Letters · Zweiter Band · Theil III (1775)

Of the hidden life which the enemy seeks to hinder. Encouragement to becoming a child, as also to avoid the blood-suckers.

Bd II · Th III · Brief 145 · Der hundertfünfundvierzigste Brief

Addressee — To Pastor Johann Christoph Hencke of Duisburg — van Andel, 283. Salutation "Mein lieber Bruder!" — not a Rule B salutation (no herzlich geliebte / Hertzgeliebte). Body du / dein / dir / deines / ihr → you/your. No God-apostrophe with a pronoun. No standalone Dein on the GEB close → no Your. Lowercase brother.
Date — Mülheim, 2 December 1750.
Provenance — Translated from the public-domain 1775 first edition (Theil III, pp. 445–447), 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-fifth Letter.

Of the hidden life which the enemy seeks to hinder. Encouragement to becoming a child, as also to avoid the blood-suckers.

My dear brother!

I thank you yet heartily for your brotherly birthday-wish, and the Lord for all the years, and in these years undeservedly shown mercies: to Him be further my little bit of yet remaining life and life-power sacrificed to His service and to the finishing of His work; wherein I also request your intercession for myself.

Would God! that I had praised the hidden life in God more with an important example! That I have done it a little with mouth and pen has indeed never been a grief to me: but I esteem him blessed who, known to God alone, lays his whole upon it, in the daily dying and praying, to experience this secret treasure in ever purer enjoyment. O! how is the Thousand-Artist so busy, to hold us entangled and occupied in the kingdom of the senses, fancy and reason, only that we may not rightly behold and taste this heart's-life in God and with God, and the realities lying in the same, and powers of that world.

We will then, dear brother, become children anew with God, hasten to the heart, and forget all that is behind, also all our art. I know indeed little; but could I begin these elapsed years again, I would remain ignorant in a thousand things that I now know. I would also (quod & tibi dictum velim) not take up so many blood-suckers, I mean all manner of books not serviceable to the straight heart's-matter, which, instead of encouraging, only take away the strength. Grace alone makes the heart stedfast, and the anointing wise: dying and praying is the indispensable disposition thereto. O! Macari and combatants of your like! how blessed and how wise have you applied your years and powers!

—— Think of me, dear brother! We greet all.

Mülheim, the 2nd of December, 1750.

❦

German

Der hundertfünfundvierzigste Brief.

Vom verborgenen Leben so der Feind zu hindern suchet. Aufmunterung zum Kinder-werden, wie auch die Blutsaugers zu meiden.

Mein lieber Bruder!

Ich danke dir noch herzlich für deinen brüderlichen Geburts-Tag-Wunsch, und dem HErrn für alle die Jahre, und in diesen Jahren unverdient erwiesene Barmherzigkeiten: Ihm sey ferner mein Bißgen noch übriges Leben und Lebens-Kraft zu seinem Dienst und zur Vollendung seines Werks aufgeopfert; worin ich auch deine Fürbitte mir ausbitte.

— 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 December letter of the 2nd, 1750, from Mülheim to Pastor Johann Christoph Hencke of Duisburg. Of the hidden life which the enemy seeks to hinder. Encouragement to becoming a child, as also to avoid the blood-suckers. The dash-pair before the close cuts what the redactor dropped.

The hidden life. Thanks for the brotherly birthday-wish, and the Lord for the years and the undeserved mercies. Would God he had praised the hidden life more with an example. He esteems him blessed who, known to God alone, lays his whole upon it. The Thousand-Artist is busy to hold us in the senses, fancy and reason, that we may not taste the heart's-life in God.

Becoming a child. Become children anew with God; hasten to the heart; forget what is behind, and all art. Were the years to begin again, he would remain ignorant in a thousand things. Not so many blood-suckers — books not serviceable to the straight heart's-matter, which take away the strength instead of encouraging. Grace alone makes the heart stedfast; the anointing wise; dying and praying the disposition. O Macari and combatants of your like. Think of me. We greet all. Mülheim, the 2nd of December, 1750.

A few words and echoes.

the hidden life. Colossians 3:3 — "your life is hid with Christ in God"; he wishes he had praised it more with an example than with mouth and pen.
known to God alone. The blessed one, who lays his whole upon experiencing this secret treasure in ever purer enjoyment.
Thousand-Artist. Tausend-Künstler — the enemy, busy to hold us entangled in senses, fancy and reason, that we may not taste the heart's-life in God.
become children anew. Matthew 18:3 — hasten to the heart, and forget all that is behind (Philippians 3:13), also all our art.
blood-suckers. Blutsaugers — his name here for books not serviceable to the straight heart's-matter, which take away the strength instead of encouraging.
(quod & tibi dictum velim). "Which I would also have said to you" — the aside that turns the unused years back upon the brother.
Grace alone makes the heart stedfast. Hebrews 13:9; and the anointing makes wise (1 John 2:27).
dying and praying. The indispensable disposition to that stedfastness and that wisdom.
Macari. The old desert combatant he names, whose years and powers were so applied.

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Zweiter Band, III. Theil, Brief 145 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdii-thiii-145.html.

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