O PAST and gone !
How great is God ! how small am I !
A mote in the illimitable sky,
Amidst the glory deep and wide and high,
Of Heaven's unclouded sun.
There to forget myself for evermore ;
Lost, swallowed up in Love's immensity,
The sea that knows no sounding and no shore,
God only there, not I.
More near than I unto myself can be,
Art Thou to me ;
So have I lost myself in finding Thee,
Have lost myself for ever, 0 my Sun !
The boundless Heaven of Thine eternal love
Around me, and beneath me, and above ;
In glory of that golden day
The former things are passed away—
I, past and gone.
—G. TERSTEEGEN.
DURING the ten years in which the conventicles were closed many joys and many sorrows marked the life of Tersteegen. His friends multiplied greatly ; and frequently from morning to night his house was beset with visitors, who came from far and near for help and counsel.
In the year 1743 two young men came to the smaller meetings in Tersteegen's house, and had many private conversations with him. The younger of the two, Engelbert Evertsen, describes the awakening of his soul at that time.
" On May 2nd, 1744," he says, " God blessed me by drawing me to Himself in His love and grace."
Abraham Evertsen, the elder brother, was awakened and converted at the same time.
"I was never," adds Engelbert, "very much inclined to reading, or meditation, or acquiring knowledge, but rather to love and adoration. The pity was that I did not sufficiently overcome all the hindrances in the way."
From this time the brothers became the devoted friends of Tersteegen. They determined to live a single life, in order to give themselves up in all their spare time to the service of God. The young men were employed in their father's business, that of ribbon-weaving. Engelbert was of a very social disposition, and had to be warned by Tersteegen not to betake himself to the company even of his Christian friends whenever he felt dull, but to learn what it was to have a companionship far more gladdening than that of any other.
It was at this time that Engelbert Evertsen thus describes his friend and counsellor:
" He won my respect so completely that he soon became far more to me than all other godly men that I had as yet known. Yet at that time he seemed to me somewhat too still and devotional, so that I had a certain fear of him, which was perhaps very useful to me. For two or three years, till about 1747, my brother became more intimate with him ; and I had visibly gone back, yielding to the temptation of thinking too much about my body and my health. But with what great love, at the same time how solemnly, did he unveil to me this temptation, and my too great love for myself. By means of his love and help I was rescued from this danger ; and from that time I was filled with a much greater love to my God and Saviour, and also to my friend Tersteegen, which from the spring of that year 1747 never again wavered, for which I thank God heartily. What a blessing he was to me during the remaining twenty-two years of his life the Lord only knows. How often I came to him burdened and cast down, and then the very sight of his face cheered and gladdened me. When I came with much upon my mind about which I wished to talk and to complain, the burden often fell off of itself, so that I had no occasion to speak a word, but felt myself drawn into the quietness of perfect peace. From one single visit I often gained so much strength, that I felt myself able to go on for weeks in a heartfelt enjoyment of self-denial and prayer."
Soon after the conversion of their two sons, the old parents were awakened through reading Tersteegen's books, and implored him to pay them a visit in the year 1747. This was his first journey to Barmen. He describes it as follows:
"I wished to perform this journey incognito, but this was impossible. In Barmen, and in other places, numbers of people, whom I have never seen before, were so awakened and moved by the preaching that I could scarcely tear myself away from them, or behave manfully in the midst of so many who were weeping bitterly. I was obliged to travel about eleven days in the province of Berg, surrounded with enquiring people from morning to night. Once I thought of a quiet place about four miles from the road, where I might spend a little time alone; but they were all on the watch, and when I arrived there I was taken into a barn, in which there were about twenty people, mostly unknown to me, who had gone on before and were waiting for me.
" When I started on my return journey, about eight o'clock in the morning, being very unwell, my horse was surrounded by a crowd, some of whom had come ten or twenty miles to see me before I left. There is hunger everywhere, and no one to hand out the food."
The testimony given by some of these people remains for us : " His love, his forbearance and patience with the weak and the fallen, his extraordinary wisdom in leading everyone to speak truthfully that which was in his heart, his helping hand in all trials and temptations, and also his great power of intercession, could never be effaced from the memories of those who heard him."
