Comfort and instruction to a spiritually poor woman.
The Fifth Letter.
Comfort and instruction to a spiritually poor woman.
In the grace of Jesus, dearly beloved sister!
I am thankful to you for your New-Year little letter. I would have liked that you had heard, on New Year's Day, what I wished you and all the patients, as they stand together in Luke 4:18, for the New Year: (for I spoke on this and the following verse at that time) Though you have not now heard it, then I wish yet that you may believe and experience it.
You are poor, you are stripped; now, the gospel is preached to the poor. Do not bar yourself against it any longer, in God's name; be gladly poor, wretched, and weak, and rejoice, even if others think it of you. Seek neither to torment yourself nor to help yourself with thinking-back on the past: Had I done it thus, had I done it otherwise, with exercises of repentance, or other changes in the outward! Nothing can quiet and help, except Jesus; He demands nothing from your side, except that you consent to your poverty and misery; that you let yourself fall with the same as much as possible into Him, and in childlike expectation of His help, bear your little cross as long as it pleases Him.
In regard to others you must only in truth reckon yourself the frailest, and rather bow yourself than expect bowing from others; and then will to love gladly, then you surely love. Only be of good courage! God still lives, who has taken us by the hand; to Him we will remain yielded. Amen!
I greet heartily your whole house etc. Remember me before God!
Your Mülheim, obliged weak the 21st of January, 1753. brother.
German
Der fünfte Brief.
Trost und Unterricht an eine geistlich Arme.
In der Gnade JEsu herzlich geliebte Schwester!
Ich bin dir dankbar für dein Neu-Jahrs-Brieflein. Ich hätte mögen leiden, daß du am Neu-Jahrs-Tag es gehöret hättest, was ich dir und allen Patienten, so wie sie Luc. 4, 18. beisammen stehen, zum Neuen Jahr gewünschet: (denn über diesen und den folgenden Vers redete ich damals) Hast du es nun gleich nicht gehöret …
— 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 New-Year letter of the 21st of January, 1753, from Mülheim to Elisabeth Schröters at Krefeld — the day after the Barmen brother's New-Year letter (Brief 4). He thanks her for her little New-Year note. He would have liked her to have heard, on New Year's Day, what he wished her and all the patients, as they stand together in Luke 4:18. She did not hear it. Then he wishes yet that she may believe it and experience it. She is poor, and stripped. That is where the gospel is preached. Only be of good courage: God still lives, and has taken them by the hand.
The patients of Luke 4:18. The New-Year wish was spoken over that verse: the poor, the captives, the blind, the bruised, standing together. Those are his patients. The gospel is preached to the poor. She is not to bar herself against it. Be gladly poor, wretched, and weak, and rejoice even if others think it of her. Not by thinking back on the past — had I done it thus, had I done it otherwise — not by exercises of repentance, or changes in the outward. Nothing quiets and helps, except Jesus. He asks nothing from her side but that she consent to the poverty, and fall with it into Him, and bear the little cross as long as it pleases Him.
The frailest, and the hand. In regard to others she is to reckon herself the frailest, and rather bow than wait for others to bow. Then will to love gladly — then she surely loves. Only be of good courage. God still lives, who has taken them by the hand; to Him they will remain yielded. Amen. He greets her whole house, and asks to be remembered before God. Mülheim, the 21st of January, 1753.
A few words and echoes.
- the patients of Luke 4:18. the poor, the captives, the blind, the bruised, standing together. (Luke 4:18)
- the gospel is preached to the poor. she is poor, and stripped; that is where it is preached. (Luke 4:18; Matt. 11:5)
- be gladly poor. wretched and weak, and rejoice even if others think it of her. (Matt. 5:3)
- nothing quiets except Jesus. not the past, not exercises of repentance, not changes in the outward.
- consent to the poverty. and fall with it into Him; bear the little cross as long as it pleases Him.
- the frailest. rather bow than wait for others to bow; then will to love gladly, then she surely loves.
- only be of good courage. God still lives, who has taken them by the hand. (Ps. 73:23; Isa. 41:13)
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdii-thiv-005 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.