To a soul assailed by all manner of evil thoughts and images.
Addressee, date, and source
The Sixty-Ninth Letter.
To a soul assailed by all manner of evil thoughts and images.
Beloved friend and sister!
May Jesus bless you, and give you peace in Him!
I see with compassion that you have been for a long while in anxieties, and are plagued with evil thoughts and images. Now, the Savior is infinitely more compassionate than I, poor man, am, and yet He lays these little crosses upon you; but He does it out of love — and if He did not know that it was good and indispensably necessary for you, then He would assuredly not do it, for He takes no pleasure in our affliction. But because our corruption is so deep and manifold, He must use all manner of ways and means to bring us to the knowledge of this corruption and to redemption from it: and since we have no understanding of these things, it is very good that we simply let Him work with us, and accept everything in simple love from His hand, whatever comes upon us inwardly or outwardly, believing that under His governance all things must serve us for the best. Meanwhile we are only to will to love Him, to desire to cleave to Him, to pray much, as well as we can, and gladly to do, to leave, and to suffer everything that we believe to be pleasing to Him: the rest belongs to Him. And so we can walk on undisturbed, and await our salvation from His mercy in Christ.
Suffer the anxieties gladly, then, and for love of Him: in this way you can now please God best. To bear a little cross, or even but a single time to break one’s own mind and will for God’s sake — that is more pleasing to God than to have revelations. Do not let the images in your head disturb you; they are no concern of yours so long as you take no pleasure in them: forget and despise all such thoughts; or else bear them, as a little cross, with all possible calm and pliancy. To take fright at such images is not worth the trouble. He who walks in the dark fancies he sees now this, now that; and when the light comes, he sees that nothing of what he saw is there. So you too are now in the dark; therefore trust none of the frightful imaginations, which may well arise from a mere disorder of body and blood. Our good God is near us even in the dark: He looks on to see how we do, and whether we will hold out? Let us then walk on in simplicity, in faith in this His nearness, and think more of Him than of ourselves. I greet you heartily, as also your brother and sister-in-law; greet also, on my behalf, Frau N.; to her too I wish the grace to forget herself entirely, so as to be occupied only with Him who comes so near to us in the heart, to love us, to visit us, and to prepare us after His own heart. — I remain
Your affectionate fellow-pilgrim.
Mülheim, the 12th of October, 1745.
German
Der neunundsechzigste Brief.
An ein von allerhand bösen Gedanken und Bildern angefochtenes Gemüth.
Geliebte Freundin und Schwester!
JEsus segne dich, und gebe dir Frieden in Ihm! Ich sehe mitleidig, daß du eine geraume Zeit in Beängstigungen gewesen, und mit bösen Gedanken und Bildern geplaget wirst.
— 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. Pastoral counsel to a woman who has been “a long while in anxieties,” plagued by intrusive evil thoughts and images — the affliction the old confessors knew well and this letter treats with striking gentleness and, at one point, striking modernity. It opens with a blessing set as its own line — “May Jesus bless you, and give you peace in Him!” — and never once scolds.
A few words and echoes.
- anxieties. Beängstigungen — the distresses of fear; the letter’s word for her whole state, suffered rather than argued with.
- little crosses. Kreuzgens — the diminutive that runs through these letters to the sisters: real crosses, but child-sized, and laid on by love.
- more pleasing than revelations. The Quietist scale of values in one clause: one act of broken self-will outweighs any quantity of extraordinary experience.
- a mere disorder of body and blood. Eine bloße Verstellung des Leibes und Geblüts — the letter’s pastoral realism: the horrors may be humoral, a matter for patience rather than despair.
- walking in the dark. The image that binds it: the one who walks in darkness fancies he sees things; light shows nothing there; and God is near in the dark — “the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.”
- whether we will hold out? The question mark is the letter’s own: God looking on, not as examiner but as the father watching the child’s steps.
- fellow-pilgrim. Mitpilger — the subscription’s word, and the letter’s stance throughout: counsel from alongside, not from above.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdii-thiii-069 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.