Letters · Zweiter Band · Theil III (1775)

The more we seek to please God alone, the more we find Him, and all that sanctifies us, in the present now.

Bd II · Th III · Brief 21 · Der einundzwanzigste Brief

Addressee — Heinrich Sommer, Mülheim/Ruhr — a brother of the Mülheim circle; the first of the three Sommer letters of summer 1741 (274/275/276), written while Tersteegen was in Amsterdam. Salutation "In der Gnade JEsu hertzlich geliebter Bruder!" (Rule B → "dearly beloved brother!"). Intimate du → English you.
Date — Amsterdam, 21 July 1741 — print dateline "Amsterdam, den 21. Julii 1741.".
Provenance — All rendered words from public-domain prints.*

The Twenty-First Letter.

The more we seek to please God alone, the more we find Him, and all that sanctifies us, in the present now.

In the grace of Jesus, dearly beloved brother!

—— It is a great grace, and a quiet way, when we called pilgrims on earth, in everything, seek and eye nothing but only to please our inwardly-near God, and think not much further about how it goes with us in it, or how we please others. The more this simple heart's-intent becomes our Only and our All, the more we find our dying and our living — that is, our true progress — always in the present state and matter before us; and our spirit remains in joy, although nature and the soulish part often feel their distress in it. But if one gives reason room, or would gladly please oneself, instead of only heartily pleasing God, consenting and serving in that wherein one inwardly or outwardly is, then one plagues and perplexes oneself without fruit: for God, and everything that sanctifies and contents us, is to be found precisely in the present Now, and otherwise neither in heaven nor upon earth.

Ah! may the ever-loving God brighten our mind more and more, that in a truly detached, inward, simple life of the spirit we may follow His love's leading, not love our own life even unto death, and so may become partakers, even here, of the blessednesses of His most inward union! Amen. My soul asks this in weakness for you, dear brother, and for all the fellow-pilgrims there; I expect the same also from you. I greet all the dear hearts in the spirit of Jesus, as I lately named them, and those also who are not named, as occasion serves .... Jesus be with our spirit. .... Jesus bless and live in us! Amen.

Your brother.

Amsterdam, 21 July 1741.

❦

German

Der einundzwanzigste Brief.

Je mehr wir GOtt allein suchen zu vergnügen, je mehr finden wir Ihn, und alles was uns heiliget, im gegenwärtigen Nun.

In der Gnade JEsu herzlich geliebter Bruder!

—— Es ist eine große Gnade, und ein ruhiger Weg, wann wir beruffene Pilger auf Erden in allem nichts suchen noch beäugen, als nur unsern innig-nahen GOtt zu vergnügen, und weiter nicht viel daran denken, wie es uns dabei gehet, oder wie wir anderen gefallen.

— 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. The first of the letters to Heinrich Sommer, a brother of the Mülheim circle, written on 21 July 1741 — not from Mülheim, but from Amsterdam, where Tersteegen was travelling among the friends in Holland that summer. It is a short letter with a single counsel, held steadily from the first line to the last: a pilgrim's whole business is to please God alone, and God is to be found nowhere but in the present Now — "and otherwise neither in heaven nor upon earth."

The argument runs in two movements. First the quiet way: seek nothing, eye nothing, "but only to please our inwardly-near God" — and let dying and living, progress and standing, be found "in the present state and matter before us." The spirit stays in joy even while "nature and the soulish part" feel their distress. Then the counter-case: give reason room, or seek to please yourself, and you plague and perplex yourself "without fruit" — for what you were looking for was never anywhere but here. The letter closes in prayer — that we "not love our own life even unto death" — and in greetings to the circle at home; the old editor shortened the personal greetings away to rows of dots, and the surviving manuscript copy tells us what stood there: a greeting for the friends at Otterbeck, and greetings back from the brothers with him in Amsterdam.

A few words and echoes.

"to please God" / vergnügen. The letter's keyword — one and the same word for pleasing God and pleasing ourselves, and the whole letter turns on which of the two we seek (cf. Galatians 1:10; 2 Corinthians 5:9). Where the counterfeit and the true stand side by side, the print sets one God in full capitals — preserved here in the small capitals.
"the present now" / Nun. The print itself sets the word apart, in capitals in the heading and in a distinct typeface in the body — kept here in the capitals and italics. God is found today or not at all (cf. Hebrews 3:7–8, "To day if ye will hear his voice").
"the soulish part" / der seelische Theil. Tersteegen's word for the feeling, sensitive side of us, as distinct from the spirit: it may ache and complain while the spirit keeps its joy (cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18).
"not love our own life even unto death." The echo of Revelation 12:11 — "they loved not their lives unto the death."
called pilgrims. "Strangers and pilgrims on the earth" (Hebrews 11:13) — called ones, whose way is quiet because their errand is single.
"Jesus be with our spirit." The apostle's own farewell (2 Timothy 4:22), doubled at the close: "Jesus bless and live in us!"

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Zweiter Band, III. Theil, Brief 21 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdii-thiii-021.html.

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