Letters · Zweiter Band · Theil III (1775)

Instruction in childlike love and simplicity toward God. Something on Hosea 10:10.

Bd II · Th III · Brief 70 · Der siebzigste Brief

Addressee, date, and source

Addressee — To Anna Maria Elisabeth Schmitz of Solingen. The print gives only the salutation “Hertzlich geliebte Schwester!”; the critical edition supplies the name.
Date — Mülheim, 8 December 1745
Provenance — Translated from the 1775 first edition (Theil III, pp. 223–225), collated against the 1798/99 second edition.

The Seventieth Letter.

Instruction in childlike love and simplicity toward God. Something on Hosea 10:10.

Dearly beloved sister!

— — — A child loves its father, keeps close beside him, looks upon him only with delight, and with the tenderest inclination to please him in everything; and that is all it knows of. But because it is a child, its weak feet often stumble as it walks, and it might even fall outright, were it not held by its father. Yes, truly — it falls, it hurts itself, it cries a little; the father lifts it up, gives it a kiss, and it smiles again with tearful eyes, and over the father’s love it forgets its fall; while meanwhile the kindest father wipes from its dress and face the dirt it may have picked up in falling. If the silly child tries to do this itself, it often smears the muck over the whole dress and face, and then it costs double the trouble. Meanwhile the child goes on again with its father; and when the father says, You must walk carefully — then it says, in its childlike heartiness, Yes, dear father! I will do well; and yet it remains a child, and knows of no carefulness of its own. To love its father and to look upon him is its whole art; and this manner pleases the father so exceedingly well that He is careful for the child, and does not reckon to it any of its faults. — —

Now I have still to explain a text to you, which for the sake of my weak head I will make but short: Hosea 10:10. When a soul has committed the double sin — Jeremiah 2:13 — as indeed we and all Israel are guilty of it, then God lets many peoples, that is, heathens — namely all manner of heathenish thoughts, desires of lust and of anger, and other tempting powers — rise up in and over the soul, and gather themselves against it, to chastise the soul. But that the soul may not grow fearful or faint-hearted under this, God gives His assurance: the enemies shall not be able to chastise it after their wish, for its harm and ruin, but after His wish, for its amendment. Yea, let it be He, the Lord Himself, who does this chastening, and not properly these peoples or heathens. I remain

Your devoted brother.

Mülheim, the 8th of December, 1745.

❦

German

Der siebzigste Brief.

Anweisung zur kindlichen Liebe und Einfalt gegen GOtt. Etwas über Hos. 10, 10.

Herzlich geliebte Schwester!

— — — Ein Kind liebet den Vater, hält sich bei ihm, siehet ihn nur an mit Vergnügen, und mit der zärtlichsten Neigung, ihm in allem zu gefallen; und das ist alles, wovon es weiß.

— 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. The third letter in this part to the same young sister, and the gentlest: a parable, and then a text. The printed collection gives it to us already cut — the dash with which it opens stands where the compiler removed the letter’s beginning, and a second cut follows the parable — but what remains is complete in itself: an instruction in childlike love and simplicity toward God, and “something on Hosea 10:10.”

A few words and echoes.

the opening dash. The old edition’s compiler cut the letter’s beginning (and a passage after the parable); the dashes are his marks, and nothing of what was cut survives.
that is all it knows of. The whole of childlike simplicity: one relation, no technique.
it cries a little. Es weinet so eben — the parable’s exactness: real tears, and brief.
careful for the child. The father’s carefulness substitutes for the child’s — providence doing what self-vigilance cannot.
the double sin. Jeremiah 2:13 — the fountain forsaken, the broken cisterns hewn; the root sin behind the soul’s troubles.
peoples, that is, heathens. The letter’s inward reading of Hosea’s nations: the soul’s own unruly thoughts and desires, permitted as chastening.
after their wish … after His wish. The exposition’s hinge: the enemies’ wish is harm; God’s wish, amendment; and only His governs.

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Zweiter Band, III. Theil, Brief 70 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdii-thiii-070.html.

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