Letters · Zweiter Band · Theil III (1775)

An encouragement to a sick woman, to lay her spirit in the faithful hands of Jesus, and as a sinner to await her salvation.

Bd II · Th III · Brief 24 · Der vierundzwanzigste Brief

Addressee — Anna Maria Elisabeth Schmitz — an unmarried sister of the circle ("eine ganz GOtt geheiligte Jungfrau"); her brother, is Johann Peter Schmitz (ca. 1713–1749) — most likely the "junge br. Schmitz u. schwester" whose arrival in Amsterdam the Brief-22 Abschrift greets. Salutation "In der Gnade unsers theuresten Heylandes JEsu, hertzlich geliebte Schwester!" (Rule B → "dearly beloved sister!"). Intimate du → English you.
Date — Mülheim, 1 November 1741 — print dateline "Mülheim, den 1. Nov. 1741.".
Provenance — All rendered words from public-domain prints.*

The Twenty-Fourth Letter.

An encouragement to a sick woman, to lay her spirit in the faithful hands of Jesus, and as a sinner to await her salvation.

In the grace of our most precious Saviour Jesus, dearly beloved sister!

Both from Brother N. and from your brother's letter I have seen that the good hand of our God has laid you low also. You may be assured that from that moment I have taken your soul up in brotherly compassion, and offered it up at the feet of our Saviour and High Priest, and offer it still. Only adore the divine and good hand that visits you; for it chastens not in wrath, but for your profit, to make you a partaker of His sanctification. Submit yourself then to this hand of love, and let whatever the Lord does with you please you well; for He will choose the best for you. Let this eternal Love simply work, be it unto life or unto death: desire neither the one nor the other, but only His grace — and, in His grace, to leave yourself to Him as a whole offering for time and eternity. And if you cannot do this in an active manner and with lengthy deliberation, then do it merely with your will and in a suffering manner, and let yourself fall thus, bare and without any stay in yourself, into the hands of His infinite Goodness. This Goodness will reveal itself to you in the measure that you let yourself wholly go, and entrust yourself to God alone.

I know that God requires this whole offering of you, and that through this sickness too He is only seeking it, and would further it in you. Only venture yourself with good courage, and lose yourself, and you shall get air, and shall not die eternally. Enter into no deliberations about yourself, about your sins or unworthinesses: if the thoughts would fall upon them and disquiet you, then simply confess everything from the heart; give yourself the blame throughout; bow yourself down right low, and ever lower, till you have nothing at all left over; and say withal only childlike to Jesus: Lord! that is not what I seek; I will not go to law with Thee. This I know well, that I am a sinner, and that Thou art right; but I seek no right — grace I seek, and Thou wilt not refuse it me, for Thou hast died for me. I belong to Thee, for Thou hast bought and called me; therefore my heart is Thine, and shall remain so in eternity. I give my heart and my salvation over into Thy hand; do with me as Thou wilt! I will nevertheless nothing but Thee; Thee will I love and adore, and both in living and in dying confess that Thou alone art my Saviour and my treasure. Amen, Jesus! Into Thy faithful hand I lay down my spirit, Amen!

In this manner, dear sister! only lose yourself in the Lord, and entrust yourself wholly to Him, without once willingly looking round at yourself — above all, should it come with you to the passage into eternity. He loves you infinitely more than you can love yourself: only trust Him for that with childlike trust, even when you do not so feel it. Whoever holds to the heart of His love, that one He can never, never turn away. If you recover, then you shall become a virgin wholly hallowed to God: but if you die, then you shall await salvation as a sinner, and praise the blood of Jesus for it eternally, Amen!

Now, beloved sister! Jesus be with your spirit! May He strengthen, quicken and bless you, and work in you all His good-pleasure, that you alone in Him, and He in you, may find joy, peace and contentment, to the glorification of His name, Amen! All the known children here greet you, and remember you in their prayers: I do the same in weakness, and remain

Your faithfully-minded brother in the Lord.

Mülheim, 1 November 1741.

❦

German

Der vierundzwanzigste Brief.

Aufmunterung an eine Kranke, um ihren Geist in die treue Hände JEsu zu legen, und als eine Sünderin ihre Seligkeit zu erwarten.

In der Gnade unsers theuresten Heilandes JEsu, herzlich geliebte Schwester!

Sowohl von dem Bruder N. als auch aus deines Bruders Brief habe gesehen, daß die gute Hand unsers GOttes dich auch darnieder geleget 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 to a second sick young woman, three weeks after the letter to Gertrud Lütges — Anna Maria Elisabeth Schmitz, an unmarried sister of the circle, whose brother had sent word of her illness. (It is very likely the same brother and sister whose safe arrival in Amsterdam Tersteegen's August letter had greeted.) The counsel is the counsel of the letter before, carried one step further: not only submit — make the sickness itself an offering, "a whole offering for time and eternity." And the one word the print sets in full capitals stands just there: let whatever the Lord does with you please you well — preserved in the small capitals.

The letter's heart is a page unlike anything else in these letters: after telling her to confess everything, take all the blame, and bow "ever lower, till you have nothing at all left over," Tersteegen composes the prayer itself and lays it in her mouth — and the old printer set the whole prayer apart in its own typeface, which the italics preserve. It is the naked-sinner theology of these letters spoken in the first person: "I seek no right — grace I seek… I belong to Thee, for Thou hast bought and called me… Into Thy faithful hand I lay down my spirit, Amen!" A woman who may be dying is given words that end in the words of the dying Christ. And the letter refuses to promise recovery, and refuses to dramatize death: "desire neither the one nor the other." If she recovers, she is to be "a virgin wholly hallowed to God"; if she dies, she is to "await salvation as a sinner." Either way the ground is the same, and the letter's tenderest sentence stands printed with its two verbs set apart: He loves you infinitely more than you can love yourself.

A few words and echoes.

the whole offering. Romans 12:1 — the living sacrifice, here made from a sickbed, "for time and eternity."
the active and the suffering manner. Tersteegen's standing pair (thätlich / leidentlich) — what we cannot do by doing, we may still do by willing and undergoing; the sick need only the second.
"I will not go to law with Thee." Job 9:3 and Psalm 143:2 — "enter not into judgment with thy servant" — turned from a plea into a settled refusal to plead anything but grace.
bought and called. 1 Corinthians 6:20 — "ye are bought with a price."
"Into Thy faithful hand I lay down my spirit." Psalm 31:5 and Luke 23:46 — the prayer ends where the Lord's own dying prayer ends.
"that one He can never, never turn away." John 6:37 — "him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."
chastened for your profit. Hebrews 12:10 — the same verse that carried the letter to Gertrud Lütges.
"Jesus be with your spirit." 2 Timothy 4:22 — the farewell of this whole autumn of letters.

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Zweiter Band, III. Theil, Brief 24 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdii-thiii-024.html.

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