One of them says, "Before I knew him personally, I heard from an impartial friend of mine, a learned man, this remarkable testimony, Tersteegen is truly a friend of God,' and this testimony I can fully endorse. He was most truly a friend of God. I have often seen and experienced that the love and the grace of God flowed into him and from him as an overflowing stream. His life seemed to consist of nothing but loving intercourse with God. What solemnity, what devotion and peaceful stillness have I not felt in my own soul when in his company ! As he was a friend of God, so can I also truthfully call him a friend of man. He never wished to keep for himself any of the gifts that God gave him. It is impossible for my pen to express how much I and others gained from his companionship, especially when I was the first to visit him in the morning, and he had just come out of his room—it was as if he came forth from the immediate presence of God. God was always so present to him that he was living in perpetual love and reverence, and this communicated itself to me in some measure when I was with him. Oh, that I could but say what God has given me in this His friend ! I thank the Lord Jesus with my whole heart who gave me the gift of such a friendship, and blessed it in such a remarkable manner to my soul."
The ribbon factory of the Evertsens made an extraordinary profit, 5o per cent, being regarded as small, 300 per cent. not unfrequent. The brothers, when they succeeded to the business, devoted their income to the service of God. They founded a "Pilgrim’s Hut" which was inhabited by a family similar to that of Otterbeck till after the death of Engelbert in 1807. In 1854 it was inhabited by Engelbert's nephew, William Eller. This was the third "Pilgrims' Hut" which had been founded—the first at Otterbeck, the second was at Mülheim, in the house where Hoffmann, Tersteegen’s beloved friend and teacher, died in the year 1746.
Hoffmann's death had been a great sorrow to Tersteegen. He nursed him and watched over him during his long and painful illness, and remained by his side till all was over. Hoffmann was peaceful, and happy, and said the Lord had delivered him from all fear and anxiety. But when suffering greatly he said to his friend, "David and Job complained often of their pain and sorrow, should not I do the same ?" " You and I," said Tersteegen, "have less reason to pity ourselves. Job had a righteousness which perplexed him greatly when trouble came upon him, and he knew not what to make of it ; but you and I have no righteousness to trouble us." Hoffmann died at last quietly in his sleep. He had sometimes been afraid of the act of dying, though rejoicing in the thought of going to be with Christ. He was never to taste of death.
After his death Tersteegen rented his house, in order to use it as a " Pilgrims' Hut " on the plan of Otterbeck. But soon after he found that it was best he should himself inhabit a larger house, for he had no room for his dispensary, to which one hundred patients would sometimes apply all together. He wanted a room too for preparing his medicines. The house, still to be seen, is very plain and simple, and Tersteegen only reserved two rooms for himself and Sommer. "A royal palace," he said, "is too small for a man who lives for himself, but a little hut is great and splendid for one who is living to God." The rooms were made to communicate not only with those on the same floor, but with those above and below, so that Tersteegen, preaching in one room, could be heard in five or six others, which were constantly filled. He and Henry Sommer lived in the upper story. The lower rooms he made over to a friend, Sibylle Emschermann, who in return undertook the house-keeping and daily cooking for the poor and sick. Her brother and his wife lived with her, and helped in the work. "Billiken," as Sibylle was usually called, was devoted to Tersteegen, and served him faithfully thirty years. She was occasionally cross, when too many visitors came, and she feared her master would be overdone, upon which occasions he would sing a cheerful hymn, and say, " Tersteegen is not to be spared, never mind Billiken."
In the year 1750 Tersteegen's labours were suddenly increased. During the years when the preachers were silenced in Miilheim and the neighbourhood, Tersteegen had still preached in Elberfeld and other towns at some distance, though he was chiefly employed in writing and visiting. But in 175o a young student of theology at Duisburg named Chevalier, who had come there from Amsterdam, began to preach the gospel not only at Duisburg, but at Miilheim, where crowds collected to hear him.
Without waiting for leave, the meetings were begun afresh, and a great awakening followed. Tersteegen was delighted and thankful. He went himself to Chevalier's meetings, and found him, as he said, earnest and true, " though he and I," he added, "have both a good deal to learn."
In November, 1750, Tersteegen himself spoke in Chevalier's meeting. The mayor, the pastor, and the chief magistrate now thought it was time to interfere. Tersteegen undertook to plead for the meetings.
