The longing to be wholly for God must be wrought out, not by our own working, but by the life of Jesus in us.
The Second Letter.
The longing to be wholly for God must be wrought out, not by our own working, but by the life of Jesus in us.
In the Lord Jesus dearly beloved brother!
Your earnest longing henceforth to lead a new life, purely and only before God, is certainly laid into you by God; and your insight, that this can and must be accomplished only through Jesus living in you, agrees entirely with my own. It is, then, the work of Jesus, and not your own. So much so, that your earnest longing (if it is not to remain mere longing) must not go forth in vehemence, but withdraw itself unnoticed from the senses, and incline itself, with serene resignedness, into the ground out of which it arises — and leave the performing to Him who has given the willing. You understand me: this must not happen merely once for all, as though one might then go on again in willing distraction. No! if Jesus is to live in us, we must cease to live. We must leave our nature, our sensuality, and our reason no life any more; must moderate their workings too, and work with them in dependence upon grace, when work we must. Thus we make room for Jesus and His life in us; but to awaken Jesus and His life in us ourselves — that is in no wise our doing. Our longing after it sinks itself, as said, with love, joy, and trust, inwards. This simple, quiet inclining and cleaving one keeps up through the day as well; one lets oneself be made, by the love-leading of Jesus, right gentle, detached, single, and purely God-intending; and, without forming any image of it beforehand, one waits then in inward passivity for the full revelation and spreading-forth of Jesus and of His life in us — in just the posture in which the disciples of Jesus sat in the upper room and awaited the feast of Pentecost; and one seeks, in general, to do ever less oneself, and to leave ever more room to the workings of Jesus. For the rest, be childlike, peaceable, and open of heart. Every strict and narrow set of your mind hinders. On the whole you may well be inclined to have fewer distractions, and more solitude for prayer. But otherwise begin nothing much that is new in your exercises just now. In the ground, the renewal must come from the Lord. This with a running pen. Remember me, as I remember you!
Mülheim, the 13th of May 1739.
German
Der zweite Brief.
Das Verlangen, ganz für GOtt zu seyn, muß nicht durch eigenes Wirken, sondern durch das Leben JEsu in uns ausgewirket werden.
In dem HErrn JEsu herzlich geliebter Bruder!
Dein sehnliches Verlangen, künftighin ein neues Leben lauter und allein vor GOtt zu führen, ist gewiß von GOtt in dich gelegt: Und deine Einsicht, daß solches allein durch JEsum lebende in dir müsse und könne vollbracht werden, kommt auch gänzlich mit der meinigen überein.
— 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. Three weeks after the sickbed letter, Tersteegen writes to the same friend — who has evidently risen from it with a resolve: to lead, from now on, "a new life, purely and only before God." The letter is glad of the resolve and gently takes it out of the friend's hands. The longing itself is God's gift; its fulfillment cannot be seized: "It is the work of Jesus, and not your own."
The counsel turns on one image. Real longing, he says, must not "go forth in vehemence" — it must sink: withdraw from the senses, incline "with serene resignedness into the ground out of which it arises," and "leave the performing to Him who has given the willing." The old print set those two words in a different typeface, so the reader would catch the scripture underneath (Philippians 2:13). And the letter's hardest sentence stands in the middle of its gentlest counsel: "if Jesus is to live in us, we must cease to live." For the waiting itself Tersteegen gives one picture: the disciples in the upper room before Pentecost — not working, not straining, sitting together in expectation until the life came from above. So the friend is told to keep the day's quiet "inclining and cleaving," to form no image in advance, to begin nothing new — "in the ground, the renewal must come from the Lord." It ends at speed, warmly: "This with a running pen. Remember me, as I remember you!"
A few words and echoes.
- The willing and the performing. Philippians 2:13 — "it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" — the letter's keystone, emphasized in the original printing.
- Jesus living in you. Galatians 2:20 — "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."
- The upper room. Acts 1:13–14 and 2:1 — the disciples waiting "with one accord" for the Spirit; Tersteegen's standing picture of expectant passivity.
- The ground. His word for the soul's deepest place, beneath sense and reason, where longing rises and where renewal must be given.
- With a running pen. His own closing note — dashed off quickly; the counsel is unstudied, and the friendship warm.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdii-thiii-002 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.