Letters · Zweiter Band · Theil III (1775)

That after our surrender to God has taken place, we must follow the leading of Jesus in an active and in a suffering way, and how this comes about.

Bd II · Th III · Brief 106 · Der hundertundsechste Brief

Addressee — To Abraham Evertsen of Barmen (the elder Evertsen brother, Briefe 100/101's addressee) — the GEB print suppresses the name (generic salutation "Hertzlich geliebter Bruder in der Gnade JESU!"), inferring the addressee from the closes of this letter and the preceding Nr 405 (to Johann Engelbert, B105) and their same-day sending, on the analogy of Briefe 394/395 (our B98/99). Answers Abraham's letter of 12 November; the two brothers written the same day (19 Dec 1748). Addressed du/dein → you.
Date — Mülheim, 19 December 1748 — the same day as Brief 105 (to his brother Johann Engelbert); still convalescent ("bin noch wenig zum Schreiben im Stand").
Provenance — Translated from the public-domain 1775 first edition (Theil III, pp. 332–336), in normalized GS 1845 house orthography, collated against the 1798/99 second edition (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin). All rendered words come from public-domain prints.

The Hundred-and-sixth Letter.

That after our surrender to God has taken place, we must follow the leading of Jesus in an active and in a suffering way, and how this comes about.

Dearly beloved brother in the grace of Jesus!

Your welcome letter of the 12th of November I duly received in good time, and have often answered it in the spirit, since I have hitherto been hindered from doing so with the pen; and I am still but little in a state for writing.

Dear brother! We are the Lord's. From the moment when we surrendered ourselves to Him with an upright heart, we belong to Him with all that we are, and no longer to ourselves: as such we may and must regard ourselves. And so it remains; or else we should have to make a recantation as solemn as the surrender formerly was — from which the Lord will surely preserve us. It remains so! I say; and as such does God also, out of grace, regard us. Meanwhile, we are not yet finished. The mind must come out of everything more thoroughly, the heart be cleansed of its selfhood-traits, and the whole bent of love and aim be directed more purely upon God alone, in order to be capable of the inmost union with God: to attain to this, we have entrusted ourselves to Jesus and to the leading of His Spirit, for He is our Saviour. On our side, then, there is nothing to be done except only that we abide with Him according to the measure of our light and state, and follow Him both in an active and in a suffering way.

Let your heart, your heart's inclinations and heart's thoughts, be turned in a childlike and free way — yet with truth — toward the inwardly-near God. Follow, with a calm but considered assent, those impressions and inclinations that He may give you, to sever your delight, love, and life from all things and to turn them upon Him alone: let Him be truly Lord and Master in your heart, and let your will and all that is yours become subject to Him without reasoning! — according to the direction that He may give you for this from time to time. This direction is something altogether different from the uncertain, anxious, restless striving that arises out of one's own reflection and scrupling. The direction or leading of the Spirit of Jesus is an inward, quiet impression, inclination, or indeed an inward light, by which the soul is led to God; for which not reflection, but a simple stillness and recollection of heart is needful. This teaches us not great and extraordinary mysteries, but only the one mystery: how we are to die to ourselves and to live to God. In this manner one follows the Lord in an active way.

In a suffering way you follow Him when you accept everything that meets you from morning until evening, mediately or immediately, according to body or according to soul, with respect and willingness from God Himself, as something serviceable and good for you: to this belong, among other things, the circumstances of your bodily illness. God knows best, dear brother, what is good for you: whether you can serve Him better in weakness or in health? To this belong also the obscurities bound up with it, the fearful imaginations, the sadness, the experience of one's own weaknesses and of one's own inability to forsake oneself; the sensual plausible thoughts and distractions in one's thinking. In these and other like things you follow God in a suffering way when you suffer such things out of submission to God, and indeed as peaceably as is possible for you, assenting to your nothingness and misery, yet inclining yourself toward God, or leaving yourself over to Him with trust that your salvation will come from Him, according to His good pleasure. But from that which is in itself evil and sinful the will severs itself with truth; one does indeed suffer it too, yet in such a way that God's eye can see one does not approve it. From gloomy natural sadness one likewise severs oneself as far as possible, or at least does not hang after it, but rather seeks to help oneself in one way or another, though with yieldedness and innocence. The plausible thoughts one suffers without following them. If one cannot escape the sensual distractions in prayer, then one despises them and remains, in the heart's intent, quietly with God, and bears, for love of Him, such a crown of thorns.

God cares for you, dear brother! conform yourself to Him from morning until evening, and what you cannot do, learn it. The Lord will carry it through. Let us not seek ourselves and our own in this short life, not even in the service of God, but truly God alone. Ah! if only God be satisfied, then we ought gladly to be willing to forgo our own bodily and spiritual satisfaction. Everything passes by like a poor dream. God is our blessedness; in Him we shall be well forever. May Jesus live and be transfigured in you, especially also at this season, when we are once again to commemorate solemnly the kindness of God in the revelation of His love at the incarnation and birth of His Son. Your father, mother, brother, and also the rest of the called souls — all of them I greet most heartily, and wish that they too may grow and be green in winter, in grace! I remain

Your

Mülheim, the 19th of December, 1748. — devoted weak fellow-brother.

❦

German

Der hundertundsechste Brief.

