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 — To Anna Maria Elisabeth Schmitz — the third letter to her in this part (after Briefe 59 and 66; the sister of the Brief-63 household). Written in the intimate du (English you). Salutation "Hertzlich geliebte Schwester!" → "Dearly beloved sister!" (Rule B); subscription "Dein verbundener Bruder." → "Your devoted brother." The letter as printed begins mid-stream — the compiler's dash stands where its opening was cut.
Date — Mülheim, 8 December 1745 — the print dateline reads Mülheim, den 8. Dec. 1745.
Provenance — Translated from the public-domain 1775 first edition (Theil III, pp. 223–225), in normalized GS 1845 house orthography, collated against the 1798/99 second edition (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin). All rendered words come from public-domain prints. The copy-text sets the running title of p. 225 to "71ter Brief." although the upper half of that leaf still carries this letter's close (the head is set for the letter that begins on the page — the standing habit).

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, 8 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."

The parable of the stumbling child. A child loves its father, stays close, looks at him with delight, wants to please him in everything — "and that is all it knows of." Being a child, it stumbles; held by the father, it does not quite fall — yes, truly, it does fall, hurts itself, cries a little; is lifted, kissed, smiles through tears, and over the father's love forgets the fall. The father wipes off the dirt; the silly child, doing it itself, smears the muck everywhere, "and then it costs double the trouble." Told to walk carefully, it promises heartily and remains a child — "to love its father and to look upon him is its whole art." And that art, the letter says, pleases the father so exceedingly well that he is careful for the child, and reckons none of its faults to it. Every clause is doctrine in disguise: falling and being lifted, the self-cleaning that makes things worse, the promise that cannot be kept, and the one competence that covers everything.

The text: Hosea 10:10. The prophet's sentence — chastisement, and peoples gathered against Israel for its "double sin" — is read inward, as this tradition reads all Scripture. The double sin is Jeremiah 2:13's: forsaking the fountain of living waters, and hewing out broken cisterns. When a soul has committed it — "as indeed we and all Israel are guilty of it" — God lets the heathen peoples rise: all manner of heathenish thoughts, desires of lust and of anger, tempting powers, gathering against the soul to chastise it. But the permission has a boundary, and the boundary is the comfort: the enemies cannot chastise the soul after their wish, to harm and ruin, but only after His wish, for its amendment. And the last word goes further still: let it be the Lord Himself who does this chastening — the enemies are not, properly speaking, the ones acting at all.

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, and the print stresses the word: 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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