinners, Selah! Psalm-language of praise (cf. Psalm 118:1, “O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good”), sealed with the Psalm’s own Selah.
- Not a hair from our head can fall. Matthew 10:29–30 / Luke 21:18 — the Father’s care that numbers the hairs; the ground of the little flock’s calm (Luke 12:32, “Fear not, little flock”).
- No power of hell can forbid us. Matthew 16:18 — “the gates of hell shall not prevail.”
- Render to the authority its due… as Jesus and His disciples also did. The counsel is that of Romans 13:1–7 and “render unto Caesar” (Matthew 22:21), with Jesus paying the temple tax (Matthew 17:24–27) as the model — up to the line of conscience (Acts 5:29, “we ought to obey God rather than men”). The letter’s own citation, Romans 14:14, does not match the point and is likely a misprint.
- Whose reproach is honorable, whose cross is blessedness. Hebrews 11:26 (“the reproach of Christ greater riches”) and Matthew 5:11–12 / 1 Peter 4:14.
- His is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory. The doxology of the Lord’s Prayer, Matthew 6:13.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-127 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.