That in the present one must do and suffer all things to God, and must not wait for the change of this or that circumstance.
The Seventy-Fifth Letter.
That in the present one must do and suffer all things to God, and must not wait for the change of this or that circumstance.
In the grace of Jesus, dearly beloved brother!
Your welcome letter of the 25th of March I received rather late, yet duly. Its contents, indeed, I should otherwise — according to God's will — have wished more cheering, for I see from it your burdensome bodily constitution. — —
The one thing with the other affects me, and I take heartfelt part in your sufferings and burdens; I am also often reminded to offer up most inwardly both these your sufferings and burdens, and in particular the state of your mind, to our dearest Jesus, the possessing Lord and God of our heart; that He may keep you under and in it all by His favourable nearness, and further you, and lead you out of it, to His praise! This the Lord can do, and this the Lord will do; and the heart's children should indeed never forget that their all-governing Father, in all that He lets befall them, has nothing else in view but only this: that He may make them little and pure, and capable of His most inward union. What one cannot alter or escape, then, one must take confidently from His Father's hand and direction; do all and suffer all to Him alone, as well and as quietly as one can; commit and entrust oneself and one's affairs to Him in childlike wise; and amid all unrest and multiplicity keep short, abiding in the present, and practise and preserve as best one may the heart's recollection and devotion. For this is a deceit which the enemy slips in, when one thinks that one cannot rightly serve God according to one's inward call until one were out of these or those present circumstances — whereas we cannot yet get out of them; whereby it then comes to pass that one only doubles one's burden, grows sullen and darkened, and does not gain from the present the right profit according to God's intent, and yet must hold out in it.
We should as much as possible avoid and shun all multiplicity and every occasion of dissipation and distraction; but that is not granted at all times, nor to every one. We must pass through many a school; and there one must do as has been said.
To do all things to God with an inward, pure intent — that is the true gold-maker's art, whereby every bit of mire (if I may so speak) is turned under our hand into the finest gold of a true service of God, and the bitterest wormwood into sweet sugar. Dear necessity has brought me upon this track these many years, my brother! though I am still but a bungler at it. Confidently, then — let us only venture ourselves upon it! What does it matter about us? If only our God and Friend be contented, and be also loved and honoured in us, then let it go over the old ass as it will. May the spirit, under all this, only press and sink itself so much the more inwardly into its Origin, until the fetters of this wretched body and life fall wholly away!
But now I write too much again, out of love. I should and would hereby only report, both to you and to your mother, as also to the dear Brother N. at Frankfurt, that it has pleased God to release the dear Brother H., on the thirteenth of this month at ten o'clock in the evening, after an illness of a quarter of a year, out of the body's prison by a believing death. — —
Mülheim, 30 August 1746.
NB. Here now follows a further circumstantial report of the illness, etc., of this brother; of which, however, that we may not detain the reader with needless repetitions, we have only these two weighty utterances still to communicate, which the blessed departed also made in his illness, and which are not to be found in the two preceding letters, namely: There is nothing more between God and my soul; and: I believe, when this burdensome, wretched body shall have fallen away, that then my spirit will draw very, yea very near to God.
German
Der fünfundsiebzigste Brief.
Daß man im Gegenwärtigen alles GOtte thun und leiden, und nicht auf die Veränderung dieser oder jener Umstände warten müsse.
In der Gnade JEsu herzlich geliebter Bruder!
Dein angenehmes Schreiben vom 25ten Martii habe ziemlich spät, dennoch richtig erhalten: Den Inhalt desselben hätte zwar sonst, nach GOttes Willen erfreulicher gewünschet, denn ich sehe daraus deine beschwerliche Leibes-Constitution.
— 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 last of three letters bound together by one death. Written a fortnight after the report to Krefeld, this one goes the other way, to Homburg — to a court official whose letter of the 25th of March had arrived "rather late," full of his poor health — and it is counsel first and news second. The counsel is the letter's title: do and suffer everything to God in the present, and do not wait for circumstances to change before beginning to serve Him.
The deceit of "afterwards." The enemy's trick, the letter says, is the thought that one cannot rightly follow one's inward call until one is out of these or those present circumstances — out of the burdens, the interruptions, the unrest. But we cannot yet get out of them; and so the burden merely doubles, the man grows sullen and darkened, and the present — which was full of God's intent — yields him no profit at all, though he must hold out in it anyway. Against this stands the whole counsel: what cannot be altered or escaped must be taken confidently from the Father's hand; everything done and everything suffered to Him alone, as well and as quietly as one can; the heart kept short and collected in the present moment. This the Lord can do, and this the Lord will do — the old print sets the two verbs off in a contrasting type, the compositor preaching.
The gold-maker's art. Then the letter's famous image: to do all things to God with an inward, pure intent is the true alchemy — under such a hand every bit of mire ("if I may so speak") turns into the finest gold of a true service of God, and the bitterest wormwood into sweet sugar. It is Colossians 3:17 turned into a trade-secret, and Tersteegen adds the disarming credential that "dear necessity" taught it to him over many years, "though I am still but a bungler at it." What matters is not our contentment but God's: "If only our God and Friend be contented… then let it go over the old ass as it will" — the body, Brother Ass, may fare as it must.
The news, and the editor's note. Only at the end, "writing too much again, out of love," does he add what the previous two letters carried: Brother H. died on the thirteenth, at ten in the evening, after a quarter-year's illness — released "out of the body's prison by a believing death." The letter then breaks off without a signature; and the old edition's compiler, cutting a longer illness-report as repetition, appends in his own voice the two sayings of the dying man not found in the letters before: There is nothing more between God and my soul — and, I believe, when this burdensome, wretched body shall have fallen away, that then my spirit will draw very, yea very near to God. They are the right last words for all three letters.
A few words and echoes.
- do and suffer all things to God. The letter's whole doctrine in a phrase — "whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus" (Colossians 3:17).
- the possessing Lord. Eigenthums-HErr — the Lord whose property we are; the heart has an Owner.
- the heart's children. Herzens-Kinder — Tersteegen's coinage for the inward ones; their Father governs everything with one aim: to make them little, pure, and capable of union.
- keep short, abiding in the present. Kurz im Gegenwärtigen bleiben — the counsel's center: a heart kept on a short tether to the present moment, where God is.
- grows sullen and darkened. The cost of living in "afterwards": the burden doubles, and the man sours — the letter's homely realism about postponed obedience.
- the gold-maker's art. Goldmacher-Kunst — alchemy; the transmutation is of circumstances, not metals.
- a bungler. Stümpler — his word for himself at this art, after "many years" on its track.
- the old ass. The body, Brother Ass; let it fare as it must, so long as God is contented and loved in us.
- the body's prison. Leibes-Kerker — the death-notice's word; the release of the thirteenth.
- there is nothing more between God and my soul. The dying man's saying, preserved by the old editor's note — the shortest possible definition of a finished life.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdii-thiii-075 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.