A friend's illness holds back the writer's personal visit to friends, whom he offers up to God through prayer and rouses to earnestness.
The Seventy-Eighth Letter.
A friend's illness holds back the writer's personal visit to friends, whom he offers up to God through prayer and rouses to earnestness.
In the grace of Jesus, much-beloved brother!
Your welcome letter of the 23rd of last month, and the all too kind pressing invitation and offer from your worthy parents and from you, I must then at last answer with the pen, since I see that divine Providence will not permit me to do it in person.
The circumstances and consequences of the long-drawn illness and the ensuing death of dear Brother H. brought it about that, after all was over, I found a good deal to do. Now love binds me once again, so that I can find no liberty to travel out, on account of the increasing illness of our friend, the wife of H. K. She now appears to have consumption fully, and must already lie abed almost the whole day. Since one then sees nothing before one's eyes but a hastening toward the passage into eternity, I may not withdraw from her my small services of love, and the comfort which she believes she finds in my encouragement. For the rest, she suffers with much patience, and is thus far surrendered to every will of God, desiring nothing but to be fully prepared before her end, and to be withdrawn from all straying in senses and reason, and to be gathered unto God in spirit. She and her house send hearty greetings to you, your brother, and your parents.
For the rest, I can say that it would have been refreshing to me to retire there for some days; for I am fully persuaded of your affection and that of your dear parents, though I count myself worthy of no love. I also love you all in the Lord, and your condition is not a matter of indifference to me; but I know no better way to answer your love toward me, and no better way to attest mine toward you all, than by offering you up to the Lord in my weak prayer, that He would mightily lay hold of you, draw you to Himself, and make you men after His own heart; so that this most blessed Being of Love may have eternal delight in us, and we in turn in Him alone, and also each in the other. In this manner I offer you all up, even while writing, to our good God before His countenance. Lord! Thou wonderful, all-governing God! Thy love's direction has made us acquainted with one another in this strange world; may it be unto blessing and unto Thy glorification in us! If I can give the dear friends' longing no satisfaction, to visit them in person this time — ah! then do Thou visit in my stead all the hearts of this house with Thy mightily-working grace, blessing, and divine peace! Tear them, together with me, wholly away from themselves and from the deceit of this vanity, that we may be given over to Thee without wavering, and may even here experience the felicities of Thy service and of divine fellowship. Amen, Jesus! For the rest, dear brother, I request that you attest to your dear father and your dear mother, together with my hearty greeting, my gratitude for their kindly pressing invitation.
Nothing will gladden me so much as when I hear good tidings of their earnestness in true godliness. They are growing old, and I am weak and grow weaker: soon it is evening, and we have as yet advanced but little; therefore we all have cause to wipe the sleep from our eyes and to take up our chief work more earnestly. The visible phantasms will soon have vanished like a dream; why should we look about after them any longer? Let us also at last begin to live for our God, who so lovingly calls us in to Himself, and would gladly receive us and delight us essentially unto eternity, if we but cast ourselves into His arms. Now, I wish for them and for us together the experience of this blessedness. May the Lord Himself commend Himself to our hearts, and embitter to us all the rest!
That matters have again somewhat improved with your indisposition is dear to me. May all things work together for good! Steady bodily exercise, and a quiet mind in complete surrender to God, I advise more than much physicking. I greet once more right heartily your dear parents, you, and your brother, and remain
Your
obliged fellow-pilgrim.
Mülheim, 15 September 1746.
German
Der achtundsiebzigste Brief.
Die Krankheit einer Freundin hält des Schreibers persönlichen Besuch von Freunden zurück, welche er GOtt durchs Gebet aufopfert und zum Ernst ermuntert.
In der Gnade JEsu vielgeliebter Bruder!
Dein angenehmes Zuschreiben vom 23ten pass. und die gar zu freundliche Ausnöthigung und Anerbietung von euren werthen Eltern und euch muß dann doch endlich mit der Feder beantworten; da ich sehe, daß solches, persönlich zu thun, göttliche Vorsehung nicht will zulassen.
— 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. An apology for a visit that cannot happen, which turns into something better than the visit. A young man and his parents had pressed Tersteegen — "all too kindly," he says — to come to them; but the wife of H. K., the friend whose deathbed report fills the next letter, is far gone in consumption, and he will not withdraw from her his "small services of love" or the comfort she finds in his encouragement. So the letter does what the journey cannot: "I know no better way to answer your love… than by offering you up to the Lord in my weak prayer." And then, extraordinarily, he does it on the page — "In this manner I offer you all up, even while writing" — and the letter breaks into open prayer.
The prayer. The old print sets it off in a contrasting type, and the manuscript copy of this letter underlines it: "Lord! Thou wonderful, all-governing God! Thy love's direction has made us acquainted with one another in this strange world…" If he cannot visit the friends, let God visit in his stead — "visit Thou in my stead all the hearts of this house with Thy mightily-working grace." The petition rises to the letter's fiercest verbs: tear them, together with me, wholly away from themselves and from the deceit of this vanity — and closes on the double name of everything he wants for them: the felicities of Thy service, and divine fellowship. Amen, Jesus! A visit prayed instead of paid.
The evening bell. The letter's second movement is for the aging parents, and it rings the hour without cruelty: "They are growing old, and I am weak and grow weaker: soon it is evening, and we have as yet advanced but little." The word for lost time is a traveler's word — we have not advanced far on the road — and the counsel is to wipe the sleep from our eyes and take up "our chief work" more earnestly. The visible phantasms will soon have vanished like a dream; why keep looking about after them? "Let us also at last begin to live for our God" — who does not merely admit us but "would gladly receive us and delight us essentially unto eternity, if we but cast ourselves into His arms." And the strangest, most Tersteegen petition of all: may the Lord commend Himself to our hearts — "and embitter to us all the rest."
The close. A homely postscript-in-place: glad the young man's indisposition has mended; may all things work together for good; and a physician's counsel from the physician-mystic — steady bodily exercise and a quiet mind in complete surrender to God, "more than much physicking." He signs himself, in the old print, only "Your obliged fellow-pilgrim."
A few words and echoes.
- pressing invitation. Ausnöthigung — an invitation so warm it almost compels; he thanks the parents for their "kindly pressing" twice.
- consumption. Lungen-Sucht — the period's name; the whole day abed, and "nothing before one's eyes but a hastening toward the passage into eternity."
- gathered unto God in spirit. The dying woman's one desire — the recollection-word of these letters given to a deathbed.
- offering you up. Aufopfern — the letter's central act, done "even while writing": intercession as the visit love pays when the road is closed.
- Thy love's direction. Liebes-Direction — God's loving governance, which "made us acquainted with one another in this strange world"; friendship itself credited to providence.
- tear them away from themselves. Entreiß sie…ihnen selbst — the prayer's violence: rescue as extraction from self-ownership, "without wavering."
- soon it is evening. The Emmaus word — "Abide with us: for it is toward evening" — turned into the road-report of two lives: little advanced, and the light going.
- the visible phantasms. Phantastereien — the world's show, already dream-like; "why should we look about after them any longer?"
- delight us essentially. Wesentlich vergnügen — the answer to the phantasms: not appearances but substance, joy in the very being of God.
- embitter to us all the rest. The severest mercy asked anywhere in these letters: that everything other than God lose its taste.
- may all things work together for good. Romans 8:28, breathed over a sickroom and a family's worry alike.
- fellow-pilgrim. Mitpilger — the subscription; not director and directed, but two walkers on one road.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdii-thiii-078 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.