Daß wir nach geschehener Uebergabe an GOtt, der Führung JEsu wirkender und leidender Weise folgen müssen, und wie solches geschehe.

Herzlich geliebter Bruder in der Gnade JEsu!

Dein Angenehmes vom 12ten Nov. habe der Zeit wohl erhalten, und öfters im Geist beantwortet, da solches mit der Feder zu thun bisher bin verhindert worden; auch bin noch wenig zum Schreiben im Stand.

— 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 the same December day as the hundred-and-fifth letter, and to the same family — this one to Abraham Evertsen, the elder brother in Barmen (the old print suppresses his name; the critical edition restores it). Tersteegen answers a letter of the 12th of November that his convalescence had kept him from answering sooner, and gives Abraham the fullest short statement he ever made of the shape of the surrendered life: having once given ourselves to God, we follow Him in two ways — actively and by suffering — and the letter unfolds each in turn. It closes as a Christmas letter.

"We are the Lord's." The governing sentence is set apart in the old print's emphasis type, and it is the hinge of everything: "We are the Lord's. From the moment when we surrendered ourselves to Him with an upright heart, we belong to Him with all that we are, and no longer to ourselves." The surrender, once truly made, is not to be revisited — "or else we should have to make a recantation as solemn as the surrender formerly was" — and God Himself, "out of grace," now regards us as His own. But belonging is not yet completion: "we are not yet finished. The mind must come out of everything more thoroughly, the heart be cleansed of its selfhood-traits… in order to be capable of the inmost union with God."

The active way. The first mode of following is wirkende Weise — the active way. It is not busy self-direction: "let your will and all that is yours become subject to Him without reasoning," following "the direction He may give you from time to time" — a direction "altogether different from the uncertain, anxious, restless striving that arises out of one's own reflection and scrupling." What the Spirit gives is "an inward, quiet impression… or indeed an inward light, by which the soul is led to God," and it asks not analysis but "a simple stillness and recollection of heart." Its whole content is "the one mystery: how we are to die to ourselves and to live to God." (The old print sets the phrase "in an active way" apart just here, at the point where the term is defined.)

The suffering way. The second mode is leidende Weise — the suffering way, and the letter's longest movement. You follow God in it "when you accept everything that meets you from morning until evening… with respect and willingness from God Himself, as something serviceable and good for you" — and to this belong the circumstances of Abraham's own illness: "God knows best… whether you can serve Him better in weakness or in health." To it belong, too, the whole inner weather of a dark time — "the obscurities bound up with it, the fearful imaginations, the sadness, the experience of one's own weaknesses… the sensual plausible thoughts and distractions in one's thinking." The art is to suffer these "out of submission to God, and indeed as peaceably as is possible," while drawing a clean line at real sin — "from that which is in itself evil and sinful the will severs itself with truth." Even distractions in prayer, if they cannot be escaped, are simply "despised" while the heart "remains… quietly with God, and bears, for love of Him, such a crown of thorns."

The Christmas close. The last movement lifts into the season. "God cares for you, dear brother! conform yourself to Him from morning until evening, and what you cannot do, learn it. The Lord will carry it through." Self and its interests are set aside — "let us not seek ourselves and our own… but truly God alone" — for "everything passes by like a poor dream. God is our blessedness." And then the Nativity: "May Jesus live and be transfigured in you, especially also at this season, when we are once again to commemorate solemnly the kindness of God in the revelation of His love at the incarnation and birth of His Son." A greeting to the parents and the whole Barmen circle, and the winter blessing that answers the season: "that they too may grow and be green in winter, in grace!"

A few words and echoes.

We are the Lord's. Romans 14:8 — "whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's" — the letter's emphasized watchword.
a recantation as solemn as the surrender. The self-gift to God is treated as a vow one cannot quietly walk back; solenn is the period word for a formal, public solemnity.
the traits of selfhood. Eigenheiten — the self's proprietary attachments, the residue the surrendered heart is still being cleansed of.
the inmost union with God. Vereinigung mit GOtt — the goal of the whole way; the two modes of following are the road to it.
in an active and in a suffering way. Wirkende and leidende Weise — the active and passive following that structure the letter; the old print marks the terms in its emphasis type at the points where each is defined.
without reasoning. Ohne Raisonniren — surrender that does not stop to argue the case; set against the "reflection and scrupling" that breed anxiety.
the one mystery: how we are to die to ourselves and to live to God. Romans 6:10–11 — dead unto sin, alive unto God — with 1 Peter 2:24 behind it.
plausible thoughts. Triftigkeiten — specious, cogent-seeming thoughts that distract in prayer; suffered "without following them."
bears, for love of Him, such a crown of thorns. Matthew 27:29 — the distractions one cannot escape become a small share in the crowning.
let us not seek… our own. 1 Corinthians 10:24 — "let no man seek his own" — extended even to "the service of God."
if only God be satisfied. Vergnügt in its period sense — content, satisfied; we would forgo our own contentment for His.
the kindness of God… at the incarnation. Titus 3:4 — "the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared" (Luther's Leutseligkeit) — the Christmas text.
grow and be green in winter. The blessing that turns the season into a figure of grace; behind it the evergreen righteous of Psalm 92 and the "grow in grace" of 2 Peter 3:18.

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Zweiter Band, III. Theil, Brief 106 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdii-thiii-106.html.

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