Letters · Zweiter Band · Theil III (1775)

Not to let ourselves be kept, by a show of humility, from interceding for one another.

Bd II · Th III · Brief 54 · Der vierundfünfzigste Brief

Addressee — To Heinrich Sommer — a member of Tersteegen's circle; the letter is written from Amsterdam (die Fremde) to Sommer and the brethren back home, and turns on the duty of mutual intercession. Written in the intimate du, with the wider circle addressed as euch / ihr (English you). Salutation In der Gnade unsers theuren Heylandes hertzlich geliebter Bruder! → "In the grace of our precious Savior, dearly beloved brother!" (Rule B); subscription Dein und Euer aller verbundener Bruder.
Date — Amsterdam, 13 July 1744 — the print dateline reads Amsterdam, den 13. Julii 1744.
Provenance — *Translated from the public-domain 1775 first edition (Theil III, pp. 158–160), in normalized GS-1845 house orthography. All rendered words are from public-domain prints.

The Fifty-Fourth Letter.

Not to let ourselves be kept, by a show of humility, from interceding for one another.

In the grace of our precious Savior, dearly beloved brother!

—— God be praised, and loved by us most inwardly, for all the mercies and graces He has shown us — among which the dear cross also belongs.

I am glad that it still goes with you there as it goes; for that some are visited with sufferings and illnesses is also from the Father's hand, and therefore to be loved — though otherwise I have a true brotherly compassion with such. And just as you all remain near to me, here too in the foreign land, so I do not forget, above all, to offer up the suffering ones to the Savior in my poor prayer. But do not you forget me either! We are bound to pray for one another. There is at times a show of humility that deceives us, so that we neglect this duty, to our own harm. In many other matters, too, one often lets oneself be held back from the good by unbelief and faint-heartedness, and made still weaker than one is. It is true, and more true than we are able to believe, that we are wretched, weak, and a pure nothing; we must therefore count ourselves, and all that we do, as nothing, and wish to be counted as nothing. But our good God seeks and loves us in Christ infinitely, and for His own sake; He will Himself, too, lay and work all good in us: therefore we should set our whole trust upon His grace, sink down with our weakness into His grace, and with Him do all the good that we know to be pleasing to Him. Only much drawn near to Him in prayer! A weak one who holds fast to the Strong One is in no danger, but is helped through. May the Lord hold us Himself — then we too shall not let Him go! —— Jesus be with us and in us, Amen!

Your, and all of yours', bound brother.

Amsterdam, the 13th of July 1744.

❦

German

Der vierundfünfzigste Brief.

Sich nicht durch einen Schein der Demuth von der Fürbitte für einander abhalten zu lassen.

In der Gnade unsers theuren Heilandes herzlich geliebter Bruder!

—— GOtt sey gelobet und werde von uns innigst geliebet vor alle seine uns erwiesene Barmherzigkeiten und Gnaden, worunter das liebe Kreuz mit gehöret.

— 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. Written from Amsterdam in July 1744, while Tersteegen was on his long journey through the Netherlands, to Heinrich Sommer and the brethren at home. Its single theme is intercession — and, more precisely, a subtle thing that keeps us from it. There is, he says, "a show of humility that deceives us" into neglecting to pray for one another: who am I to pray for anyone? Tersteegen names that as a trick, and refuses it. The affection is mutual and unembarrassed. From the foreign land he keeps the suffering ones especially in his "poor prayer" — and then, disarmingly, asks the same of them: "But do not you forget me either! We are bound to pray for one another." The false humility he has in mind is the kind that sounds pious — I am too weak, too unworthy — but actually withholds a debt of love, "to our own harm." The same faint-heartedness, he notes, holds us back from much other good, and makes us "still weaker than we are."

He does not soften the diagnosis: "we are wretched, weak, and a pure nothing," to be reckoned as nothing and content to be reckoned so. But this is not despair, because it is set against a greater fact: "our good God seeks and loves us in Christ infinitely, and for His own sake." The self is nothing; the grace is everything; so the counsel is to "sink down with our weakness into His grace." Hence the letter's most quotable line: "A weak one who holds fast to the Strong One is in no danger, but is helped through." Strength is not required — only holding on. And he ends, playing on Jacob at the Jabbok, with the confidence that if the Lord holds us, "then we too shall not let Him go."

A few words and echoes.

a show of humility. Cf. Colossians 2:18, 23 — a "voluntary humility" and "shew of wisdom… and humility" that misleads.
bound to pray for one another. James 5:16 — "pray one for another."
pleasing to Him. 1 John 3:22 — "[we] do those things that are pleasing in his sight".
a weak one who holds fast to the Strong One. 2 Corinthians 12:9–10 — "my strength is made perfect in weakness… when I am weak, then am I strong."
then we too shall not let Him go. Genesis 32:26 — Jacob at Peniel: "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me."

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Zweiter Band, III. Theil, Brief 54 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdii-thiii-054.html.

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