Of the grace of God's high and holy call, and how to follow it.

The Fifty-Seventh Letter.

Of the grace of God's high and holy call, and how to follow it.

In the grace of our Savior, dearly beloved brother!

To your kind letter of the 28th of August I must say that I thank God heartily for the grace He has shown you, in that He has given you — and until now keeps in you — the upright resolve to leave the world and yourself, and to follow Jesus wholly, and to cleave to Him with undivided love. Acknowledge this grace as grace: it is a high and holy call of the free love of God, which has worked and laid this within you. Had you given yourself this resolve, then its keeping and carrying-out would have to rest on you too, and then you might justly grow anxious, even had you a hundred times more earnestness; but now all is grace. Constancy, progress, and completion — all depends on God, and on His grace working within you and ruling over you, in Christ Jesus; and since this is unchangeable, and greater than all, you may be of good cheer in God. Faithful is He that has called you, who will also do it. 1 Thessalonians 5:24.

Something must be done — yes, much, and great things, must be done; only we should not want to do it so much ourselves, but surrender ourselves to God, and let His grace do it in us. This, meanwhile, is one of our chief failings — by which you too are put into inner confusion and inconstancy: that we expect, namely, too much of ourselves, and too little of God and His faithfulness. This error, too, must be unlearned in us, so gradually. All that goes on so within and with you can and must serve you to this end — that you trust yourself ever less, but God ever more, and, with me, make it your chief business to keep quite near to this God-of-the-heart, to cleave to Him with love and trust, and to surrender yourself to Him; then you will be redeemed and sanctified, almost without your thinking of it or caring for it.

Another cause of your changeableness is that you rely and build too much on the felt sweetness of grace, and too little on the essential work of grace. This essential thing is faith, or the inwardly-upright will of the mind — that one will be wholly God's, and cleave to Him and follow Him, with denial of oneself and of all else, expecting one's salvation from Him alone. Where this ground-will is, there is faith, there is grace; and the soul can let all storm without grief, because the anchor sits in firm ground, and by the shaking only takes firmer hold.

Willingly and deliberately we must indeed harbor no evil, no unfaithfulness or distractions of any kind: that is understood of itself. But for the rest — when your mind should find itself in dryness and darkness; when distractions storm in your senses and thoughts; when temptations and waves of testing beat upon your little ship — be quite calm and content! The Lord is within you. So long as the will of the mind (let the nature-will think what it will) wills nothing but God, you have nothing to fear: at such a time you further just as much, yes even more, than when you suppose it goes best. Only let God deal with you; He understands how He is to lead you. We are shot through with corruptions. The felt part of grace covers over the misery, so that one recovers a little; afterward the wound is pressed out again: this too we must let ourselves be content with, as a way to healing.

Do not concern yourself so much whether it now goes more pleasantly and easily, or then again more heavily; whether at times you feel the sweet allurements of eternal love, and at another time again feel nothing of any of it. God is, in Christ, a God of unchangeable love; only our condition requires such varied handling. So accustom yourself, then, to walk by faith, and to love God with a manly love! But if He gives you felt refreshments, take them too with thanks; yet let God Himself be dearer to you than all His gifts!

Your committed sins are indeed forgiven you, for the sake of Christ's blood. For you have indeed felt God's grace and favor within you; and He Himself has worked in you a heartfelt sorrow and displeasure both at past and at still-clinging evil. It is needless and unbecoming to demand every day new assurances of a friend's good favor. Oh, the mistrustful, unbelieving heart! Let your loving remembrance be with your so-near God, and not deliberately with the evil! But if (without seeking) your former sins fall again into your mind, then take it for humbling; ask once more, simply, for forgiveness, and so then forget it again, without disquieting yourself.

That you read something is good; yet you must not read too much nor all sorts of things, and when at times you find nothing at all in it, not force your devotion too strongly to it, because sometimes God wants to give something better, from which the images might then draw us away. With persons of the other sex, however pious they may be, one must deal with much carefulness and reserve. God alone is enough. Whoever rightly knows Him finds almost all creatures too much. Love Him, for He loves you; and live with Him, unmoved, in the closed little chamber of your heart — which heartily wishes

Your loyal, weak fellow-brother.

Mülheim, the 24th of September 1744.

German

Der siebenundfünfzigste Brief.

Von der Gnade des hohen und heiligen Rufs GOttes und wie demselben zu folgen.

In der Gnade unsers Heilandes vielgeliebter Bruder!

Auf euer Angenehmes vom 28ten Aug. muß ich sagen, daß ich GOtt herzlich danke für die Gnade, so Er euch erwiesen, indem Er euch geschenket, und bisher in euch erhält den aufrichtigen Sinn, die Welt und euch selbst zu verlassen, und JEsu völlig zu folgen …

— 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).