Letters · Zweiter Band · Theil III (1775)

A wish of peace and blessing to a sick man, to love God in suffering unto the last breath.

Bd II · Th III · Brief 116 · Der hundertundsechzehnte Brief

Addressee — The GEB print suppresses the name (salutation "Mein lieber Hertzens=Bruder!" — Rule B, heart's-brother, not arm 1). Addressed du/dein/dich → you. God-apostrophe (O! du ewiges…) → Thou/Thee/Thy.
Date — Creveldt, 24 June 1749 — five days after Brief 115 to the same sick brother. The leaf's place is Creveldt.
Provenance — Translated from the public-domain 1775 first edition (Theil III, pp. 355–356), 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-sixteenth Letter.

A wish of peace and blessing to a sick man, to love God in suffering unto the last breath.

My dear heart's-brother!

I greet you hereby heartily, and wish that Jesus may visit you in my stead. May He bless you! May He give you peace! May He strengthen and delight you with Himself, and be your true and eternal Life! He alone is enough for you, and eternally enough. He alone is the sure Ground, upon which you can, with childlike boldness, draw near to God, and let yourself fall into the abyss of eternal Love. Then shut your eye to yourself, as to all other shadow-being of this visibility! Love, love, and yield yourself over to the God who has so greatly loved you, and desires nothing of yours.

O Thou eternal, inward, and solely essential Good! be Thou alone our stay, our comfort, and our eternal Life, even when this shadow vanishes. Give grace to love Thee in suffering, and also in the last breath still to love, and in Thy love to glorify Thee eternally! Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!

I greet and kiss you once more tenderly in the Spirit, in the trust that such will soon take place more joyfully before God's Face.

Your

Creveldt, the 24th of June, 1749. — devoted brother.

❦

German

Der hundertundsechzehnte Brief.

Friedens- und Segens-Wunsch an einen Kranken, um GOtt zu lieben im Leiden bis zum letzten Athems-Zug.

Mein lieber Herzens-Bruder!

Ich grüsse dich hierdurch gar herzlich, und wünsche, daß JEsus dich an meiner Statt besuchen möge. Er segne dich!

— 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 June letter of the 24th, 1749, from Creveldt to the same brother as five days before — Johann Peter Schmitz of Solingen (the old print suppresses the name). The argument: a wish of peace and blessing to a sick man, to love God in suffering unto the last breath.

He alone is enough. Tersteegen greets him hereby, and wishes that Jesus may visit him in his stead. May He bless him, give him peace, strengthen and delight him with Himself, and be his true and eternal Life. He alone is enough, and eternally enough. He alone is the sure Ground, upon which the brother can, with childlike boldness, draw near to God and let himself fall into the abyss of eternal Love. Then shut the eye to himself, as to all other shadow-being of this visibility. Love, love, and yield himself over to the God who has so greatly loved him, and desires nothing of his.

The prayer. O Thou eternal, inward, and solely essential Good — be Thou alone our stay, our comfort, and our eternal Life, even when this shadow vanishes. Give grace to love Thee in suffering, and also in the last breath still to love, and in Thy love to glorify Thee eternally. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

The close. He greets and kisses him once more tenderly in the Spirit, in the trust that such will soon take place more joyfully before God's Face. Creveldt, the 24th of June, 1749.

A few words and echoes.

a wish of peace and blessing to a sick man. Friedens- und Segens-Wunsch an einen Kranken — the argument's first clause.
unto the last breath. bis zum letzten Athems-Zug — argument Athems-Zug; body Athemzug.
heart's-brother. Rule B on Hertzens-Bruder — do not flatten to dearly beloved.
hereby heartily. gar herzlich — the old print's hertzlich, in the house orthography.
in my stead. an meiner Statt.
delight you with Himself. vergnüge dich mit sich selbst.
the sure Ground. der sichere Grund — technical.
childlike boldness. kindlicher Freimüthigkeit.
the abyss of eternal Love. den Abgrund der ewigen Liebe.
Then shut your eye. Schleuß dann — consecutive dann, kept.
shadow-being of this visibility. Schatten-Wesen dieser Sichtbarkeit.
nothing of yours. nichts des Deinen — still the brother (not standalone Dein).
our stay. unsere Stütze.
in the last breath. body im letzten Athemzug — one word, where the argument hyphenates.
devoted brother. verbundener Bruder — standalone Dein → Your, never Yours.

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Zweiter Band, III. Theil, Brief 116 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdii-thiii-116.html.

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