Letters · Zweiter Band · Theil III (1775)

A testimony of joy to the same, for his recovery. That the discovery of one's faults is grace. That one must leave oneself wholly, and give oneself wholly over to God.

Bd II · Th III · Brief 27 · Der siebenundzwanzigste Brief

Addressee — Johann Schmitz, Solingen — "an denselben": the sick brother of Brief 26, one week later, now mending; his wife Anna Margaretha Schmitz still ill. Salutation "Lieber Bruder!" (plain — no herzlich, Rule B n/a). Intimate du → English you.
Date — Mülheim, 22 March 1742 — print dateline "Mülheim, den 22. Mart. 1742." + the print's own "In Eil.".
Provenance — All rendered words from public-domain prints.*

The Twenty-Seventh Letter.

A testimony of joy to the same, for his recovery. That the discovery of one's faults is grace. That one must leave oneself wholly, and give oneself wholly over to God.

Dear brother!

With much thankfulness toward the goodness of God I learn of your recovery so far; for though I trust, yes, know assuredly, that the poorest children and most wretched sinners, if they die in refuge to the great grace in Jesus, may venture it with good courage: yet I must confess that I would gladly see you and myself more sanctified before we went into that world. Now the Lord be praised, who seems to grant us yet time for it! Of His grace needful thereto we are not to doubt in the least.

I trust our good Master will have taught you something more in the school of sickness. And if He has shown you your many faults — why! do not grow faint-hearted over it, but recognize such a thing as great grace, and remain like a child unturned at His feet until you are bettered; for in Him everything must be sought and found. And if He uses someone else besides, as an under-master, to disclose our faults to us or to help us forward — oh! that too we are to recognize with tears of joy as grace, and receive it as from the Master Himself. Whoever knows himself well gives himself wholly over into God, and forsakes himself wholly, and so he will find thorough help. Whoever knows himself only by halves gives himself also only by halves over to God, and is nowhere quieted nor bettered.

Now I greet and kiss you in the Spirit, and ask God that He would make you so detached from all the life of the senses, and so single in the rational part, and in one word so true a heart's-child, with me, that He may henceforth find His full joy and rest in us! Amen, Jesus! I wish your wife also the inward nearness of Jesus, in which she has enough: if it is His will, I hope shortly to have news of her recovery too. Since I am myself weak, and have no time, I must break off. Am

Your devoted brother. In haste.

Mülheim, 22 March 1742.

❦

German

Der siebenundzwanzigste Brief.

Freuden-Bezeugung an denselben für seine Besserung. Die Entdeckung der Fehler seye Gnade. Daß man sich ganz verlassen und ganz an GOtt übergeben müsse.

Lieber Bruder!

Mit vieler Erkänntlichkeit gegen die Güte GOttes vernehme ich deine bisherige Besserung; dann ob ich wohl vertraue, ja gewiß weiß, daß die ärmste Kinder und elendeste Sünder, wann sie in der Zuflucht zu der großen Gnade in JEsu sterben, es getrost wagen können: So muß ich doch gestehen …

— 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 week after the sickbed letter, the news is good: the brother is mending. This is the convalescent's letter — and its first movement is a small masterpiece of honesty. Tersteegen is glad, but he will not pretend the danger was the dying: the poorest sinner who dies "in refuge to the great grace in Jesus" may venture death with good courage; what he wishes is more time — "I would gladly see you and myself more sanctified before we went into that world."

The recovered man is told to look back at his illness as tuition: "our good Master will have taught you something more in the school of sickness." Even the faults it exposed are part of the lesson — "the discovery of one's faults is grace," says the heading — and if the teaching came through some human helper, an "under-master," that too is to be received "as from the Master Himself." Then the letter's kernel, one of the sharpest sentences in these pages: whoever knows himself well gives himself wholly over into God; whoever knows himself only by halves gives himself only by halves — "and is nowhere quieted nor bettered."

A few words and echoes.

"I greet and kiss you in the Spirit." Romans 16:16 — "Salute one another with an holy kiss"; the print spaces the first verb out for emphasis, which the italic preserves.
our good Master … an under-master. Matthew 23:8–10 — "one is your Master, even Christ"; every human helper teaches on his behalf.
the school of sickness. Hebrews 12:10–11 — chastening as schooling, "that we might be partakers of his holiness."
tears of joy. The right response to correction — grace recognized, not judgment feared.
"Amen, Jesus!" The one name the print sets in full capitals — kept in the small capitals.
In haste. The print itself closes "In Eil." — a rare glimpse of the letter-writer's crowded day; his own weakness ("since I am myself weak") is the same he confessed to the sick man's family all that winter.

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Zweiter Band, III. Theil, Brief 27 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdii-thiii-027.html.

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