Pure trust in God wells softly through all hindrances. The writer's conduct in extraordinary things, both with the healthy and with the sick.
The Hundred-and-third Letter.
Pure trust in God wells softly through all hindrances. The writer's conduct in extraordinary things, both with the healthy and with the sick.
My dearly beloved sister in Jesus!
Although I have not yet been allowed to write since my last illness, I nevertheless follow the inward inclination to greet you most heartily with a few lines, and to say that your welcome letter duly came to hand. — —
With regard to what you write of yourself, only remain untroubled in this mind and ground: namely, that with all knowledge and feeling of your weaknesses and miseries you place no trust at all in yourself, but infinitely much in God, and expect everything from His goodness. This lesson is not so easily and so soon mastered as one might think. Pure trust in God alone is like a still, clear water out of eternity; often some impure water mixes itself with it; often it is even covered over; but after its kind it separates off everything impure — that is, all designs upon ourselves — more and more, and wells softly through all hindrances, and takes the soul with it into its origin. Let us look at the good and the evil in us very innocently, very much in passing, and as little as possible! God alone is good, and looking upon Him makes good.
As concerns your conduct with regard to the deceased cousin N., I cannot at all say that you behaved in it otherwise than according to God's will; you could not turn him away from you in the condition he was in; nor would that have been good. Now although you were ignorant how to counsel him, yet in such circumstances God gives one what is needful for the sake of a poor needy soul. To that end one commends oneself to God like a child, and then simply trusts Him that He will give one to think and to speak what is pleasing to Him. When one then comes out of such occasions, one must humble oneself again before God, and think no more of how it went.
Whether that which befell your cousin, with regard to the two persons seen, was divine or not — on that little depends; but this is certain: it befell him from God's side and for his strengthening; and therefore it was good that in everything you only sought to calm him and to strengthen him in trust toward God. Suppose it had been a dream, and he had taken it for a divine appearance, and had been encouraged and strengthened in trust by such a supposed appearance — there would be no harm in that at all. Indeed, had I recognized it for certain as a dream or imagination, I should have scrupled to tell him so, lest he lose the good fruit and benefit of it. This is how I mostly proceed with extraordinary things that come before me: I look to see what fruit the tree bears. Only with this difference, that with persons who are healthy and not standing in special trials, on account of the tempter and of selfhood, I always steer matters so that one does not linger long over the extraordinary things themselves, but neatly gathers in the fruit; with the dying, however, who hunger after God, one must especially seek to fan the little spark of faith. Ah! the poor hearts are stuck deep enough as it is in dark mistrust; the enemy only thrusts them deeper into it, so that the mind may fall into restless despondency and stay away from God. At such a time we are to lend help to the dear angels, who so gladly bring to Jesus, and to the poor souls hungering after Him, heart-strengthenings of good thoughts and of trust in God. Luke 22:43.
Now I am already quite tired. My heart greets you, dear sister, and wishes you the Lord's blessing out of His sanctuary for all that is needful. Amen! Jesus! remember me also before God. Some children here, who came to see me in my illness, have also asked to send their greetings.
Your
Mülheim, the 12th of December, 1748. — devoted weak fellow-brother.
German
Der hundertunddritte Brief.
Das reine Vertrauen auf GOtt quillet sanft durch alle Hindernissen. Des Schreibers Verhalten in außerordentlichen Dingen, so wohl bei Gesunden als bei Kranken.
Meine herzlich geliebte Schwester in JEsu!
Ob ich gleich noch nicht hab dürfen schreiben seit meiner letzteren Krankheit, so folge doch der innigen Neigung, um dich mit ein paar Zeilen gar herzlich zu grüßen, und zu sagen, daß mir dein angenehmes Schreiben richtig zur Hand gekommen.
— 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 written in weakness, about trust. Through the autumn of 1748 Tersteegen was gravely ill — fevers and a violent cough, three weeks in a darkened room because head and eyes could bear no light — and this is among the first letters he was permitted to write as he mended: "Although I have not yet been allowed to write since my last illness, I nevertheless follow the inward inclination to greet you most heartily with a couple of lines." The sister is the same Anna Maria Elisabeth Schmitz who received the fifty-first letter four years earlier. She had written about herself, and about her cousin, now dead, who before his death had seen something — an appearance of two persons — and the letter answers both things in turn, under the title's two heads: pure trust in God, and how to behave about extraordinary things.
