Letters · Erster Band · Theil II (1773)

On the brother- and sister-name among God-seeking souls.

Bd I · Th II · Brief 130 · Der hundertunddreißigste Brief

Addressee — An eine Schwester — salutation "Liebe Schwester!": a woman, addressed in the intimate du, who had evidently scrupled at calling Tersteegen "brother" and had written of her "distractions and sluggishness" in prayer and of a bodily weakness. Not further identified (1773-only). Intimate du → English you.
Date — Mülheim, 15 November 1737 ("den 15. Nov. 1737"; GS/Hartman agree).
Provenance — Translated from the public-domain 1773 first edition (Theil II, pp. 383–385), in normalized GS 1845 orthography, collated against the 1845 Gesammelte Schriften (Bd 8) and Hartman's 1819 reprint. All public-domain.

The Hundred-and-Thirtieth Letter.

On the brother- and sister-name among God-seeking souls.

Dear sister!

And why should you not be allowed to call me brother? For the highly-praised Son of God was not ashamed to become your brother, and to call you with so holy a calling — yes, this I know — that you should be His friend and one bound to Him. What an untimely humility it would then be, that you should be ashamed of Jesus and of His own! Will you then not be His? Yes, from the heart, gladly, says your whole heart. Well then, so call Him also your own; confess Him as your own in word and walk; look upon Jesus as a thing that is yours; but look also upon yourself as a thing that is His. Let it be and remain your glory and only comfort in life and in death, that you belong to your faithful Saviour Jesus Christ; and let this high grace stir you ever to cleave to Jesus from the heart, and to become faithful in love. As often as you call a child of God brother or sister, give it your hand, greet it or have it greeted — so often rejoice that you are counted worthy to confess Jesus as your own, and yourself as His; for this much is thereby said: With you I will hold; with you I will be the Lord's; with you I will follow His call of grace, through sweet and sour, in His strength.

Now, in this sense I call you sister; and so, take courage and call me brother too. Do not be troubled over your distractions and sluggishness; only let the distractions above all not be deliberate, and grow not weary — as soon as you notice them — of turning again to Jesus with a thoughtful yet childlike glance, without heeding much the feeling in it. Love to Jesus must always be thorough, but not always felt; and it is then, in its own kind, thorough, when you have nothing that you would not, this very moment, gladly give over to Jesus; and when it stands thus in the ground of your heart, as you write in your letter: O that I might love Thee, Thou infinite Love, right heartily! This O of the heart is a little spark of the infinite Love; let this be your element and your very breathing, were it even in dryness and supposed sluggishness; for your sluggishness is often a fruit of your bodily weakness, with which you must have patience, and bear it gladly for Jesus' sake. This very love of God, of which I have just now spoken, is the true prayer of the heart. You say that you cannot pray. Is there then no O, no Ah in your heart? And supposing you could not find even this so, then just tell Jesus simply that you cannot pray — and already you are praying. Ah! one must deal with Jesus childlike, familiarly, and not by art. Your regular times for prayer must not be too forced, nor too long sustained, on account of the bodily weakness. Sickly natures must often eat something, but not too much at once —— [I] remain

Your

devoted fellow-brother.

Mülheim, the 15th of November 1737.

❦

German

Der hundertunddreißigste Brief.

Von dem Bruder- und Schwester-Namen unter GOtt-suchenden Gemüthern.

Liebe Schwester!

Und warum solltest du mich nicht dörfen Bruder nennen? Hat sich doch der hochgelobte Sohn GOttes nicht geschämet, dein Bruder zu werden, und dich berufen mit einem so heiligen Beruf, (ja das weiß ich) daß du seine Freundin und Verbundene seyn sollst.

— 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 15 November 1737 to a sister who had evidently felt unworthy to call Tersteegen "brother." He answers her scruple gently and turns it around: the Son of God himself "was not ashamed to become your brother," so a humility that shrinks from the name is "untimely." The letter is his little theology of the plain words brother and sister as they were used among the awakened souls of his circle — not sentiment, but a confession of who Christ is and whose she is.

Its argument. The heart of it is a mutual belonging. "Look upon Jesus as a thing that is yours; but look also upon yourself as a thing that is His." Every time she calls a fellow believer brother or sister — gives a hand, sends a greeting — she is, he says, "confessing Jesus as her own, and herself as His," which is as much as to say: "With you I will hold; with you I will be the Lord's; with you I will follow His call of grace, through sweet and sour, in His strength." So he closes the thought: "In this sense I call you sister; and so, take courage and call me brother too."

The counsel on prayer. The second half turns to what she had confided — her "distractions and sluggishness," and that she "cannot pray." His answer is unhurried and bodily-wise: the sluggishness is often "a fruit of bodily weakness," to be borne with patience; love "must always be thorough, but not always felt"; her prayer-times should not be "too forced or too long" — "sickly natures must often eat something, but not too much at once." And the deepest consolation is that the bare sigh is already prayer: "Is there then no O, no Ah in your heart?… then just tell Jesus simply that you cannot pray — and already you are praying."

A few words and echoes.

"The Son of God was not ashamed to become your brother." Hebrews 2:11 — "he is not ashamed to call them brethren." The whole letter unfolds from this one verse.
"A child of God — brother or sister." Matthew 12:50 — "whosoever shall do the will of my Father… the same is my brother, and sister, and mother."
"Confess Jesus as your own." Matthew 10:32 — "whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father."
"His friend." John 15:15 — "I have called you friends."
"Is there no O, no Ah in your heart?… already you are praying." Romans 8:26 — the Spirit intercedes "with groanings which cannot be uttered"; the wordless sigh is counted as prayer.
"Your devoted fellow-brother." The signature — verbundener Mitbruder, a fellow-brother bound and devoted to her in the same Lord; the print letterspaces the "Your."

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Erster Band, II. Theil, Brief 130 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-130.html.

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