Letters · Zweiter Band · Theil III (1775)

Comforting instruction: how to conduct oneself in the feeling of one's wretchedness, inner sufferings, temptations, and especially in prayer.

Bd II · Th III · Brief 59 · Der neunundfünfzigste Brief

Addressee — To Anna Maria Elisabeth Schmitz — the same sister as Briefe 46, 51, 52, 53; this is a later letter (15 December 1744), answering bitter self-accusing complaints of hers. Written in the intimate du (English you); addressed "mein armes Schwestergen." Salutation Geliebte Schwester in der Gnade JESu, der dich segne! → "Beloved sister in the grace of Jesus, who bless you!" (Rule B); subscription Dein verbundener schwacher Mitbruder.
Date — Mülheim, 15 December 1744 — the print dateline reads Mülheim, den 15. Dec. 1744.
Provenance — *Translated from the public-domain 1775 first edition (Theil III, pp. 177–181), in normalized GS-1845 house orthography. All rendered words are from public-domain prints.

The Fifty-Ninth Letter.

Comforting instruction: how to conduct oneself in the feeling of one's wretchedness, inner sufferings, temptations, and especially in prayer.

Beloved sister in the grace of Jesus, who bless you!

I am glad to receive a little letter from you once again, and only wished that somewhat more cheerful news stood in it. God loves you so, and shows it well enough — that He wants to have you absolutely for Himself, and to love you — that it will surely not please Him that you use such hard expressions, and think of Him as a hard man: yet He will, according to His kindness in Christ, take it for the best in you, because the inward longing to cleave to Him alone and to please Him makes the load of your wretchedness so heavy for you, and wrings out such bitter complaints, since you perceive so much in yourself that is displeasing to Him. I too can take it for the best in you, but cannot call it good. Our wretchednesses should not set us into faint-heartedness, vexation, and ill-will, but bend us, humble us, and press us to a complete surrender into the hands of our almighty, sweetest Savior: for that is His gracious purpose; not that He wants to thrust you from Himself, but that He would make it, in you, rightly bitter and wearisome to you in your own self; so that, when you know nowhere any longer to lay yourself, you must then let yourself fall, so naked and wretched as you are, into His compassion-filled bosom, which is already open to take you in. But — that would not be handled courteously enough for my poor little sister; one ought rather to make compliments, with Peter: "Go out from me! for I am a sinful man." Luke 5:8. Should so perverse a creature, not worthy that the earth should bear her, dare to think of the bosom of so holy a God, in order to let herself fall into it! Yes! of that you must think — and not, in unbelief, of your wretchedness: into it the eternal Love wants to have you. Do not tarry with deliberations, and with looking at your filthy garment! Stand up, venture it, and throw yourself into the Love-Mother's lap, without thinking further of yourself! Love, only love, then will you be loved. Selah!

It is so, as you say, that in every state a faithfulness is required on the soul's part: only, it is not required that the soul be able to see this its faithfulness in every state. You want to know what, then, you now have to do in this matter? I will say briefly what is given me. Your state is a state of sufferings and temptations, and with respect to that your faithfulness consists in this — that you suffer not only all hardship, but also all evil, as undisturbed and unlooked-at as you can, yet neither will nor practice the evil itself; and that, with humility and trust, you draw near to God again, as often as you have erred or think you have erred. Keep always patience with yourself, and trust in God!

With respect to prayer, your faithfulness consists in this — that you do not omit it under pretext of unworthiness or unfitness; and then, that you be content with such a quality and grace in prayer as God is pleased to give you, without wanting to have anything else than only, inwardly, that you may please Him. The simple faith of the loving presence of God must be the ground of your prayer; and the essential thing of prayer is the secret, inward inclination in the ground [of the heart] to serve this God and to be wholly given to Him: that you must not seek or make; God's Spirit has laid it in you. This ground opens itself, gently and unnoticed, in the presence of God, and so on. If you cannot come to it, but are, as you say, held up above — be it now through fluttering thoughts, or temptations, or in some other way — then just seek, unnoticed and calm, to turn your little eye away from it and to God: if this has happened once and again, and you cannot escape it, then suffer yourself, and remain united with this will of God; use no further force to want to sink into it, only that you at times cast a sweet little look of love upon the present Friend, as you can. Even if it then stays dry the whole time, scattered, yes full of temptations, still rise well content from prayer, and thank the Lord that His sweet will has been accomplished in you; for nothing depends on us, if only our God is content. Seek to do it just so throughout the day; I mean: let the loving presence of God be your chief — or rather your heart's — work, quite unaffectedly, and as you can. Think of this God nothing but good, and not so ill as you are wont. (Read sometime the Life of Brother Lawrence!) At the fluttering thoughts and other assaults look about as little as if it were outside you. God, who searches the hearts, knows what your heart desires. Be calm and of good cheer in Him! He, who has bought you and called you to His eternal possession, will carry it out within you and for you, Amen!

