Letters · Erster Band · Theil II (1773)

Of the spirit-communion of believers with one another. How the soul is to behave when God has withdrawn His grace from the sensory faculties.

Bd I · Th II · Brief 150 · Der hundertfünfzigste Brief

Addressee — Gottfried Luther Stetius. Salutation "Mein lieber Bruder in dem HErrn!"; the known correspondent of Bd I Th I 55. Intimate du → you.
Date — Mülheim, 10 April 1739 ("den 10 April 1739"; GS/Hartman agree). Followed in 1773 by "Ende des zweyten Theils."
Provenance — Translated from the public-domain 1773 first edition (Theil II, pp. 439–442), in normalized GS 1845 orthography, collated against the 1845 Gesammelte Schriften (Bd 8) and Hartman's 1819 reprint. The full close, abridged in GS 1845, is restored from the 1773 first edition and corroborated by Hartman 1819. All public-domain.

The Hundred-and-Fiftieth Letter.

Of the spirit-communion of believers with one another. How the soul is to behave when God has withdrawn His grace from the sensory faculties.

My dear brother in the Lord!

I have received well your and your dear wife's welcome little letter, together with the enclosure. Our communion and bond in the Spirit abides, and through the mercy of God will abide forever, to blessing and refreshment — though I, for my part, am little able to keep it up by outward signs. Everything visible and temporal, and often our very powers in the same, incline toward decay and loss. What is visible is passing; what is invisible, that is eternal, essential, great, and alone giving rest — far more than we can form for ourselves the conception of it. This is in every respect the truth, and also in the point of the member-communion: our part in it, however refreshing it may be, is subject to all sorts of changes and chances; but in so far as it is sprung from eternity and grounded in Jesus, so far is it essential and abiding forever. The nearer to the Eternal, the nearer to God and His children.

Turn in, in spirit — then God is by, And His children's inflowing nigh. Live you more scattered in your own mind, Then God and His are further behind.

So then let us, dear brother, embrace one another in the Spirit in the love of the Lord, and love one another eternally, and, as one, offer ourselves up to the Lord at His feet, through His grace.

For the rest, dear brother, I am a poor, though pardoned, man, who also seems ever to grow more useless. Even were you to make me the fullest opening of your condition, I should know nothing to say to you, unless God gave it expressly, as [He did to] Balaam's ass. The Lord is inwardly near you; give yourself over to Him childlike, He will not leave you ill-counselled or unhelped in any point: which is why I implore His mercy. Let us only follow the Lamb with bowed head, and look more upon Him than upon ourselves! In the beginning grace pours itself, through manifold workings, right into our senses, because we are coarse, in order to loose us from the coarser bonds of the world and of sin. It seems as though we had grace in our own hand, and worked with it bravely and faithfully according to our own knowing, to save our soul and grow better. And well for those who work faithfully while it is day, in prayer and dying-off, and do not — through sloth, or through busyness with side-things — squander the time and grace given us for the work, and sleep away the bright day; for there comes a night when no man can work: when grace withdraws itself from the sensory faculties, and sinks deeper into the ground whence it sprang. God takes back His own good, so to speak, which we had shamefully robbed Him of by our own self-arrogation. We learn it — and it is no jest — that we are nothing good, nor have any power to it, but rather are inclined to all evil without Him. To use earnestness at such a time in one's own strength, with unbroken head and will, and try to help oneself, does no good at all; to give oneself up won to the enemy is no use either; to lie stuck in unbelief and faintheartedness, just as little. We must only give the honour to God alone, the only Holy One, and through smallness, bowedness, childlikeness, and bare trust give ourselves over to His grace, and follow it — that is: just as it forsook our sensual, rational, coarse nature and drew itself deeper into its own being and ground, so we should do likewise: not in a coarse working way, but in a passive way, leaving our misery to be; and, so bowed small, childlike and trustingly inclined inward, remaining cleaving in the ground to the pure grace and presence of God, and learning to live by the faith of the Son of God — not having our own righteousness, but that which is through the faith of Christ; whereby we are then cleansed from our own selfhood, so deeply ingrown, and God in Christ Jesus becomes ever more our righteousness, life, peace, and All in all. Praised be His name, who has begun it; He will also carry it through. Amen!

