To a friend; to encourage him to offer up his sick sister to the Lord, like Abraham his Isaac.
The Thirty-Fifth Letter.
To a friend; to encourage him to offer up his sick sister to the Lord, like Abraham his Isaac.
Dearly beloved brother!
Though I have nothing in particular to write, and my weakness can bear little, still I must report by these lines that I have received your letter of the 28th of December, and also the one from Brother P. of the 31st, the same. From both I see the very weak condition of your dear sister. I have shared it here with the other friends as well, and we do not fail to commend her — in weakness, yet with heartfelt love — to our most gracious Saviour, and to ask for her what we ought to ask for ourselves, that it might be prayed for us in such circumstances. Because we love her, her departure would not leave us unfeeling, should it please God to take her to Himself; and we would thank Him for it, if instead He would grant us her company on the pilgrim-way a while longer. But because we love her in God, we can also lay her down into His hand without grief or disturbance — knowing that this is her blessedness, to be there — and that we do not lose her even through so-called death, but can keep and love her forever in God. If it be God's will that she come not again to me at Mülheim, then I trust to come to her, before long, at Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, it does not surprise me at all that it gives you so much to bear, when the illness looks so dangerous. I know that you and your brothers and sisters would lose no little thing at her passing, and I can therefore enter fully into such weakness of yours, and have compassion with you. But you know well enough that this is natural, and must be made subject to grace. If, then, the flesh is weak, still let the spirit be willing — to give itself up into everything, and to let go of everything that the Lord should ask of you. Is your dear sister the Isaac? Then show yourself a child of Abraham, and offer her up, with good courage, to the God to whom she belongs. Give up from your heart what the Lord would have; and if you cannot give it from the heart as you would wish, then at least give Him the freedom to take it, so that your heart may only become free — free to be wholly for Him who has called you with so precious a call. Think not of your ability or inability. "The Lord will provide" is Abraham's word, with which one can move great mountains of unbelief. She, the sick one, is and remains nonetheless in the hand of Him who has life and death at His command. But you must not set your rest and your hope on her getting better, or you will not find the true freedom of the spirit. Of you the sacrifice is required — so that you may thereafter possess her with detachment, or else let her go with peace, according as it pleases God. This lesson is not too hard for you; I see for myself that the dear Saviour is setting you this lesson just now, and so I wanted to explain it to you a little, and to be a help to you in the learning.
Only take heart, dear brother, in God, who is indeed better to you than ten sisters, and can more than abundantly replace for you, in Himself, whatever you might seem to lose in her and in all created things. Strengthen your soul by a quiet, frequent looking-up to God, by peaceable patience with yourself, and by sweet union with God's will — as that whereby you will soonest grow gentle and serene under every trial. I must close, for I am weak and hindered. I greet you in the spirit heartily, together with all the household, and especially the dear sick sister; I lay her into Jesus' hand and good pleasure from my heart — may He bless her, and accomplish His perfect will in her! May He let all the fruits of His sufferings come to her good, and become to her, in time and eternity, all that He is to His own. Amen.
Your devoted brother.
Mülheim, 3 January 1743.
German
Der fünfunddreißigste Brief.
An einen Freund; um ihn aufzumunteren, seine kranke Schwester dem HErrn aufzuopfern, gleich Abraham seinen Isaac.
Herzlich geliebter Bruder!
Ob ich wohl nichts ins besonder zu schreiben habe, auch meine Schwachheit wenig leiden kann; so muß doch hierdurch berichten, daß deinen Brief vom 28ten December erhalten habe, wie auch den vom Bruder P. vom 31ten dito.
— 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 consolation, written on the third day of 1743 to a close friend at Solingen whose sister was gravely — perhaps mortally — ill. Tersteegen had received two letters about her over the turn of the year, and he answers not with reassurance that she will recover, but with something harder and steadier: he asks his friend to give her back to God. The whole letter is built on a single figure from Genesis — Abraham led up the mountain to offer his son — and it turns the sickbed into Mount Moriah. "Is your dear sister the Isaac?" is the hinge of it: to love her rightly is not to clutch her but to offer her up — "show yourself a child of Abraham, and offer her up, with good courage, to the God to whom she belongs." Tersteegen is careful and tender about how hard this is — "if you cannot give it from the heart as you would wish, then at least give Him the freedom to take it" — and he distinguishes the two freedoms at stake: not to fix one's "rest and hope on her getting better," but to reach "the true freedom of the spirit," which can "possess her with detachment, or else let her go with peace." The demand is severe, but the ground under it is Abraham's confidence: "The Lord will provide" (Genesis 22:8) — the word, Tersteegen says, "with which one can move great mountains of unbelief."
He does not scold the natural grief; he expects it. "I know that you and your brothers and sisters would lose no little thing at her passing" — and then, gently, the counsel of Gethsemane: "if the flesh is weak, still let the spirit be willing." The natural love is not the enemy; it is only to be "made subject to grace." God, he adds, "is better to you than ten sisters" — an echo of the words spoken to another grieving family in Scripture — and can replace in Himself all that seems lost. The most moving line, though, is also the quietest. If it is God's will that the sister not return to him at Mülheim, then — he writes — "I trust to come to her, before long, at Jerusalem." He does not mean he will travel to her. He means the heavenly Jerusalem: he expects that he, too, will die before long, and be reunited with her there. It is said without alarm, almost in passing, the way these letters speak of death as a homecoming.
A few words and echoes.
- offer her up… a child of Abraham… "The Lord will provide." Genesis 22 — the offering of Isaac (vv. 1–13), and Abraham's word at v. 8/14, "God will provide himself a lamb" (Jehovah-jireh). Cf. Hebrews 11:17–19, where Abraham offered Isaac "accounting that God was able to raise him up."
- if the flesh is weak, let the spirit be willing. Matthew 26:41 — "the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Gethsemane).
- move great mountains of unbelief. 1 Corinthians 13:2 — "though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains" (cf. Matthew 17:20).
- called you with so precious a call. 2 Timothy 1:9 — "who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling."
- better to you than ten sisters. 1 Samuel 1:8 — "am not I better to thee than ten sons?" (Elkanah to the grieving Hannah).
- to come to her… at Jerusalem. Hebrews 12:22 / Revelation 21:2 — the heavenly Jerusalem.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdii-thiii-035 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.