That one must look not upon oneself, nor upon the accidents of things, but alone thereupon, that God be pleased.

The Hundred and Twenty-fourth Letter.

That one must look not upon oneself, nor upon the accidents of things, but alone thereupon, that God be pleased.

N. N.

I take part from the heart in your sufferings; I see that you also remain in the Passion after Easter. Only let yourselves then be crucified with Christ, so shall you also soon cry: It is finished; for if we have been planted together with Him unto a like death, so shall we also be like unto Him in the resurrection. Rom. 6. The world's suffering is like the autumn-tempest; that of the godly, like the spring-tempest; it is indeed also sharp, and holds long, but the hope of the summer that is before the door makes it bearable.

Methinks, dear sister, you look upon yourselves and the circumstances, or accidents of things, too much; that brings so much disturbance and distress. I know well that you cannot loose yourselves therefrom; yet must you direct the mind thither and let it be directed; then will all go better. The chief little point, wherein alone, purely and eternally, pleasure and rest for your distressed heart is to be found, is not this or that; that you find yourselves so or otherwise; that this or that come or come not after your (also good) inclination or fear; but therein must you set it, that only your God, your good Friend, be pleased. The agreeable must be agreeable to you for His sake, and the bitter for just these causes' sake also acceptable and dear: For only in God must our heart rest over the circumstances and accidents of all things; then is our rest firm, which otherwise changes with the wind. O! how little lies upon our weal and woe, and upon the whole world, when only God is pleased! And He is pleased, when we heartily gladly will to please Him, and are pleased with Him and with all His doing.

Methinks also that you look too much upon yourselves, upon your miseries, infirmities and poor progress. Now, that is so, as it is: but by staring thereon, by grieving and becoming peevish, nothing is bettered, but rather made worse. When you get your nothing, your misery, your infirmities before your eyes, then confess it quite quietly, but with truth before God: If they also come into the face of others with whom you live, then confess it also (as opportunity serves) before others; then forget it as much as possible, and sink yourselves gently into Jesus; unto which sinking the attained annihilation has brought you a double capacity. If this sinking, because of the disturbance, will not so soon begin, (for weak children are straightway moved) then bear such pain and disturbance as undisturbedly as is possible, now and then looking upon Jesus, until all vanishes, and the beholding of Jesus swallows up all seeing of yourselves and of your infirmities: Unto Him alone will we live; unto Him alone are we devoted. We think sometimes that this or that is good for us; but the Lord often sees something in a matter which we cannot see. — —

German

Der hundertundvierundzwanzigste Brief.

Daß man nicht auf sich selbst, noch auf die Zufälle der Dinge, sondern allein drauf sehen müsse, daß GOtt vergnüget werde.

N. N. Ich nehme von Herzen Theil an euren Leyden; ich sehe, daß ihr auch nach Ostern in der Paßion bleibet.

— 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).