Of God's kind leading and motherly care over His children.
The Tenth Letter.
Of God's kind leading and motherly care over His children.
In the Lord dearly beloved sister!
It was right pleasant to me to receive for once a greeting from your hand — one which, in the past winter, I could hardly have read, to say nothing of answering it, at least not often; although our fellowship in the spirit remains for all that, as ever, unmoved in Him who has founded it, and who is himself its ground.
My spirit adores the infinite goodness of God, which leads me by so many ways, strange to reason, whither He will have me. The little outward sufferings are seen; but the true secret of the divine wisdom beneath them is carried out, little by little, in the hidden, and is disclosed in the spirit, at His own time, so far as it pleases Him. God has at all times helped me more through my inability than through my ability; for our resistances are unbelievably many and deep: He alone can, and He will, uncover and break them by himself, where we entrust ourselves to Him childlike; for truly, He is near us — not only according to His general presence, in which He is near even to all irrational creatures: but in the lovely name Jesus-Immanuel this most blessed Good is nearer to our spirit than we are to ourselves; and that as a loving Friend — to save us, to cleanse us, to dwell in us as in His kingdom, and at last to lead us, out of ourselves and out of everything, to His most blessed union, by ways known to Him. And all this by himself, and for His own sake, that no creature may boast before His face. Oh, how one curses one's blindness, one's mistrust, one's well-meant resistances and manifold evasions, when one comes to experience livingly the high and faithful purposes of this infinite Goodness with oneself and over oneself! One can do no other than turn the eyes away from oneself, henceforth simply to entrust oneself to Him, and to love Him alone, who loves us for nothing, and cares more than motherly for those who are given up to Him.
So then let us walk before His face in childlike simplicity of heart, forsaking and forgetting ourselves and all that is created, only to love this most love-worthy Good, to look upon Him, and to give Him room to work and to live in our hearts according to His good pleasure. Glory be to His mercy in eternity, Amen!
I greet and kiss in the spirit of love your husband and you, dear sister, and all the other dear hearts from whom you have greeted me, whom for time's sake I do not name: Jesus knows their names; may He glorify himself in them all, and in us ever more. In His love I remain
Your bound weak brother.
Mülheim, the 15th of June 1740.
German
Der zehnte Brief.
Von GOttes gütigen Führung und mütterlichen Vorsorge über seine Kinder.
In dem HErrn herzlich geliebte Schwester!
Es ist mir ja recht angenehm gewesen, daß einmal einen Gruß von deiner Hand empfangen habe, den ich im verwichenen Winter kaum würde haben lesen, will geschweigen beantworten können, wenigstens oftmals; obwohl unsere Gemeinschaft im Geist ohnedem, nach wie vor, unverrückt bleibet in dem, der sie gegründet hat …
— 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 letter of thanks for a greeting that arrived in a hard winter — one Tersteegen "could hardly have read, to say nothing of answering." Out of that small apology grows the letter's whole theme, announced in the argument-line: God's kind leading and motherly care. The sickness itself becomes the first exhibit: "God has at all times helped me more through my inability than through my ability." The letter's doctrine of providence is contemplative, not explanatory: "My spirit adores the infinite goodness of God, which leads me by so many ways, strange to reason, whither He will have me." The little outward sufferings are what can be seen; "the true secret of the divine wisdom beneath them" is worked out in the hidden and disclosed at His own time. Nothing is solved; everything is adored.
At the center stands one of the great sentences of these letters: God is near "not only according to His general presence, in which He is near even to all irrational creatures: but in the lovely name Jesus-Immanuel this most blessed Good is nearer to our spirit than we are to ourselves." And near as what? "As a loving Friend — to save us, to cleanse us, to dwell in us as in His kingdom, and at last to lead us… to His most blessed union." When one experiences these "high and faithful purposes" livingly, one curses one's own mistrust and its "well-meant resistances" — and can do no other than look away from oneself to Him "who loves us for nothing, and cares more than motherly for those who are given up to Him." The close turns doctrine into a resolve — "let us walk before His face in childlike simplicity of heart" — and ends in the warm domestic manner of these circles: greetings to her husband and "all the other dear hearts," unnamed for lack of time, with the loveliest of anonymities: "Jesus knows their names."
A few words and echoes.
- In the Lord. The old print sets the divine name of the salutation in full capitals — kept here in small capitals, as elsewhere in this edition.
- Immanuel. Matthew 1:23 — "they shall call his name Emmanuel… God with us" — fused by Tersteegen into one name: Jesus-Immanuel.
- Nearer than we are to ourselves. The old mystical commonplace (Augustine's interior intimo meo) in Tersteegen's German.
- That no creature may boast. 1 Corinthians 1:29 — "that no flesh should glory in his presence."
- Walk before His face. Psalm 89:15–16 and Genesis 17:1 — "walk before me, and be thou perfect."
- More than motherly. Isaiah 49:15 — "Can a woman forget her sucking child?… yet will I not forget thee" — the argument-line's "motherly care."
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdii-thiii-010 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.