Letters · Erster Band · Theil II (1773)

Encouragement to the recollected, hidden walk with Christ in God.

Bd I · Th II · Brief 145 · Der hundertfünfundvierzigste Brief

Addressee — An einen Bruder — salutation "Geliebter Bruder!": a man, addressed in the intimate du. Not further identified (1773-only). Intimate du → English you.
Date — Mülheim, 12 November 1738 ("den 12. Nov. 1738"; GS/Hartman agree).
Provenance — Translated from the public-domain 1773 first edition (Theil II, pp. 426–427), in normalized GS 1845 orthography, collated against the 1845 Gesammelte Schriften (Bd 8) and Hartman's 1819 reprint. All public-domain.

The Hundred-and-Forty-Fifth Letter.

Encouragement to the recollected, hidden walk with Christ in God.

Beloved brother!

I long to greet and kiss you again in the spirit. May the Lord give you a deep and abiding impression of His divine love-presence, especially in your heart! O how essentially it is the truth, that God, as our God in Christ, is so inwardly near to us, and requires of us also that we should come near to Him, and abide within, close by Him, in the simplicity of faith. So let us, then, no longer dwell in the world, but forsake it thoroughly; nor remain hanging in the senses and in reason, but let ourselves be made into simplified heart-people, who, as true strangers on earth, lead a hidden life with Christ in God. True, when one forsakes all in truth, one does indeed find one's self again: but for that monster's sake one does not turn back — rather one gently shuts one's eyes to it, and passes by with bowed head, through dying, to the unfading life. Love and trust the Infinite One infinitely much; and believe that, through grace, I remain

Your

devoted [friend].

Mülheim, the 12th of November 1738.

❦

German

Der hundertfünfundvierzigste Brief.

Aufmunterung zum eingekehrten, verborgenen Wandel mit Christo in GOtt.

Geliebter Bruder!

Ich begehre, dich im Geiste wieder zu grüßen und zu küssen. Es gebe dir der HErr einen tiefen und bleibenden Eindruck von Seiner göttlichen Liebes-Gegenwart, sonderlich in deinem Herzen!

— 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 very short note of 12 November 1738 — hardly more than a warm greeting to a brother — but built entirely on one text, Colossians 3:3: "your life is hid with Christ in God." Tersteegen means to encourage what he calls the "recollected, hidden walk," and he does it in a few dense, glowing sentences.

The hidden life. God, he says, "as our God in Christ, is so inwardly near" — and He asks of us only that "we come near to Him and abide within, close by Him, in the simplicity of faith." From that flows the whole shape of the hidden life: "no longer dwell in the world, but forsake it thoroughly; do not hang in the senses and reason, but let yourselves be made into simplified heart-people, who, as true strangers on earth, lead a hidden life with Christ in God."

The monster of self. Then the sentence that lifts the little letter above a greeting. When a soul truly forsakes everything, he warns, it will "find its self again" — the old ego, met once more on the far side of surrender, a "monster." But one does not turn back for its sake: "rather one gently shuts one's eyes to it, and passes by with bowed head, through dying, to the unfading life." And the parting word is a hyperbole of trust: "Love and trust the Infinite One infinitely much."

A few words and echoes.

"A hidden life with Christ in God." Colossians 3:3 — "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." The letter's whole text.
"True strangers on earth." 1 Peter 2:11 / Hebrews 11:13 — "strangers and pilgrims on the earth."
"One does indeed find one's self again." Matthew 16:25 — "whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it"; here the self found is the ego to be passed by, not clung to.
"Through dying, to the unfading life." 1 Peter 5:4 — "a crown of glory that fadeth not away"; John 12:24, the grain that dies to bear.
"Simplified heart-people." Matthew 18:3 — "become as little children"; the single-hearted.

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Erster Band, II. Theil, Brief 145 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-145.html.

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