Your bound and weak fellow-brother.

Mülheim, the 15th of December 1744.

❦

German

Der neunundfünfzigste Brief.

Tröstlicher Unterricht, wie sich im Gefühl seiner Elenden, innerer Leiden, Versuchungen und besonders im Gebet zu betragen.

Geliebte Schwester in der Gnade JEsu, der dich segne!

Es ist mir lieb, daß ich einst wieder ein Brieflein von dir bekomme, und wünschte nur, daß was erfreulichere Nachrichten darin stünden.

— 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 fifth letter to Anna Maria Elisabeth Schmitz, written in December 1744, some months after the intense spring sequence (the forty-sixth, and the fifty-first through fifty-third). She had written again, and the news was not good: bitter, self-accusing complaints about her own wretchedness, and — Tersteegen gathers — hard words spoken almost against God, thinking of Him "as a hard man." His reply is one of his tenderest, and turns entirely on where her misery is meant to drive her. He will not scold the complaints; he reads them charitably, as the paradoxical fruit of love: it is precisely "the inward longing to cleave to Him alone" that "makes the load of your wretchedness so heavy." But he corrects the direction. The wretchedness is not meant to push her away from God in despair but to press her "into the hands of our almighty, sweetest Savior… into His compassion-filled bosom, which is already open." When she protests, as Peter did — "Go out from me, for I am a sinful man" — he answers that this is only politeness dressed as humility: "Should so perverse a creature… dare to think of the bosom of so holy a God? Yes! of that you must think." The image he leaves her with is startlingly maternal: "Stand up, venture it, and throw yourself into the Love-Mother's lap… Love, only love, then will you be loved. Selah!"

The letter's second half is practical direction on prayer under exactly her conditions — dryness, distraction, temptation. Faithfulness, he says, is not a feeling but two simple things: not omitting prayer "under pretext of unworthiness," and being content with whatever grace God gives in it. The essential thing is not effort but a disposition already planted — "God's Spirit has laid it in you." So when prayer goes badly, she is not to force it: "cast a sweet little look of love upon the present Friend, as you can," and then "rise well content from prayer… for nothing depends on us, if only our God is content." The whole day, he tells her, can be lived so — "let the loving presence of God be your… heart's work, quite unaffectedly." And then a small, precious literary aside. To teach her this practice of the presence of God, Tersteegen points her to a book: "Read sometime the Life of Brother Lawrence!" — the Carmelite lay brother Nicolas Herman (Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection), whose Practice of the Presence of God had circulated in Tersteegen's Pietist world. It is a rare, concrete glimpse of what Tersteegen actually put into people's hands. He closes on the God "who searches the hearts" and "will carry it out within you and for you."

A few words and echoes.

to cleave to Him alone. Psalm 63:8 — "My soul followeth hard after thee".
"Go out from me, for I am a sinful man." Luke 5:8 — Peter at the miraculous catch (quoted).
throw yourself into the Love-Mother's lap. The maternal image of God's love — the "mother's bosom" of God (cf. Isaiah 66:13, "as one whom his mother comforteth").
His sweet will has been accomplished in you. Matthew 6:10 — "Thy will be done".
the Life of Brother Lawrence. Nicolas Herman, "Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection" (c. 1614–1691), the Carmelite of The Practice of the Presence of God; his Life circulated in Tersteegen's circle.
God, who searches the hearts. Psalm 139:1; Revelation 2:23 — "I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts".
bought you and called you to His eternal possession. 2 Thessalonians 2:14.

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Zweiter Band, III. Theil, Brief 59 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdii-thiii-059.html.

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