Letters · Zweiter Band · Theil III (1775)

Of the heaviness and lightness of yieldedness.

Bd II · Th III · Brief 142 · Der hundertzweiundvierzigste Brief

Addressee — To Johann Engelbert Evertsen — van Andel, 283. Salutation "Mein lieber Bruder!" — not a Rule B salutation (no herzlich geliebte / Hertzgeliebte). Body du / dein / dich / dir → you/your. No God-apostrophe with a pronoun. No standalone Dein → no Your.
Date — Mülheim, 23 July 1750.
Provenance — Translated from the public-domain 1775 first edition (Theil III, pp. 435–437), 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-forty-second Letter.

Of the heaviness and lightness of yieldedness.

My dear brother!

I cannot forbear to write you also yet directly my heart's-greeting. I had almost thought these days my powers would not have recovered again; now it seems yet to be somewhat bettering again. God be in all things loved and praised!

I find all union with you in my heart, and must at times inwardly thank the Lord therefor, that He has let us meet one another. I trust it pretty well at rest, that the dearest God's end-purpose thereunder will yet be more fully reached.

To be sure you must yet more out of the senses and out of yourself, to become truly spiritual, but suffer yourself thereunder with peaceable annihilation. It is not needful so stiffly to look upon where you must out, as only to yield yourself to the unperceived secret workings, which show you where you must in. You desire I might alter for you the verse

Alas! how hard a thing is abandonment, Since one must without end surpass Nature.

(Ah, what a hard thing is yieldedness, because one must without end overcome Nature.)

and leave out the signs of lament; I will ask God for it, but when it shall be heard, this your desire must also go into the yieldedness. With the pen I will already alter it for you now:

Abandonment accomplished is sweet; but the birth is hard. Who yields to God his rights surmounts nature.

That is: "Yieldedness is easy, once it is achieved, "Yet hard and heavy ere it comes to birth; "Who can to God his perfect right recede, "Conquers and overcomes at last the earth.

Faithful is He that calleth us; in Him and as before His face I greet and embrace you, dear brother! Greet also all the dear fellow-called there by name: I forget none of them. My household greet also.

Mülheim, the 23rd of July, 1750.

❦

German

Der hundertzweiundvierzigste Brief.

Von der Schwere und Leichtigkeit der Überlassung.

Mein lieber Bruder!

Ich kan nicht unterlassen, dir auch noch direct meinen Herzens-Gruß zu überschreiben. Ich hätte dieser Tagen bald gedacht, meine Kräfte würden sich nicht wieder erhohlt haben; nun scheint es doch wieder was zu bessern.

— 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 July letter of the 23rd, 1750, from Mülheim to Johann Engelbert Evertsen, written the same day as Brief 141 to his brother Abraham. Of the heaviness and lightness of yieldedness. Direct greeting, not only through the letter to Abraham.

The greeting. Directly a heart's-greeting. These days the powers had almost not recovered; now it seems somewhat bettering. God be loved and praised in all things. All union with you in the heart; thanks that He has let us meet. The dearest God's end-purpose thereunder will yet be more fully reached.

Out and in. You must yet more out of the senses and out of yourself, to become truly spiritual; suffer yourself thereunder with peaceable annihilation. Not so stiffly to look where you must out, as to yield to the unperceived secret workings that show where you must in. You asked the lament-verse altered, the signs of lament left out: that desire itself must go into the yieldedness. With the pen it is already altered now — the counter-stanza of yieldedness easy once it is done, hard before it is born; who can recede his right to God overcomes Nature at last. Faithful is He that calleth us. Greeting to the dear fellow-called there by name; the household greet also. Mülheim, the 23rd of July, 1750.

A few words and echoes.

heart's-greeting. Written the same day as the letter to Abraham, and sent directly, not only through the brother.
yieldedness. Überlassung — the letter's subject: how hard it is before it is born, how light once it is done. The French of the verses is abandon.
out of the senses and out of yourself. The way to become truly spiritual — not so stiffly to stare at where one must get out, as to yield to the unperceived workings that show where one must go in.
peaceable annihilation. friedsamer Vernichtigung — how to suffer oneself under that going-out.
signs of lament. Klag-Zeichen — the brother asked them left out of the verse; that desire itself must go into the yieldedness.
"Alas! how hard a thing is abandonment." The verse he asked altered. The counter-stanza answers: yieldedness is easy once achieved, hard before it comes to birth; who recedes his right to God overcomes Nature at last.
Faithful is He that calleth us. The close, from 1 Thessalonians 5:24 — "Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it."
fellow-called. Mitberufene — greet them there by name; he forgets none of them.

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Zweiter Band, III. Theil, Brief 142 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdii-thiii-142.html.

← Bd II · Th III · Brief 141 Bd II · Th III · Brief 143 →