Mülheim, the 10th of April 1739.

End of the Second Part.

❦

German

Der hundertfünfzigste Brief.

Von der Geistes-Gemeinschaft der Gläubigen unter einander. Wie sich die Seele zu betragen, wann GOtt seine Gnade denen sinnlichen Kräften entzogen.

Mein lieber Bruder in dem HErrn!

Dein und deiner lieben Frau angenehmes Brieflein habe nebst dem Eingeschlossenen wohl erhalten. Unsere Gemeinschaft und Verbindung im Geist bleibet, und wird durch die Barmherzigkeit GOttes ewig bleiben, zum Segen und Erquickung, ob ich schon meines Orts wenig im Stande bin, solche durch äußere Zeichen zu unterhalten.

— 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 — and where it stands. The last of the 150 letters of the Second Part, written 10 April 1739 to a brother and his wife who had sent Tersteegen a note with an enclosure. It gathers two themes into one: the "spirit-communion of believers with one another," and the harder question named in its title — "how the soul is to behave when God has withdrawn His grace from the sensory faculties." Fittingly for a closing letter, it ends on a doxology of God who "has begun it, and will also carry it through."

A bond grounded in eternity. The visible fellowship of Christians is precious but fragile — "subject to all sorts of changes and chances." What lasts is what is "sprung from eternity and grounded in Jesus." Hence the little rhyme: "Turn in, in spirit — then God is by, and His children's inflowing nigh." The nearer to the Eternal, the nearer to God and to one another.

The night when no man can work. Then the heart of the letter. At first grace "pours itself, through manifold workings, right into our senses," and it can feel as though we "had grace in our own hand." But "there comes a night when no man can work" — when grace "withdraws itself from the sensory faculties, and sinks deeper into the ground whence it sprang." Tersteegen's daring image: "God takes back His own good, so to speak, which we had shamefully robbed Him of by our own self-arrogation." At that hour, striving harder in one's own strength "does no good at all"; nor does surrender to the enemy, nor sinking into faintheartedness. The one thing needful is to "give the honour to God alone," and "through smallness, bowedness, childlikeness, and bare trust" to let oneself follow grace inward — "not in a coarse working way, but in a passive way" — until "God in Christ Jesus becomes ever more our righteousness, life, peace, and All in all."

A note on the text — a restored ending. The standard 19th-century edition (the 1845 Gesammelte Schriften) prints a noticeably shorter close here, breaking off after "the ground whence it sprang" with only a brief doxology. The 1773 first edition — and Hartman's 1819 reprint, independently — carry the whole passage translated above, from "God takes back His own good" down to "He will also carry it through. Amen!" This edition restores that fuller ending from the first edition.

A few words and echoes.

"What is visible is passing; what is invisible… eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:18 — "the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."
"Grounded in Jesus." 1 Corinthians 3:11 — "other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ."
"Follow the Lamb with bowed head." Revelation 14:4 — "follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth."
"Unless God gave it expressly, as to Balaam's ass." Numbers 22:28 — God opening the mouth of the ass; grace speaking through the unlikeliest instrument.
"There comes a night when no man can work." John 9:4 — "the night cometh, when no man can work."
"Not having our own righteousness, but that which is through the faith of Christ." Philippians 3:9, nearly verbatim.
"God… All in all." 1 Corinthians 15:28 — "that God may be all in all."
"He who has begun it will also carry it through." Philippians 1:6 — "he which hath begun a good work… will perform it."

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Erster Band, II. Theil, Brief 150 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-150.html.

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