Of the workings of the divine stillness and emptiness, and how greatly such is distinguished from the false emptiness or idleness.

The Twenty-First Letter.

Of the workings of the divine stillness and emptiness, and how greatly such is distinguished from the false emptiness or idleness.

Dearly beloved sister in Jesus, our dearest Savior!

Your heartily agreeable little letters I have well received, and read with pleasure. My body's-weakness and overheaped work are the only cause that I have not written back sooner. Meanwhile I have thanked the dear God from the heart, that His eternal love has touched your inward part and drawn it to Himself, to live wholly for Him and for eternity, and to follow Him, through the way of inward turning and of inward prayer. O! it is so childlike, sure, and blessed a way, whereby our spirit alone is freed from all pressing bonds, and is brought to the proper little place of its rest.

This life in the present world is a burdensome, vain, and strange life: We only travel through here. God is our true Father, and the still eternity is our fatherland, where we belong at home. We would never come home, if God had not given us His Son, who is come to seek and to save that which is lost. In the sweet name of this Jesus is God now so inward-near to us in our hearts: He salts the world for us, and makes all besides Him distasteful to us: It is He who awakens in us a hunger and an inward longing after Him and His inward fellowship and union, and meets us with undeserved goodness, kindness, and with a foretaste of His peace, to draw us to Himself, and to give us courage in those sufferings, and in the denial of all things. O! how so good and gracious is the Lord toward poor sinners who draw near to Him!

It is therefore certainly of God, beloved sister! and no deceit and danger at all thereby, when you at times in your inward part become aware of a sweet stillness, a well-being and a deep peace, without otherwise knowing, being able, and willing anything. This holy universality of prayer comprises in itself all particularities that we can pray and perform. The sensible objects and our own workings and thoughts can well stir our sensibility, and cause the outward man a passing delight: But when the ground of the heart is deeply satisfied and pleased, that God alone can work through His drawing-near; thence it also comes that you have not this frame always. When you yourselves could give or make yourselves this well-being and this peace, then you would indeed always have it; also it has something so divine with it, that the soul for the time cannot doubt at all that it is not God who is near to her: But when she comes to herself again and into considering; then she could doubt, because for the most part the senses do not pick up much of it.

The false emptiness or idleness consists in this, when a man in a self-willed manner and out of sloth will do or think nothing in prayer, while he is yet with knowledge and will fast in the world, the creature, and himself, and also neither expects nor experiences God's nearness and workings. This divine emptiness and stillness on the other hand is commonly accompanied with a general impression of God, with a sweet reverence before God, and with a peace and well-being that all the world cannot give. And granted that the soul did not always so pleasingly and perceptibly sense this, yet she will be able to sense the fruit of this divine-still prayer afterward; in that it leaves behind in her a great aversion from all created things, a high regard of God and of the Eternal, a heart-inclination to please God, and a great stillness and quieting of her mind's-motions, etc. In a word, here in this heart-inwardness and stillness, which God's nearness works, the divine life out of Jesus is instilled into us, who at last wholly takes our heart into possession.

It wonders me not at all that you complain of the distraction and harm of the outward occupations, and that you otherwise so easily fall into faults again. You have the matter as it were in the seed, but not yet in the ripeness: But in this little seed lies yet the whole tree, as in a powerful mustard-seed. Matt. 13:31 and 32. O! it is a noble seed, a high calling, a dear grace, which God lets befall you: Prize this pearl high; keep it in still inwardness, and answer it with full faithfulness. Your faults and weaknesses should make you small, but not faint-hearted. Distrust yourselves, but trust in God infinitely! Love the holy solitude, but also withdraw not from the affairs which necessity, love, or obedience require; but do all as a child that serves its present Father.

You can in your writing to me at all times be simple and free, though I, by reason of weakness and work, do not always answer. I love you in God, and think of you with all earnestness. Pray also for me! I greet you right heartily, and remain by grace

Your Mülheim, obliged weak fellow-brother. —— 1757.

German

Der einundzwanzigste Brief.

Von den Wirkungen der göttlichen Stille und Ledigkeit, und wie sehr solche von der falschen Ledigkeit oder Müßiggang unterschieden.

In JEsu, unserem theuresten Heilande, herzlich geliebte Schwester!

Eure herzlich angenehme Brieflein habe wohl erhalten, und mit Vergnügen gelesen. Meine Leibes-Schwächlichkeit und überhäufte Arbeit sind die einzige Ursach, daß ich nicht eher zurück geschrieben habe.

— 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).