To a pregnant friend, how she must look upon her present and future sufferings.
The Ninth Letter.
To a pregnant friend, how she must look upon her present and future sufferings.
In the grace of Jesus beloved sister!
I think of you in my weakness before the Lord, and in your present circumstances too. Do look upon your present and future sufferings in childlike faith. All our sufferings — and especially such pains — are indeed bitter fruits of sin: but since we have given ourselves up to Him who, out of love to us, was born of a woman and died on the cross, all our sufferings are also wholesome and good. We are to receive them all not so much as fruits of sin, but as cords of love, and as tokens from the hand of our God and Saviour. Think then: These my pains also come from my good God; He gives them, He makes them with His hand. I do not say too much: precisely this stands written of these pains, plainly, in the Scripture — Genesis 3:16.
Well then: take the wholesome cup from so good a hand, with submission of your inward will! He who gives it is near, to strengthen and to help out; but near also to look on, whether you also willingly desire to accept it. I beg you in the name of Jesus, beloved sister: do not remain hanging and staring too much and too long upon your unworthiness and miseries! Were they even but half so great, you still could not finish the reckoning. Give God the glory, and sink, and commit yourself, upon pure grace, into and unto Jesus, who is certainly near you, though it seem dark and go through suffering. In both the bodily and the spiritual birth the pains are forerunners of the joy that follows: Jesus says both in one breath — John 16:21. That He may bless you mightily out of His sanctuary, and let you experience all aid and help in the need, and make you daily stronger in faith and in love — this is the wish of
Your weak fellow-brother.
Mülheim, the 2nd of March 1740.
German
Der neunte Brief.
An eine schwangere Freundin, wie sie ihre jetzige und künftige Leiden ansehen müsse.
In der Gnade JEsu geliebte Schwester!
Ich gedenke ihrer in meiner Schwachheit vor dem HErrn, auch bei ihren jetzigen Umständen. Sehe sie doch ihre jetzige und künftige Leiden im kindlichen Glauben an.
— 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 pastoral letter to a friend far on in pregnancy and afraid — afraid of the pains now, and of the labor to come. Tersteegen does not talk the fear away. He re-frames the pain itself: yes, such pains are "bitter fruits of sin" — the letter dares to cite Genesis 3:16, the very verse of the curse — but for one who belongs to Him who "was born of a woman and died on the cross," everything the curse sends arrives re-addressed: "not so much as fruits of sin, but as cords of love, and as tokens from the hand of our God and Saviour." At the letter's center the old print changes type, setting the meditation it wants her to make her own in emphasized letters: "These my pains also come from my good God; He gives them, He makes them with His hand." The printer's emphasis is the letter's whole art: the words are given her ready to repeat, until the hand behind the pain is more real than the pain.
So comes the counsel: "take the wholesome cup from so good a hand, with submission of your inward will" — and He who gives it "is near, to strengthen and to help out; but near also to look on, whether you also willingly desire to accept it." One caution follows, tender and shrewd: no staring at her own unworthiness — "were they even but half so great, you still could not finish the reckoning." The arithmetic of self-condemnation never comes out; give God the glory, and sink upon pure grace. The close belongs to John 16:21 — the woman in travail whose "sorrow shall be turned into joy" — which Tersteegen reads doubly: "In both the bodily and the spiritual birth the pains are forerunners of the joy that follows: Jesus says both in one breath." Her labor and her soul's labor are one figure; the blessing he wishes her is "out of His sanctuary" — the psalm-word his own best-known hymn begins from.
A few words and echoes.
- Born of a woman. Galatians 4:4 — "God sent forth his Son, made of a woman" — the ground on which even the curse's pains turn to love-tokens.
- Cords of love. Hosea 11:4 — "I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love."
- Genesis 3:16. "in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children" — cited by the letter itself; the curse read, in Christ, as a hand.
- The cup. Matthew 26:39, 42 — the willing acceptance of what the Father hands.
- John 16:21. "A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow… but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy."
- Out of His sanctuary. Psalm 20:2 — "The Lord… send thee help from the sanctuary" — the verse behind Tersteegen's hymn "Brunn alles Heils" ("Fountain of all salvation, we honor Thee").
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdii-thiii-009 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.