NAME of Jesus ! highest Name !
Name that earth and Heaven adore !
From the heart of God it came,
Leads me to God's heart once more ;
Name of Jesus ! living tide !
Days of drought for me are past
How much more than satisfied
Are the thirsty lips at last !
Name of Jesus ! dearest Name !
Bread of Heaven, and balm of love ;
Oil of gladness, surest claim
To the treasures stored above.
Jesus gives forgiveness free,
Jesus cleanses all my stains,
Jesus gives His life to me ;
Jesus always He remains,
Only Jesus ! fairest Name,
Life, and rest, and peace, and bliss ;
Jesus, evermore the same,
He is mine, and I am His.
—G. TERSTEEGEN.
To return to Hoffmann. We have said that between Hoffmann and the nun Teresa, the difference was greater than the resemblance. Both were Quietists, and both were alike unconscious that in Christ they were already complete, in Christ already made free from the law of sin and death. There was a present peace and rest, therefore, which neither the one nor the other could enjoy.
But Hoffmann knew that the eternal peace was assured to him in heaven. He knew that by the blood of Jesus he should one day enter into the holiest, as an assured fact, and in heart and spirit he could now draw near to God.
Teresa looked upon herself as one "who deserved hell, and whose only support against despair was the infinite mercy of God." She did not know that by the justice of God, the place nearest to Himself in heaven is assured to those who believe. The place won by Christ, when, having borne the judgment of God for sin, He ascended into heaven, and claimed for Himself, and for His own, the place above the highest angel, the place in the innermost chamber of the Father's house.
Teresa had imagined to herself the passing of the soul "through crystal chambers," further and further into the centre of love and joy. But the chambers through which the soul must pass were fivefold, before the inmost chamber could be reached—through self-knowledge, through conflict, through the fear of God, through restful prayer, through union with God, and then into the chamber of ecstasy.
Where was the blessed work of Christ in this wandering through the chambers of human effort ?
And was it not when man had done, not his best, but his worst, that, in answer to the dying cry of Jesus, the veil was rent, the third heaven, "the inmost chamber of ecstasy," was opened to all who come unto God by Him ?
For into the holiest do we enter by the blood of Jesus, and by that way alone, and find ourselves lost in the perfection of love, not of our love to Him, but of His love to us.
Thus Hoffmann had a rest and peace in looking forward to the great eternity—a rest and peace of which Teresa knew nothing. On the other hand, Teresa, by the overstrain of heart and soul, to reach the unattainable chamber, was further deluded by visions and ecstasies, of which Hoffmann knew nothing, for he needed them not.
That which he strove to attain, was the conscious peace and rest in troubles and conflicts here below, which should correspond to the eternal peace and rest to which he looked forward in heaven. He strove to attain to the victory over sin and self, and the world and the devil. And he did not know that this too is ours in Christ, not to be gained by the self-mortification which should deaden the soul to pain or joy, but to be accepted as God's free gift, so that to deny ourselves, will be the easy yoke and the light burden laid upon us by Christ.
Abraham, who knew that the land was his, could offer to Lot the green pastures to the right hand or to the left. He had not to seek for that which God had freely given. But let us, who see by a clearer light the green pastures not only beyond this present life, but around us now, take shame to ourselves that the striving of Teresa and of Hoffmann to attain that which God has already given, was often far more earnest and true than is ours to carry out His purposes of love, to deny ourselves for His sake, and for the sake of the souls He loves.
It does not seem that Gerhardt told all his doubts and misgivings to Hoffmann. He loved him devotedly, and sat at his feet to learn. But Hoffmann, who described Gerhardt, during his years of darkness, as "travelling on, under God's preserving care, to the still eternity," could scarcely have been aware of the comfortless days and nights during which Gerhardt was seeking the God he loved, but the fulness of whose love he had never known.
Even to his chosen friend he could not tell the bitterness of his heart ; but he could tell it to God. And later on he told his history in few and simple words. It is best that he himself should tell it to us now.
"Like one far away on the great sea, when in the stormy skies neither sun nor stars appear, who knows not where he is, so can I not say where I am. But my hope is that my Jesus has His hand upon the helm, and the breath of His Spirit will waft my ship along. It costs me no little to bring my thoughts into sufficient order to speak or write even this much."
About the same time he wrote, " How willingly would I be freed from the bondage of lusts and of empty pleasures ; but I find in myself no strength or capability for it. This cannot be," he added, with a marvelous realization of the truth so little known to the mystics, " till the Lord Himself reveals Himself in us, raises up His dwelling-place in us, and inhabits it, filling it with His life, so that we are clothed in Him, and He Himself thus fulfils in us all the righteousness of the law.
