To a sister; that she thinks too much on herself, and too little on God.
The Fourth Letter.
To a sister; that she thinks too much on herself, and too little on God.
In the grace of Jesus dearly beloved sister!
Hereby I would greet you heartily, and give you assurance of my continuing fellowship in the spirit.
Ah! beloved sister, what a God is not our God! So good, so great, so all-sufficing, love itself, and therefore also infinitely worthy of love — and one who draws so near to wretched children of men. When I receive a little letter from you, you complain in it much about yourself; but of the good and great God to whom we belong you write too little, and on Him you think too little. But what is that to the purpose? By that we are not made better. All remembrance of ourselves, and of created things, must end in a love-full, childlike remembrance of God, who is our salvation. He who keeps his wounds long before his eyes, and does not think of the Physician, must himself be either an artist or a heedless man. Not so we. We are full of miseries and wounds, and full of weaknesses too, to counsel or to help ourselves; that we will heartily confess: but our miseries, our very wounds, shall remind us in the same instant of our perfect Physician, who helps so gladly, who is so near — yes, so inwardly near — in the sweet name of Jesus.
Come then, beloved sister; forget with me yourself and all that is created: nothing is worthy of our remembrance and of our love but God alone. Nothing betters, nothing contents our heart, but this eternally abiding Good. He looks upon us; He thinks on us with love without ceasing, and desires of us that we should look childlike upon Him, and think on Him with love. Let this, then, be our business in all business, in all burdens, in all miseries: away from everything, to look on God alone, and to love Him who alone is worthy of love, and who has so loved us. That He may wholly take possession of your heart is the heartfelt wish of
Your weak fellow-brother.
Mülheim, the 10th of June 1739.
German
Der vierte Brief.
An eine Schwester; daß sie zu viel an sich, und zu wenig an GOtt denke.
In der Gnade JEsu herzlich geliebte Schwester!
Hierdurch wollte ich euch herzlich grüßen, und von meiner fortdaurenden Gemeinschaft im Geiste Versicherung geben. Ach! geliebte Schwester, welch ein GOtt ist nicht unser GOtt!
— 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 letter of gentle reproof to a sister whose letters Tersteegen has been receiving — full, evidently, of complaints about herself. The old printer's argument-line states the diagnosis without ceremony: that she thinks too much on herself, and too little on God. The whole letter is the cure for that one disproportion.
He puts the imbalance to her directly: "When I receive a little letter from you, you complain in it much about yourself; but of the good and great God to whom we belong you write too little." The reproof is not that she sees her miseries wrongly — Tersteegen concedes them entirely ("we are full of miseries and wounds") — but that she stares at them: "He who keeps his wounds long before his eyes, and does not think of the Physician, must himself be either an artist or a heedless man." An artist here is one who can heal himself by his own skill; since we are no such thing, our wounds themselves should send us "in the same instant" to the perfect Physician. The counsel is the same medicine he had given his friend the week before (the third letter): self-inspection heals nothing; the look must go elsewhere. The letter turns on the old devotional word Andenken — remembrance, the heart's habitual thinking-on. All remembrance of ourselves and of created things "must end in a love-full, childlike remembrance of God, who is our salvation." And this is not a duty imposed from without but a response: "He looks upon us; He thinks on us with love without ceasing, and desires of us that we should look childlike upon Him, and think on Him with love." Our remembering answers His. The close gathers it into a rule for the whole of life: "Let this, then, be our business in all business, in all burdens, in all miseries: away from everything, to look on God alone." He signs himself, as often to the sisters, simply "Your weak fellow-brother."
A few words and echoes.
- What a God is not our God! The German exclamation uses an intensifying "not" — the sense is "what a God our God is!"; the old idiom is kept in the rendering.
- All-sufficing. Allvergnügend — the God who contents, satisfies, suffices for everything; the same word-family as "nothing contents our heart."
- The Physician. Matthew 9:12 — "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick" — the standing figure for Christ the healer; here it is the wounds themselves that are to remind us of Him.
- Who has so loved us. 1 John 4:19 — "We love him, because he first loved us" — the letter's ground for loving "Him who alone is worthy of love."
- Without ceasing. The letter gives God the attribute first — He thinks on us "with love without ceasing" — before asking any unceasing remembrance from us.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdii-thiii-004 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.