A spurring on to liberality, and to greater earnestness in godliness.
Addressee, date, and source
The Eighty-Fifth Letter.
A spurring on to liberality, and to greater earnestness in godliness.
N. N.
I see from your letter, with sorrow and heaviness of heart, that you still let your little ship be tossed to and fro upon the raging sea-waves of worldly business. Ah, my dear brother, it is no longer for you to gather the goods of this world, but rather to scatter them abroad with both hands. Whose shall that be which you have gathered? The time for sowing is soon gone; let us not neglect it, for in due season we also shall gather in and reap without ceasing. Galatians 6. Take heed to your inward calling, and lighten your burdened heart by an honest surrender into the following of the poor life of Jesus.
It rejoices me that you are still minded to bear Christ’s cross after Him, and therein to hazard the delicacy of nature. Let us do so, then, dear brother, in God’s name, and make the beginning today; but let us lay no burdens upon ourselves which are not of God’s ordering, and which do but weary the spirit. Self-denial is the first article of faith, the noble cross the second, and the following of Jesus Christ the third. I write somewhat short and rough; but your love will take it in the best part. I find myself constrained to it, though I have scarce time to write.
Your wife, whom I greet particularly and heartily, would do well to busy herself somewhat less with her miseries and somewhat more with the sweet Savior, as well as ever she can. Let her surrender herself just as she is, and take good heart toward Him who has had so much heart and love for her soul that He shed His blood to redeem it. I greet you and all our acquaintance right heartily,
Your weak fellow-brother.
Mülheim, the 14th of August, 1747.
German
Der fünfundachtzigste Brief.
Anspornung zur Mildthätigkeit, und zu mehrerem Ernst in der Gottseligkeit.
N. N. Ich sehe aus eurem Schreiben mit Leidwesen und Wehmuth, daß ihr euer Schiflein noch herum schleuderen lasset auf denen ungestümmen Meeres-Wellen der Welt-Händel.
— 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. A short, blunt letter of 14 August 1747 to a man in business, telling him to give his money away. The print prints no name — the addressee stands as “N. N.” — and the wife greeted at the end is not named either. It is one of the plainest letters in the collection, and Tersteegen apologises for that himself: “I write somewhat short and rough.”
A few words and echoes.
- a spurring on. The heading’s word keeps a horse in it.
- liberality. Open-handed giving — the old English word for it, and the one the epistles use.
- sorrow and heaviness of heart. A pair, not a repetition: grieved regret and a tender melancholy.
- worldly business. Literally the world’s dealings; the man is a merchant, and the commercial sense is meant.
- scatter abroad. The Psalm’s word for almsgiving, and the opposite of the gathering just refused.
- gather / gathered / gather in. One root, three times in four sentences: what he must stop doing, what the parable asks about, and what God promises at harvest.
- inward calling. Not his trade — the summons underneath it.
- surrender. His standing term for handing oneself over to God; it returns as a verb in the last paragraph, of the wife.
- the poor life of Jesus. Left bare. In a letter about money the poverty is the argument.
- hazard the delicacy of nature. To stake, and risk losing, nature’s shrinking from pain.
- article of faith. A creedal term, used to replace a creed.
- short and rough. His own description of the letter, in two plain words.
- take it in the best part. Read it as kindly as it is meant.
- her miseries. Plural and particular; whether bodily or spiritual he does not say.
- just as she is. The whole counsel is in these four words.
- weak fellow-brother. The subscription. “Weak” is how he signs himself throughout this year, and it is not a formula — the next letter says he is ill.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdii-thiii-085 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.