The clear water. To her anxieties about herself he gives one instruction: "remain untroubled in this mind and ground: namely, that with all knowledge and feeling of your weaknesses and miseries you place no trust at all in yourself, but infinitely much in God." And then the image that carries the letter: "Pure trust in God alone is like a still, clear water out of eternity; often some impure water mixes itself with it; often it is even covered over; but after its kind it separates off everything impure — that is, all designs upon ourselves — more and more, and wells softly through all hindrances, and takes the soul with it into its origin." Trust is not something the soul manufactures; it is a water with a nature of its own, self-clarifying, and its source and its sea are the same eternity. The practical corollary is pure Tersteegen: "Let us look at the good and the evil in us very innocently, very much in passing, and as little as possible! God alone is good, and looking upon Him makes good."
The dying cousin and the two persons. The second half is a small masterclass in pastoral discernment. First he absolves her conduct at the sickbed: she could not have turned the dying man away, and "in such circumstances God gives one what is needful for a poor needy soul's sake" — one commends oneself to God like a child, trusts Him for what to think and say, and afterward "must humble oneself again before God, and think no more of how it went." Then the apparition itself, and the celebrated rule: "Whether that which befell your cousin … was divine or not — on that little depends; but this is certain: it befell him from God's side and for his strengthening." He goes further, into pastoral silence: even had he known it certainly for a dream, "I should have scrupled to tell him so, lest he lose the good fruit and benefit of it." His test is the Gospel's: "I look to see what fruit the tree bears." With the healthy he steers quickly past the extraordinary — "because of the tempter and of selfhood" — and gathers in the fruit; but "with the dying, however, who hunger after God, one must especially seek to fan the little spark of faith." For the poor hearts stick deep enough in dark mistrust, and the enemy thrusts them deeper; "at such a time we are to lend help to the dear angels" — the angels of Gethsemane, who brought heart-strengthening to Jesus and gladly bring it to souls that hunger after Him (he cites Luke 22:43 in the text).
The close. "Now I am already quite tired" — the convalescent's pen giving out. A blessing out of the sanctuary, a breathed invocation — "Jesus! remember me also before God" — greetings from the friends who visited his sickbed, and the subscription of these years: "Your devoted weak fellow-brother."
A few words and echoes.
- wells softly through all hindrances. The title's verb — quillet — a spring's motion, not a torrent's; trust that does not force obstacles but rises through them.
- no trust at all in yourself… infinitely much in God. The letter's whole doctrine in one clause, given to her as a settled "mind and ground," not a mood.
- a still, clear water out of eternity. The still waters of Psalm 23 and the clear river of Revelation 22 stand behind the image; its logic — the water clarifies itself — is Tersteegen's own.
- designs upon ourselves. What makes the water impure is always the same admixture: aims that bend back toward self.
- God alone is good. Christ's own word (Mark 10:18); the letter adds the mystic's corollary — "and looking upon Him makes good."
- from God's side and for his strengthening. The rule that frees her from deciding what the vision was: its origin in God's providence and its fruit in the man's strengthening are certain; its metaphysics may rest.
- I should have scrupled to tell him so. Pastoral silence as conscience: the fruit of a dying man's comfort outweighs the satisfaction of a correct diagnosis.
- what fruit the tree bears. Matthew 12:33 — "the tree is known by his fruit" — Tersteegen's standing test for all extraordinary things.
- because of the tempter and of selfhood. The two reasons visions are dangerous to the healthy: the enemy's counterfeits, and Eigenheit — the self's appetite for being singled out.
- fan the little spark of faith. The smoking flax that shall not be quenched (Isaiah 42:3; Matthew 12:20), at the deathbed.
- lend help to the dear angels. Luke 22:43, his own citation — "there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him." The angels' Gethsemane ministry continues at every deathbed, and we may second it.
- heart-strengthenings. His word Herz-Stärkungen is the apothecary's — cordials for the heart; good thoughts and trust administered like medicine.
- out of His sanctuary. Psalm 20:2 — "The LORD… send thee help from the sanctuary."
- Jesus! remember me also before God. The thief's prayer made his own (Luke 23:42).
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdii-thiii-103 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.