Of the writer's likeness and unlikeness to Lazarus. Of the grace to suffer childlikely. Christ must be sought and found not here or there, but in the heart.

The Hundred-and-forty-third Letter.

Of the writer's likeness and unlikeness to Lazarus. Of the grace to suffer childlikely. Christ must be sought and found not here or there, but in the heart.

In our sweet and all-sweetening Saviour, dearly beloved sister!

I am heartily thankful to you, that you have been willing to visit me in my weakness with a pleasant little letter. In respect of sundry sores had, and a breaking-out, also the pains and fever bound up with it, I may well have had a little likeness to Lazarus: But my sensitiveness, my dainty eating and drinking and bed, together with other comforts; also the compassion of others, when I suffer a little, accords not at all with Lazarus's state. None the less it is yet true that I am borne by the service of the angels, yea by God's love itself, hopefully the same way whither Lazarus was borne. Praised be the Lord! The sores that were had are now mostly gone again, the breaking-out nearly also. Only of an evening and of the night the sharpness in the blood lets me rest little. Now about eight days since I have every other night a notable fever, that until four or five o'clock no sleep could take place; it seems yet now a couple of times to have been milder. The head and in general the nature are yet quite weak thereunder, that I have had many a day when I would not have been able to write a small little letter; as then already last post-day I would have written this little, but was not in a state thereto because of the head.

Now! that belongs so with to the way, and one leaves it all so behind one like an uneven, or muddy little spot on the way. Sweet eternity is our home, and the all-sweetening Jesus our company on the way. O grace! O love! I remember a time when I thought to be able to suffer heroically. Now I wished for you and me the grace to be able to suffer right childlikely. A child bears nothing but what it presently feels, without examining what it feels; he knows not how patience or impatience looks; it weeps when it feels the sufferings, and in the instant it laughs when it sees the mother: Is the pain past, then it thinks no further on that which has been, or could come; the occupation with its dear mother takes so entirely all its attention away, that it has nothing left to think upon itself and upon other things.

Dear sister! do you think that the Lord gives you and me a weak head without cause? We are to become simple heart's-children: The children have so their own theology and life's-way, and yet they get on well with all others who are only not too unquiet. You write of the various rumours and notions, as the one calls hither, the other thither. Now, that is true, when children and weakish people hear much such crying and look about, then they can become confused and dizzy; and when they should venture into the press of the people, even lose the mother out of sight. But what is it to us, whether one calls: Here is Christ! there is Christ! since Christ Himself in the Scripture and in the heart calls: Go not forth! One must indeed look upon it with impartial love, when the one thinks he can in this; the other, he can in another means, exercise or way attain some strengthening, help or encouragement in the main-matter: Only it must not become a sectarianism thereof; one must not wish to force anything upon others, and at all times hold fast the great truth, that Christ must be sought and found not here or there, in this or that, but only in the heart, through praying and dying. Especially can inward hearts, that is, souls who have a drawing to inward heart's-gathering, stillness and to inward clinging to God, and who through a little happy experience know that their God and highest Good, their life and whole salvation is so unspeakably near to them in the sweet name of Jesus; such souls, I say, can no more be so busy, to enter themselves here or there, into this or that with their seeking and life, and when they do it, they yet reap no remaining fruit. In the beginnings a soul seeks it in all places: She cannot otherwise, she must so do; but minds that are active, or have a strong life in the sensibility, they can in the everlasting running-out, working and driving well forfeit a beautiful pearl. In short! we must hold all good worth, but only make use of it, to arrive by the nearest way at the highest Good.

It is therefore very good, dear sister, that you let all fall away, and without judging upon this and that, or requiring insight therein, turn yourself only with me in unto Jesus, and in the utmost possible withdrawnness, from yourself and all created, wait inwardly upon His divine working and revelation. O! in Him we have all. Let only nature die! let one's own life be a burnt-offering of His love, and let our life and breath-taking be only Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Amen!

I know not why I write so? Since I actually also know not what you aim at in your letter. You will surely understand my meaning; I must so act without after-thinking. I greet you heartily together with your household etc. Remember me, as I also do in weakness.

Your Mülheim, obliged weak the 28th of August, 1750. fellow-brother.

German

Der hundertdreiundvierzigste Brief.

Des Schreibers Ähnlichkeit und Unähnlichkeit mit Lazarus. Von der Gnade Kindermäßig zu leiden. Christus müsse nicht hie oder da, sondern im Herzen gesucht und gefunden werden.

In unserem süßen und alles versüßenden Heiland herzlich geliebte Schwester!

Ich bin dir herzlich dankbar, daß du mich in meiner Schwachheit mit einem angenehmen Brieflein hast besuchen wollen. In Ansehung mancher gehabten Schwären und Ausschlags, auch damit verknüpften Schmerzen und Fieber mag ich wohl ein klein wenig Ähnlichkeit mit Lazarus gehabt haben: Aber meine Empfindlichkeit …

— 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).