A consoling instruction to a sick brother: that Jesus is his salvation and eternal life.
Addressee, date, and source
The Eighty-Ninth Letter.
A consoling instruction to a sick brother: that Jesus is his salvation and eternal life.
Dearly beloved brother N.!
Your continuing and increasing bodily weakness I have heard of, for one thing, with fellow-feeling; for since I love you, I take part from the heart in your sufferings; but since I love your soul incomparably more than your body and natural life, I unite myself with God’s lovable and adorable purposes over you. Yes, on that side it comforts and gladdens me not a little that the sweet God and Friend of man has meant so well with you, and is bringing it out so gloriously. He saw your danger, and drew you to Himself with power from plunging down; but because He drew and took hold strongly, the mortal body is to feel the suffering a little while — and in its own time, and in eternity, together with the immortal soul, to thank the most precious Redeemer for its preservation and give Him endless honor. And should this woeful shadow-life then cease outright, that is not to grieve us. Jesus is the true God, and eternal life: a free, contenting, unchangeable, triumphing life of light and love, against which this life, and everything that goes by the name of delight and life, is nothing but distress and death.
This is the Jesus, dear brother, who gave up His blood and life for you; should we not be willing to suffer a little with Him too? This is the Jesus who sought you, and made you one who seeks: this same Jesus wills to be your salvation and your eternal life. Oh, how near He is to your heart! Do you not mark it — how many an Ah and Oh he awakens in your inward part? How he calls you and invites you in to Himself, away from everything transitory, yes, and away from all your misery too, in that he awakens in you an inclining so humble and so inward that it desires to have and to love nothing but Jesus. So then do it, dear child: give this call of love room in your heart! Do it without hesitating, and adore the eternal unmerited grace that is offered and given you. Freely shall all your sins be blotted out for you, and the bosom of the divine grace and love stand open, because Jesus has prayed for you. Oh, then nestle and sink yourself into this bosom of love, just as you are; do it the whole day long, yes, into eternity. He calls, seeks and waits for you the whole day as a shepherd; do you seek and wait for Him too the whole day as His little sheep, and lay yourself right upon Him and in Him, until he shall take you upon his shoulders and carry you into the eternal sheepfold of glory. Amen, Hallelujah!
I greet and kiss you in the spirit; I lay you down in Jesus’ arms, and shall not forget you in my prayer. The dear children here greet you too right heartily, and wish you, together with me, the constant support, grace and blessing of the Lord Jesus, until the blessed end! Faithful is He that calls you; He will also do it. I remain
Your well-disposed intercessor and fellow-brother.
Mülheim, the 16th of November, 1747.
German
Der neunundachtzigste Brief.
Trostvolle Anweisung an einen kranken Bruder: daß JEsus sein Heil und ewiges Leben sey.
Herzlich geliebter Bruder N.!
Deine anhaltende und zunehmende Leibes-Schwachheit habe ich eines Theils mitleidig vernommen; denn weil ich dich liebe, so nehme ich von Herzen Theil an deinen Leiden; weil ich aber deine Seele unvergleichlich mehr liebe, als deinen Leib und natürliches Leben, so vereinige ich mich mit den liebens- und anbetungswürdigen Absichten GOttes über dir.
— 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 letter of 16 November 1747 to a young man dying of a long illness. He was about twenty; he had lost his mother at six and his father at fourteen; he died the following year. On the same day Tersteegen wrote to the young man’s sister about him — that letter stands immediately before this one — and the two were printed together. The letter does not ask for recovery and does not pretend the illness will pass. It argues that the thing being taken away is not the thing worth having.
A few words and echoes.
- a consoling instruction. The heading’s own pair: it is meant to comfort and to teach, and it does the second in order to do the first.
- for one thing. He is dividing his own response in two, and the second half arrives four lines later — grief for the body, gladness for the soul.
- with fellow-feeling. Suffering-with, literally; the ordinary German word for pity still had the compound visible in it.
- Friend of man. A title, not a description — the epistle to Titus calls God’s appearing his love of man, and the German keeps it as one word.
- plunging down. Not falling: a headlong plunge, and the rescue is a grab.
- took hold. The hand closing is why it hurts.
- woeful shadow-life. His compound, kept as one; the shadow is the old one of the psalms, and the woe is his own.
- cease outright. The concessive is grudging on purpose: even supposing it stops.
- contenting. Not “pleasing” — a life that satisfies, that leaves nothing wanting.
- goes by the name of. He will not concede the word life to it.
- distress and death. Rhymed in the German, and reversed from what he first wrote.
- made you one who seeks. The seeking is not his own doing either — that is the whole point of the clause.
- inward part. The ground where God alone works; a place, not a mood.
- inclining. A leaning of the will, not a decision.
- call of love. One word in German, and the manuscript spells it with the same doubled letter as the verb calls at the close.
- without hesitating. Without stopping to consider whether he qualifies.
- adore. Standing without an object, as in the German.
- Freely. Free of charge, the word of Romans 3:24 — not “in vain.”
- bosom. Lap, breast, womb: the word will not be pinned to one of them, and he uses it twice.
- nestle and sink. Both verbs kept; the first is what a child does, the second what a weight does.
- just as you are. Unconditional, and placed where a condition would be expected.
- shoulders. The shepherd’s, in the parable; the sheep does not walk.
- sheepfold. The old word, with the fold of John 10 behind it.
- Faithful is He that calls you. Word for word from the end of First Thessalonians, and the last thing he says before signing off.
- well-disposed intercessor. The subscription; in the manuscript the older form of the word, more like fore-prayer.
- Jesus is the true God, and eternal life. The last sentence of the first letter of John; the surviving manuscript in his own hand underlines the words, and “the Jesus” a few lines later. (1 John 5:20)
- brother N. The manuscript is addressed to Godfried Schmitz at Solingen, salutes him by name, and is signed at Mülheim; the print removed the name at both ends, and where he wrote that “the dear children of God here greet you,” it has only “the dear children.”
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdii-thiii-089 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.