"Then we shall no more strive after this virtue or that, but all virtues will be there in actual existence, and will flow forth without force or compulsion, because of the new birth in us, the birth of the new man, who is the Son of God (John i. 12), and who therefore shares with Jesus the love of God which constrains us. Then we shall be at once delivered from the slavery of our affections and lusts and opinions, and from the terrifying accusations of our conscience.
"And in the place of them we shall hear the sweet and tender voice of grace and of the gospel speaking within us, We shall be led out of the horror of the great darkness of the law by Christ Himself; and shall be as little children at the breast, drawing in the fulness of His grace and love in glad and gentle stillness, and He Himself will be the refreshment and the rest of our souls.
" It seems to me," he wrote again, " that the great Captain of our salvation drives us at times into a corner, in order that we may utterly despair of our own miserable righteousness. But the Lord knows the right moment to deliver us. Even waiting is unconscious advance, and to lose heart is a proof of self-confidence."
It seems to have been in the year 1724 that the " right moment " came at last.
Gerhardt was sent on some business to the town of Duisburg. He had to pass through the wood we may remember in the story of William Penn's visit to the young Countess Charlotte. There in the wood he became suddenly and violently ill. He believed that he was dying. He threw himself on the ground a little way from the path, and implored the Lord to remove the pain, and "to give him time to prepare for eternity."
We see from this that he had not yet seen that God has already made His believing children meet for the inheritance of the saints in light, that it was out of heaven that the best robe was brought, prepared by God Himself, given by Him as a free gift to him who comes in his rags from the far country. The pain ceased; and there and then Gerhardt gave himself up unreservedly to the God who is love. But his darkness and bitterness of heart remained.
As he sat by his bedside in the morning, in a moment, he knew not how, the glory and the sweetness of the love of God poured into his soul as a flood of light from the innermost heaven. Let him tell us of this in his song of praise and thankfulness, written on that occasion, and sung since by many lips and many hearts amongst the "quiet in the land."
" To heart and soul how sweet Thou art,
O great High Priest of God !
My heart brought nigh to God's own heart
By Thy most precious blood.
" No more my countless sins shall rise
To fill me with dismay—
That precious blood before His eyes,
Hath put them all away.
"My soul draws nigh with trust secure,
With boldness glad and free;
What matters it that I am poor,
If I am rich in Thee?
"Forgotten every stain and spot,
Their memory past and gone,
For me, O God, Thou seest not,
Thou lookest on Thy Son.
" Is all a dream? Thou canst not lie,
Thy Spirit and Thy blood
Proclaim to sinners such as I
The boundless love of God.
"They tell Thy love so deep, so free,
They tell the Father's heart—
Not what I am, or I must be,
They tell me what Thou art.
" Come, weary sinners great and small,
The open door stands wide,
Thy blessed heart that welcomes all,
O Lamb of God who died."
This was on a spring morning of that year 1724. In the same spring he sat alone in his little room, on the evening of " Green Thursday," as the day before Good Friday is called in Germany. His heart was filled with the joy which had put an end to the five years of darkness. We can see him there with none to whom to tell it, but the Lord who had given it. He is sitting at his little table, and with his own blood he is writing the letter still preserved to us.
" MY JESUS,-I own myself to be Thine, my only Saviour and Bridegroom, Christ Jesus. I am Thine wholly and eternally. I renounce from my heart all right and authority that Satan unrighteously gave me over myself, from this evening henceforward.
" On this evening—the evening when Thou, my Bridegroom through the precious blood, when Thou, my God, didst purchase me for Thyself, agonizing even unto death, praying till Thy sweat was as blood falling to the ground, that I might be Thy treasure and Thy bride.
"Thou hast burst the gates of hell, and opened to me the loving heart of Thy Father.
" From this evening onward my heart and all my love are offered up to Thee in eternal thankfulness.
" From this evening to all eternity, Thy will, not mine, be done. Command, and rule, and reign in me. I yield myself up without reserve, and I promise, with Thy help and power, rather to give up the last drop of this my blood, than knowingly and willingly, in my heart or in my life, be untrue and disobedient to Thee. Behold Thou hast me wholly and completely, sweet Friend of my soul. Thou hast the love of my heart for Thyself, and for none other. Thy Spirit be my keeper, Thy death the rock of my assurance ; yea, amen, may Thy Spirit seal that which is written in the simplicity of my heart.
"Thine unworthy possession,
" GERHARDT TERSTEEGEN.
“On 'Green Thursday' evening, Anno Domini 1724."
The darkness was past, and the light was come, the glory of the Lord had arisen upon Gerhardt Tersteegen, to be to him an everlasting light, and the days of his mourning were ended. " It was," he said, " as if a sick child were alone, and far away in the dark night, and suddenly the door was opened, and father and mother and all the beloved ones came in, and the long, lonely hours were over, and all was love."