Letters · Zweiter Band · Theil III (1775)

To accustom oneself to look upon all that meets us in God.

Bd II · Th III · Brief 130 · Der hundertunddreißigste Brief

Addressee — Same woman as Brief 107 (his Nr 437, p. 111 — also Catharina Krabbe (III); vgl. Brief Nr. 102). The GEB print addresses "Herzgeliebte Schwester!"; within, "meine Tochter". Body du/dein/dich → you. No God-apostrophe.
Date — Mülheim, 1750 — no day or month in 1775 or 1799. Both prints set a dash-pair before the year (1775 p. 395 = scan 518: — — 1750.; 1799 the same). The pair is the redactor's cut of the day/month — why he writes o. D. Warrant one page over: his Nr 437 prints "Mülheim, — 1749.ᵃ" with ᵃ "Ohne Angabe des Tages und des Monats." CASE-1 copy-text is the leaf: the dash-pair stands in the panel, framed as a redactor cut, not compositor furniture.
Provenance — Translated from the public-domain 1775 first edition (Theil III, pp. 394–395), 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-thirtieth Letter.

To accustom oneself to look upon all that meets us in God.

Beloved sister!

Hereby have I wanted to greet you, and to wish you God's peace and quieting in His inward nearness.

Because we love God, so must we all also love His will. O! how beautiful and how good is God and all that He does! Accustom yourself thereto, my daughter, to look upon all that comes in God, and to rest in this eternally-loving God, and to quiet yourself again and again over the accidents.

All things outside God pass away. He, who is our sweet God and our rest-point, remains eternally, who He is.

Your last little letter I have received. It is so good. Only forget all again, and take also such things quite simply from God, who in all looks to our best. I have no time to write more. In the spirit we remain together.

Your

Mülheim, obliged. —— 1750.

❦

German

Der hundertunddreißigste Brief.

Sich zu gewöhnen, alles was uns begegnet, in GOtt anzusehen.

Herzgeliebte Schwester!

Hierdurch hab ich dich grüßen, und dir GOttes Frieden und Beruhigung in seiner innigen Nahheit anwünschen wollen. Weil wir GOtt lieben, so müssen wir ja auch alle seinen Willen lieben.

— 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. To accustom oneself to look upon all that meets us in God — to Catharina Krabbe of Mülheim (Benrath's Catharina Krabbe (III); the same woman as Brief 107), undated, 1750.

Hereby have I wanted to greet you. A short sister-letter: God's peace and quieting in His inward nearness. Because we love God, we must all also love His will. O how beautiful and how good is God and all that He does. Accustom yourself, my daughter, to look upon all that comes in God, and to rest in this eternally-loving God, and to quiet yourself again over the accidents.

All things outside God pass away. He, our sweet God and rest-point, remains eternally, who He is. Her last little letter he has received; it is so good. Only forget all again, and take such things quite simply from God, who in all looks to our best. He has no time to write more. In the spirit we remain together. Mülheim, 1750.

A few words and echoes.

inward nearness. innigen Nahheit — the whole wish: God's peace and quieting there.
how beautiful and how good is God and all that He does. The ground for loving His will. (Psalm 25:8)
look upon all that comes in God. Accustom yourself, my daughter, and rest in this eternally-loving God.
the accidents. Zufälle — quiet yourself again and again over them.
All things outside God pass away. He, who is our sweet God and our rest-point (Ruhepunct), remains eternally who He is.
who in all looks to our best. beäuget — forget again; take such things quite simply from God.
In the spirit we remain together. He has no time to write more.

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Zweiter Band, III. Theil, Brief 130 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdii-thiii-130.html.

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