Self-seeking makes all our pain; and in the simple intending of God is all the rest of our spirit.
The Twenty-Second Letter.
Self-seeking makes all our pain; and in the simple intending of God is all the rest of our spirit.
In the grace of Jesus, dearly beloved brother!
Your welcome letter of the 1st of this month I received yesterday in good order, and it refreshed me. God be loved and praised for His goodness and friendliness, who does us good, and until now has preserved us in outward things also! — as I, for my part, also still find myself in my usual way. True, for a couple of days I was quite wearied and weak in the head, because I unexpectedly had still to travel to N. and N., and through the constant visiting in the short time, as also through wind and unaccustomed food, had come rather out of my order; but now, God be praised! I am refreshed again, since last night I again had good rest. — —
The Lord is good; He gives us gladly our daily bread, and keeps us in His secret peace, when we but truly leave and entrust ourselves to Him, and would seek and please ourselves in nothing, but only Him and His adorable good-pleasure. This self-seeking, which creeps in so subtly and cunningly, makes all our pain: just as in the simple intending of God is all our rest, and the true freedom of our spirit. But our faithful Redeemer alone can redeem us from this abomination, since of ourselves we would not so much as recognize it: and He does so faithfully, too, where we but childlike leave ourselves to His leading, and love not our life even unto death. The law of His Spirit of love, the dispensations of His providence, and the salutary ways of suffering all aim together at this, and reach one another the hand, to redeem us out of the abominable life of selfhood, and to lead us into the pure love and fellowship of God. May His mercy most mightily continue and complete this work begun in us, to His eternal glorification in us, Amen! — —
Indeed I in no wise forget you before God; but my remembrance and prayer are frail: yet we must pray for one another, because God has a good-pleasure in it, and will not look upon our unworthiness. The weak and the suffering I forget least of all. Remember me also. I greet and kiss you in the Spirit of love, also the dear Brother H. All the other dear children, friends, etc., I ask to greet thus from me as occasion offers, as you know my heart therein, and as though I had named the name of each — which the time does not permit. .... Now I must break off, for the time is gone. I remain your and the other companions'
devoted brother.
Amsterdam, 4 August 1741.
German
Der zweiundzwanzigste Brief.
Das Selbstsuchen macht alle unsere Pein, und in dem einfältigen GOtt-Meynen ist alle Ruhe unseres Geistes.
In der Gnade JEsu herzlich geliebter Bruder!
Dein Angenehmes vom 1ten dieses, habe gestern richtig bekommen, und war mir dasselbe erquicklich. GOtt sey für seine Güte und Freundlichkeit geliebet und gelobet, der uns wohl thut, und bis dahin auch noch im Aeußerlichen erhalten 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. The second letter from Amsterdam to Heinrich Sommer in Mülheim, written on 4 August 1741, the day after Sommer's own letter of the 1st arrived. It begins as travel news — Tersteegen has been worn down by an unexpected side-journey, too many visitors, "wind and unaccustomed food" — and then, with the words "The Lord is good," it turns and gives the whole teaching of these weeks in one sentence-pair: self-seeking makes all our pain, and the simple intending of God is all our rest.
The argument turns on a single distinction: the pain is not in what happens to us but in the seeking of ourselves in it — a seeking "which creeps in so subtly and cunningly" that of ourselves we would not so much as recognize it. Only the faithful Redeemer can redeem us from it, and He does, where we leave ourselves to His leading "and love not our life even unto death." Then a single long sentence gathers everything God is doing — the law of the Spirit of His love, the dispensations of His providence, the salutary ways of suffering — and shows them all aiming at one point, reaching one another the hand, to bring us out of the life of selfhood into the pure love and fellowship of God. The close is all greetings and intercession; the old editor shortened the personal passages away to dashes, and the surviving manuscript copy tells us what stood there — among other things the names of the towns behind "N. and N.," a quiet word about guarding his freedom amid too much company, and greetings from the brothers and sisters with him in Holland.
A few words and echoes.
- self-seeking / the intending of God. The letter's two poles — Selbstsuchen and GOtt-Meynen, the heart aimed at self or aimed simply at God (cf. Philippians 2:21, "For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's").
- "The Lord is good." Nahum 1:7; Psalm 100:5. The print sets this Lord, and one God further on, in full capitals — preserved here in the small capitals.
- good-pleasure / Wohlgefallen. God's own delight and will (cf. Ephesians 1:9); the print spaces the word out for emphasis, which the italics preserve.
- "love not our life even unto death." Revelation 12:11 again — the same echo as in the letter before; in Amsterdam as in Mülheim it is Tersteegen's shorthand for the whole surrendered life.
- "the law of the Spirit." Romans 8:2 — of His Spirit "of love," as Tersteegen has it.
- "this work begun in us." Philippians 1:6 — "he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it."
- "pray for one another." James 5:16 — pressed with a homely reason: "because God has a good-pleasure in it, and will not look upon our unworthiness."
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdii-thiii-022 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.