Some brotherly reminders to an awakened merchant, concerning his inward and outward state.
The Hundred-and-Thirty-Second Letter.
Some brotherly reminders to an awakened merchant, concerning his inward and outward state.
Dear brother!
With these lines I only wished to greet you and your helpmeet heartily, in the name of our Immanuel — who bless us, and lead us ever more essentially into His child-innocence, simplicity, littleness, and will-lessness, through a true going-out from ourselves and all created things! Amen, Jesus! I have heard nothing from you in a long time; since I now have a moment's time, I thought I would write once, as I had in any case forgotten, in the last hurry, to mention one thing and another; for you — and your helpmeet too — gladly grant me the right and liberty to tell you what I find to say. I wished, then, first of all to put you in mind once more concerning your wife's dress: that you would keep it there at the utmost simplicity. —— I have indeed already spoken with you of it; but you are sometimes not steady enough, so I mention it again. In the matter of faithfulness one must count no thing small. For myself I make nothing of it, but for you and others I judge it best so.
In your trade, do not by any means spread yourself out; prove your faith therein, that you do not think far ahead — as you have told others so much of. Reason will sometimes make you believe you must take on this and that besides, or push it through better, else it might be too little — which are only heathen thoughts of unbelief. I know that you will come out right, and that is enough. Live, to that end, as pilgrims: that is, be toward yourselves as the poor, but toward the poor Jesus as the rich. Reach under one another's arms, chiefly in spiritual things. I know various pious married people who in natural things are very familiar, but in spiritual things very strange toward one another: that will not do, and is a bad sign. Let the one tell the other, childlike, its good and its bad; bear one another; remind one another; pray with one another; love one another; and make the beginning of your life together such as you wish the end may be. God grant that the world may in this way see in you an example — that even in the married state there are true saints!
One fault more I have always seen in you, which I must tell you too, though I have already done so several times; I will put the sickness, and the medicine for it, into a little verse:
Today you would fly, tomorrow sink; let yourself be beckoned deeper inward! To stand in the spirit, not in the senses, teaches us to walk in sweet evenness.
At times I have been able to feel that you wanted to skip too lightly and merrily over everything, by a certain faith and surrender to which you are called, but which was as yet no [settled] being and state in you; whence a small mishap, or a slight word, would cast you down again as deep as you had before flown high. I have sometimes, even in your presence, said something by which you were brought into the greatest strait: for because you love me, you would gladly have let pass what I said; but because you stood a little too lightly, skimming over it, it came to you as if it were legalistic, and made you sad. This has made me, at another time, hold back from saying something — since it is never my mind to bring anyone into a strait, or to make him sad; for I like best to see a good courage — but it must be a childlike, a quiet courage, that has its ground in death and in inwardness; not that one should make, or seek, or feign such a thing — by no means! Only, each must, according to his state, make it his chief work to stay near, within the Lord, and to let himself be led out of himself and all created things by the Spirit and the drawing of love, in childlike following, avoiding, suffering, and loving — then something abiding and whole comes of it. And so it is with me too in dealing with others: childlikeness, simplicity, heartiness are exceedingly needful; but if it goes into jesting, it often goes too far, as we too have spoken of together. ——
See, dear brother, whether I have not much confidence in your love, that I admonish so diligently and almost masterfully. You know me. I greet and embrace you in the spirit of love; I greet your wife heartily too; may she be wholly the Lord's! —— He, the Lord, be Himself with your spirit, and you with Him, Amen!
Mülheim, the 14th of January 1738.
German
Der hundertzweiunddreißigste Brief.
Einige brüderliche Erinnerungen an einen erweckten Kaufmann, sein In- und Auswendiges betreffend.
Lieber Bruder!
Mit diesen Zeilen habe dich und deine Gehülfin nur herzlich grüßen wollen in dem Namen unsers Immanuels, der uns segne, und immer wesentlicher in seine Kinder-Unschuld, Einfalt, Kleinheit und Willenlosheit hineinführe durch einen wahren Ausgang aus uns und allem Geschaffenen!
— 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 14 January 1738 to "an awakened merchant" and his wife — brotherly reminders that are, unusually, about the ordinary furniture of a life: a wife's dress, a shop, a marriage, and a fault of temperament. It is Tersteegen at his most practical and most affectionate, a spiritual director who counts "no thing small" and yet keeps everything under the one heading of childlike trust.
The four counsels. Dress: keep the wife's clothing at "the utmost simplicity" — a small thing, but "in the matter of faithfulness one must count no thing small." Trade: do not "spread yourself out"; the merchant's temptation to "take on this and that besides" lest there be too little is "only heathen thoughts of unbelief" — "I know you will come out right, and that is enough." Marriage: the loveliest passage — "be toward yourselves as the poor, but toward the poor Jesus as the rich," and help each other above all in spiritual things (he has known couples "very familiar in natural things, but very strange in spiritual"); "make the beginning of your life together such as you wish the end may be… that the world may see in you that even in the married state there are true saints."
The verse, and the tenderness. The man's besetting fault is a spiritual unevenness — up one day, down the next — which Tersteegen catches in a four-line "little verse": "Today you would fly, tomorrow sink; let yourself be beckoned deeper inward!" The cure is not effort but a "childlike, quiet courage, grounded in death and inwardness." And he ends with a rare glimpse of his own care: because his corrections had once "made you sad," he had learned to hold his tongue — "for I like best to see a good courage." The benediction is Paul's own: "He, the Lord, be Himself with your spirit."
A few words and echoes.
- "In the name of our Immanuel." Isaiah 7:14 / Matthew 1:23 — "they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us."
- "Heathen thoughts of unbelief." Matthew 6:31–32 — "for after all these things do the Gentiles seek… take no thought." The merchant's over-reaching is unbelief in disguise.
- "Toward the poor Jesus as the rich." 2 Corinthians 8:9 — "though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich."
- "Bear one another; remind one another; pray with one another." Galatians 6:2 ("bear ye one another's burdens") and 1 Thessalonians 5:11 ("comfort yourselves together, and edify one another").
- "He, the Lord, be Himself with your spirit." 2 Timothy 4:22 — "The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit."
- "Helpmeet." Genesis 2:18 — "an help meet for him"; the merchant's "Gehülfin" is his wife, and likely his partner in the shop.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-132 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.