Letters · Zweiter Band · Theil III (1775)

Encouragement to a soul that stands in trials and sufferings.

Bd II · Th III · Brief 110 · Der hundertundzehnte Brief

Addressee — The GEB print suppresses the name (generic salutation "Herzlich geliebter Bruder!"). Within: "mein Bruder"; greetings to "sämtlich erweckte Seelen daselbst". Addressed du/dein/dich → you.
Date — Mülheim, 8 March 1749 — answers the brother's welcome letter of the 2nd of this month; he is not in a state to answer at length.
Provenance — Translated from the public-domain 1775 first edition (Theil III, pp. 343–344), 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-tenth Letter.

Encouragement to a soul that stands in trials and sufferings.

Dearly beloved brother!

I must by this only answer, that I am not in a state to answer your welcome letter to me of the 2nd of this month. I take hold of you, my brother; I take part in your trials and sufferings, and trust the Lord that He will hold you fast in the hidden place, and help you through. Assent to your nothingness; wait for all good from the Lord, and leave yourself over to Him, without seeing where you are coming to. The foul-smelling dung of our miseries His wisdom will yet know how to use, that beautiful little flowers may grow from it.

Greet heartily all the awakened souls there; they are near to me. May Jesus bless and keep them! I like now and then to hear how they stand. I am, etc.

Mülheim, the 8th of March, 1749.

❦

German

Der hundertundzehnte Brief.

Muthgebung an ein in Proben und Leiden stehendes Gemüthe.

Herzlich geliebter Bruder!

Ich muß durch dieses nur antworten, daß ich auf dein mir Angenehmes vom 2ten dieses nicht im Stand bin zu antworten.

— 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 March note of the 8th, 1749, from Mülheim to the same brother as the February letter — Johann Engelbert Evertsen of Barmen (the old print suppresses the name; the autograph names him, merchant in Barmen). He has had the brother's letter of the 2nd, and is not in a state to answer it at length. What he can send is encouragement to a soul that stands in trials and sufferings — and then greetings to the awakened there. (The autograph is longer: fever-days, the household greetings, a postponed visit. The reader text follows the old print.)

Take hold, and leave yourself over. "I take hold of you, my brother; I take part in your trials and sufferings, and trust the Lord that He will hold you fast in the hidden place, and help you through." Then the whole counsel, in three strokes: assent to your nothingness; wait for all good from the Lord; leave yourself over to Him, "without seeing where you are coming to." The image for what God does with that nothingness is the dunghill: "The foul-smelling dung of our miseries His wisdom will yet know how to use, that beautiful little flowers may grow from it."

The awakened there. Greet them all heartily; they are near to him. "May Jesus bless and keep them! I like now and then to hear how they stand." He is, etc. Mülheim, the 8th of March, 1749.

A few words and echoes.

encouragement. Muthgebung — the giving of courage, not a lecture.
stands in trials and sufferings. in Proben und Leiden stehendes Gemüthe — a soul that is standing in them, not passing through.
by this only answer. durch dieses nur antworten — this scrap is the answer, because a full one cannot be written.
I take hold of you. Ich fasse dich — the house verb: to take hold, in spirit.
in the hidden place. im Verborgenen — held fast where He hides.
Assent to your nothingness. Stimme zu in dein Nichts — say yes into it, not merely admit it.
without seeing where you are coming to. ohne zu sehen, wo du hinkommst — yield without a view of the road.
foul-smelling dung of our miseries. übelriechender Mist unserer Elenden — the miseries themselves are the dung; His wisdom will use it.
beautiful little flowers. schöne Blümlein — what the dung is for.
now and then. als einmal — now and again, as he likes to hear how they stand.
I am, etc. Ich bin, 2c. — the house close abbreviated; no Dein block on this leaf.

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Zweiter Band, III. Theil, Brief 110 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdii-thiii-110.html.

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