On the giving-over of our whole self. On true inward recollection. How needless are the books that would prove that there is a God.
The Hundred-and-Thirty-Fourth Letter.
On the giving-over of our whole self. On true inward recollection. How needless are the books that would prove that there is a God.
In the grace of Jesus, very worthy friend!
With these lines I only bear witness that your letter of the 17th of January was pleasant to me. God be praised for all His mercy, and in particular for this — that He gives us a heart which, without reserve, will be purely and forever His. This is a fruit and working of His pure love in Jesus, whereby He draws us to Himself and will take us up for Himself. We have nothing to do but to content Him by the giving-over of our whole self, and to be content under all His leadings over us, according to Proverbs 23:26.
Let us truly leave the creature where it lies; let us also forget ourselves, and — with a looking-away from all that is behind — gently, but sincerely, bend both our eye and our love-inclinations inward upon Him who is near to us in the spirit, and is our proper object and resting-point, that He may pour His divine life into us ever more unmixed. This looking-away from ourselves and from all, this turning-inward and abiding-within, let it be our proper work! All else — even the edification of our neighbour — must be done only very much in passing, and with much moderation. Take what God gives you, be it sweet or bitter; only, do not take it to yourself! God alone shall be our delight; and remember: Ah —
L'amour pur n'a sa beauté / Qu'au centre de la volonté.
(or, in German —)
Pure love has all its beauty in the ground of the will (not in the senses).
The Mamma I greet again, unknown to me but most kindly, together with the rest of the household. Of the desired books I have none, though she may well have seen them before this. At Duisburg, with the bookseller Böttiger, they may perhaps be had. Almost no books do I count more superfluous in the world than such as would prove that there is a God. After so many millions of people have been in America, one needs no more books to prove that such a new world exists. The friends known here greet you heartily, along with me, in the Lord; that He may bless you, and be unremovably with your spirit, wishes from the heart,
Most worthy friend,
Your
well-affectioned friend and brother in the Lord.
Mülheim, the 11th of February 1738.
German
Der hundertvierunddreißigste Brief.
Von der Schenkung unseres Ganzen. Von der wahren Einkehr. Wie unnöthig die Bücher sind, die beweisen wollen, daß ein GOtt sey.
In der Gnade JEsu sehr werthe Freundin!
Mit diesen Zeilen bezeuge ich nur, daß Dero Zuschreiben vom 17. Jan. mir angenehm gewesen sey.
— 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 11 February 1738 (the same day as Brief 133) to a "very worthy friend" — a woman living with her mother — answering a letter of hers and a request for certain books. It gathers three things: the whole-hearted "giving-over" of oneself to God, the practice of inward recollection, and a famous, faintly mischievous aside on books that set out to "prove that there is a God."
The giving-over, and the pun. God, Tersteegen says, "gives us a heart which, without reserve, will be purely and forever His" — and our one task is simply to answer that gift: "to content Him by the giving-over of our whole self, and to be content under all His leadings." (The German plays on a single Latin word — contentiren / content — to satisfy Him, and to be satisfied.) The ground of it is Proverbs 23:26, "My son, give me thine heart." Then the method: "leave the creature; forget yourselves; with a looking-away from all that is behind" (Philippians 3:13) "bend both eye and love-inclinations inward upon Him… that He may pour His divine life into us ever more unmixed." Even good works — "the edification of our neighbour" — are to be done "in passing, and with much moderation." "Take what God gives — sweet or bitter — but do not take it to yourself; God alone shall be our delight."
The pure-love couplet, and the books. He seals the thought with a couplet he loved, quoted first in French and then in his own German rhyme: "L'amour pur n'a sa beauté qu'au centre de la volonté" — pure love has its beauty only at the centre of the will, not in feeling. And then the letter's most-quoted line, half a joke and wholly serious: "Almost no books do I count more superfluous in the world than such as would prove that there is a God. After so many millions of people have been in America, one needs no more books to prove that such a new world exists." The soul that has been there needs no proof of the country.
A few words and echoes.
- "Give me thine heart." Proverbs 23:26 — Tersteegen's cited text ("nach Sprüchw. 23, 26"); the whole "giving-over" rests on it.
- "All that is behind." Philippians 3:13 — "forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before."
- "God alone shall be our delight." Psalm 73:25–26 — "whom have I in heaven but thee?… God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever."
- "L'amour pur n'a sa beauté qu'au centre de la volonté." The quietist "pure love" motto (Madame Guyon's circle): love's beauty lies in the will's consent, not in feeling — the same teaching as Brief 120, where Guyon is named.
- "Books that would prove there is a God." An inversion of the natural-theology proofs of his day (cf. Romans 1:19–20, God "clearly seen… by the things that are made"): to one who has tasted God, the demonstration is as needless as a treatise proving America.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-134 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.