A powerful encouragement to faith in the Lord Jesus, upon occasion of a raging epidemic.
Addressee, date, and source
The Eighty-Sixth Letter.
A powerful encouragement to faith in the Lord Jesus, upon occasion of a raging epidemic.
My heart’s brother!
Yesterday, as I came at noon from my journey, I found, among others, your two letters also, of the 12th and the 15th of this month. Their contents I could easily guess, for on Saturday I had already heard in S. both of the visiting hand of God upon C. and of the departure of the dear sister J. He is the Lord, whose ways are holy, and whose purposes issue in grace and love, especially in respect of His children, of whom assuredly not the least hair shall be harmed apart from His fatherly will of love. Could we see the end of God’s ways, we should adore the ways themselves also from the heart, yea, with thankful wonder. Since, then, we cannot always see the kind and wise end of God, James 5:11, we ought nevertheless to believe it, and in faith to give ourselves over into His hands, adoring, loving, and glorifying all His doing.
— — — — As soon as I heard in S. that this sickness was raging there, I felt indeed that C. concerned me too, and I could not forbear to be mindful of you before God, publicly and in secret, weak as it may be. The Lord grant that this His visitation may be a powerful voice of repentance to many a heart, working an abiding conversion! Ah, Thou Lover of men, what else indeed dost Thou seek? And how soon Thou repentest Thee of the punishment, if only the hearts truly yield themselves to Thee! Joel 2:13. Yea, may the Lord work abiding conversions by the inwardly working grace! Otherwise the wares of the world often fall mightily in the time of distress; but when the distress is past, they soon rise again. God’s children, to whom at such a time the nothingness of what is temporal, and the weightiness of God and of the eternal goods, are wont to shine out anew — they meanwhile should turn such circumstances well to account, that they may become more entire in their surrender.
I have heartily wished, and wish it still, that the Lord would give and preserve to me, and to my fellow-called at C., the faith of the centurion at Capernaum! Luke 7:8. Jesus is the Lord, the sickness is a servant, and goes at His bidding: yea, that is most certainly true. The natural, human looking at a thing, the considering, the talking, and the fearful expectation of it — especially of a cross, a sickness, or death — do but set the mind in a hurtful confusion, distraction, and faint-heartedness. Let us look not at things in themselves, but at our good, sweet Savior in all things and ways; and, in forgetfulness of ourselves and of all fearful imaginations, let us busy ourselves through prayer with Him alone, and by gathering ourselves in and abiding in the spirit entrust our souls to Him! In such a frame of mind we can wait to see what the Lord may purpose with us and with ours. There we are receptive of divine grace and power and of all good, and can trust our good God so childlike that He will give us what is needful in the hour we need it, without our being anxious before the time. For the rest, it remains true: we have here no abiding city. It is midnight, when a well-nigh universal lethargy falls upon wise and foolish virgins alike, and little power is felt for an active inward Christianity. God’s mercy at the last lets the voice of His approaching judgments be heard from without, and the voice of His convincing, wooing grace from within, to keep us awake. The word now is: “The bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet Him!” Well then, let us go out, according to His call of love, from ourselves and from the shadow-being and deceit of this world, and by the unremitting exercise of heart-prayer go out to meet our sweet Savior, who is willing indeed to become our Bridegroom, and who will Himself prepare us to be His brides, and children of another world. Blessed and beloved be His name!
The friend N., to whom I so heartily wish a new blessing and grace unto awakening, I greet heartily. The departure of his dear wife I look upon as a stroke of the divine mercy: both for her that is departed, because the Lord would keep her from long and heavy sufferings and the trials bound up with them; and also for our dear friend and brother himself, because, methinks, God has yet something in purpose with him, toward which this way of God over him may be greatly conducive: but prayer is needful for him and for us. Say this to him from me, with a hearty greeting. Time and weakness do not allow me to write to him. I greet also the rest, whom I do not name. Jesus bless, strengthen, and preserve us before Him in peace!
Your obliged, weak brother.
Mülheim, the 26th of September, 1747.
German
Der sechsundachtzigste Brief.
Kräftige Aufmunterung zum Glauben an den HErren JEsum bei Gelegenheit einer grassirenden Seuche.
Mein Herzens-Bruder!
Gestern, wie ich um Mittag von meiner Reise kam, fand ich nebst andern auch deine beide Briefe vom 12ten und 15ten dieses.
— 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. Written from Mülheim on 26 September 1747 to a friend at Crefeld, where an epidemic was then raging. Two of his letters had arrived while Tersteegen was away; he had already heard the news on the road, at Solingen — that the sickness had reached Crefeld, and that a woman of the circle had died. The letter answers both pieces of news at once, and it is, among other things, a letter written by a sick man: he says at the end that weakness prevents him writing to the bereaved husband himself.
A few words and echoes.
- heart’s brother. One word in German, and it opens a run of heart that goes on all through the letter.
- the visiting hand of God. Visiting in the old sense — coming, whether in judgment or in mercy; the noun “visitation” returns two paragraphs later.
- departure. He avoids the word death both times he mentions this one.
- end. Outcome, what a thing comes to at last — the epistle’s word, not the modern “ending.”
- adore. Of God’s ways, which is why not “worship.”
- voice of repentance. One of three voices in the letter: this one, the voice of judgments from without, and the voice of grace from within.
- abiding. The letter’s key word: an abiding conversion, no abiding city, abiding in the spirit.
- Lover of men. The old epithet for God as the lover of humankind.
- wares … fall … rise. A market report, and meant as one.
- surrender. His standing term for handing oneself over; the same word as in the previous letter.
- fellow-called. A coinage in German too — those called along with him.
- distraction. Literally a scattering, and it is answered four lines later by “gathering ourselves in.”
- faint-heartedness. Smallness of spirit, not feeble-mindedness.
- frame of mind. The same word as the mind thrown into confusion just above.
- what is needful. Not “necessities”: the supply in view is grace.
- no abiding city. From Hebrews, quoted without signal.
- lethargy. An illness-word in German too — the drowsiness of the parable described as a sickness, in a letter about a sickness.
- shadow-being. A coinage: the world as both insubstantial and dishonest.
- heart-prayer. His technical term for interior prayer.
- awakening. Rousing from sleep — and, just under the surface, from death.
- methinks. An old form; the German is equally archaic.
- obliged. The ordinary letter-closing word of the period, but it also means bound and joined.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdii-thiii-086 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.