"Can you think it would be right," he said to the magistrate, " if you were to stop these good and profitable meetings, and at the same time allow all sorts of quacks and rope-dancers to collect crowds, and leave people free to meet as much as they like to gamble and drink ? How do you think it will look to you on your deathbed if you do so ?" The magistrate was convinced, and the preaching continued.
It was a great strain upon Tersteegen to preach to the crowds who came, in a voice loud enough to be heard in five or six rooms all filled, whilst many brought ladders and sat on the window-sills outside.
Chevalier himself remained little more than a year at Duisburg, and then returned to Holland. He considered it right to have an occupation by means of which he could earn his living, especially as he was betrothed to a young Dutch lady. Tersteegen did not see this, and wished Chevalier to give himself up to the work of the gospel, looking to the Lord to provide for him. However, their differing views of the matter made no breach between them, and they remained fast friends, loving one another warmly and truly.
When Chevalier was gone, Tersteegen's work was naturally increased. Often when he got up he would find sixty or seventy people already waiting to speak to him, and the time he could call his own was very short. His journeys to the neighbouring towns, and to Holland, still continued. A rich Dutch lady offered him a carriage and horses, but these he refused ; he was accustomed to ride, and preferred doing so.
As may be supposed, he sometimes met with a rough reception, but nothing disturbed him. When a bottomless basket was thrown over his head in one little town, he merely remarked, " That is far from being a crown of thorns." "Stop in the devil's name!" shouted some soldiers whom he met in the Duisburg wood. " I am not under the devil's orders," replied Tersteegen.
Sometimes when strangers came to see him, he would take them out to a pleasant place in the wood, to sing hymns and to pray. The tree is still shown, and still called Tersteegen's tree, under which he often sat, and where he wrote one of his best-known hymns.
" Sweet shades and fields that glow with summer flowers,
How dear are ye to me ;
Alone with Jesus Both my heart adore Him,
That ye are fair to see.
Sweet shades and fields that glow with summer flowers,
How dear are ye to me ;
Nought seen in you but tender grace revealing,
How fair His thoughts must he.
Sweet shades and fields that glow with summer flowers,
How dear are ye to me.
How soft the breathings of Thy love, Lord Jesus ;
I rest my heart on Thee.
" All, all that buds and blossoms and rejoices,
Hath my Beloved made ;
His wisdom and His tenderness and gladness
Told forth in leaf and blade.
All, all that buds and blossoms and rejoices,
Hath my Beloved made ;
All moves unto the music of His power,
That fills the woodland glade.
All, all that buds and blossoms and rejoices,
Hath my Beloved made ;
But heaven and earth, in all their radiant glory,
To Him are midnight shade.
" Lord Jesus, Thee to meet, and to adore Thee,
I sit here all alone.
All else may vanish as the mists of morning,
Thou art mine all, mine own.
Lord Jesus, Thee to meet, and to adore Thee,
I sit here all alone ;
To drink afresh the river of thy pleasures,
Know more of the unknown.
Lord Jesus, Thee to meet, and to adore Thee,
I sit here all alone ;
And lose myself and find that Thou art only ;
Beside Thee nought and none,
"Alone with Thee to dwell, O my Beloved,
Is heaven on earth begun ;
Whilst vanity of vanities outwearies
All hearts beneath the sun.
Alone with Thee to dwell, O my Beloved,
Is heaven on earth begun;
Above the midnight and the noonday glory,
Our resting-place is won.
Alone with Thee to dwell, O my Beloved,
Is heaven on earth begun ;
And heaven in heaven through all eternity
Our pilgrim journey done."
The crowds who came to the preaching still increased. From the castles of the nobles, from the farms and factories, from the towns and hamlets, came thirsting souls, who went back not only satisfied with the living water, but to become fountains of living water in their turn.
It was not, as Tersteegen said, that his preaching was of deep mysteries and learned love. It was strangely simple. The Pietists, who would have reformed the Protestants, and who had themselves strayed away into wild imaginations and caricatures of Gospel teaching, needed in their turn to be reformed. And the compassionate, long-suffering God who loved them, who could see where the world saw only folly and delusion, a true longing of the bewildered heart after Him, had raised them up a teacher and a pastor, faithful, and simple, and humble. They heard again the Gospel of God stripped of the dreams and vagaries of deformed Pietism, stripped of the hard shell of book learning, of the delusions of Catholics and the formalism of Protestants.