How the soul must do, when God does her the grace, and lets her feel herself as she is by nature.

The Hundred-and-thirty-eighth Letter.

How the soul must do, when God does her the grace, and lets her feel herself as she is by nature.

Very dear friend and sister!

I must hereby answer your little letter, from which I see how it goes with you, namely that you now find yourself so dead and unfeeling, also so scattered and outwardly so restless. Dear sister see, so will God make us more and more known to ourselves, and reveal what we by nature are in ourselves. If you find yourself so dead, see, then you find yourself thus, as you already are from your birth. If you find yourself so unfeeling and insensible, then you feel your hard and stony heart, which you have borne with you from childhood. If you find yourself dispersed, see, then we have unfortunately been so before, but have not so felt it nor known it.

But, dear sister, is this now not God's grace? now to find and to know oneself, as one inwardly is in oneself in the truth. Yea surely! a great grace above many thousand other miserable people. And that too is grace, when you know and value this as a great grace, also when you gladly find yourself as you are, and it is dear to you to find yourself thus, as you are at bottom. Then this is the best means, that you constantly turn yourself in the ground of the heart to Jesus, and follow the drawing of grace; yea that we so, as we find ourselves, with all our misery, deadness, darkness, unfeelingness, hardness and scatteredness present ourselves before God, lay ourselves there, and say: "Behold, O God! so am I; I cannot change myself so much as a hair nor make myself better; O God! what an abominable, unclean, accursed nothing am I! which thou still drawest to thee with hidden drawings of grace; etc." Give yourself over with complete surrender to the most faithful Father, and into the perfect grace of Jesus, that He would lead and prepare you according to His all-best and all-wisest pleasure and good-pleasure, and as He will do with you in time and eternity. Sink yourself then constantly into His love-heart, and remain therein, not hearing what the dark reason and the world bring forward and think out. He will through the cross from within and without make us conformable to Himself, that we should become like the suffering and poor Jesus, who had not so much in the world, where He laid His head. Now then, dear sister, let us gladly be poor with Jesus, yea right rejoice that we have nothing, so shall we have all: Jehovah, Jesus and His whole kingdom of heaven and eternal glory. He let your only joy be, to hold yourself near to Jesus! whereunto all grace wishes you

Your Mülheim, weak fellow-brother. the 6th of May, 1750.

German

Der hundertachtunddreißigste Brief.

Wie es die Seele machen muß, wann GOtt ihr die Gnade thut, und sie sich so fühlen läßt, wie sie von Natur ist.

Sehr liebe Freundin und Schwester!

Ich muß dir hiemit auf dein Brieflein antworten, aus welchem ich sehe, wie es dir gehet, nämlich daß du dich jetzo so todt und ungefühlig, auch so zerstreut und äußerlich so unruhig befindest.

— 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).