His priest am I, before Him day and night,
Within His Holy Place
And death, and life, and all things dark and bright,
I spread before His Face
Rejoicing with His joy, yet ever still,
For silence is my song ;
My work to bend beneath His blessed will,
All day, and all night long ;
For ever holding with Him converse sweet,
Yet speechless, for my gladness is complete.
—G. TERSTEEGEN.
SO now for Gerhardt was the winter past, the rain was over and gone, and the time of the singing was come, and the voice of the turtle was heard in the good land into which he had entered. He had still much to learn—he had yet to find that the promises of God, fulfilled to us in Christ, take the place of our promises and vows, so often broken. But the heart into which the love of God has flowed, and where the desire is strong to live for Him alone, may express that desire in ignorant and faulty ways. God's eyes are on the heart.
"Evangelical Christianity," men have said, "means a settling down in the selfish satisfaction that we are saved—folding our hands, and leaving others to sin and suffer, whilst we look on, happy and contented."
Gerhardt Tersteegen was at last happy. And the flood of joy and peace which filled his soul swept away there and then the selfishness of the past years. He had lived alone in his little room, reading and working, and toiling for the rest of God. And now that he had entered into that rest, his first thought was of Christ ; his second thought, the thought which was the thought of Christ in Him—he must live for other men.
It is the unsatisfied heart that is the selfish heart. When we thirst no more for ever, we can think of those who are athirst.
Gerhardt's brothers and sisters, as we have seen, regarded him as a simpleton. One of his brothers, however, gladly accepted his offer, made in this year 1724, to become tutor to his children. He lived in the house of this brother, probably the house which he had sold to him, and in which he retained the room where a part of his solitary life had been led.
He appears to have taught these nephews in return for board and lodging. But that his services were scantily paid, we find from the history of his frequent illnesses. He would lie alone waiting for the meagre supply of food and drink for which he had entreated the maid. But he often waited in vain.
His labours, however, for his nephews were by no means scanty. Not content with teaching them, he wrote during this year a catechism for their use, still to be had by any who desire to see how marvellously the Spirit of God had guided him through the labyrinth of his manifold reading.
It was to teach the simple truths of the gospel that this little catechism was written, teaching taken from the Bible only, that Bible which had been a lamp to his feet, and a light to his path, through the mists and shadows in which he had been wandering.
This catechism, found amongst his papers at his death, was edited, by some who had known and loved him, in the year i8oi. A few words from the preface of the editor may be given: "It has always been from days of old, when Christians turned away from God, the living fountain of life and wisdom, to the light of their own reason, and the muddy streams of their own wisdom, darkness fell upon their understandings and their hearts—they became vain in their imaginations, proud, and godless.
" And this is especially the character of our time, a time when more and more thickly does darkness cover the earth, and gross darkness the people ; although there was never a time when men made a louder boast of light, of the so-called Aufklärung (enlightenment). Never was a time when they were more fully persuaded of being lights to the blind and guides to those walking in darkness (Rom. 2) than now, when they can no longer endure sound doctrine (2 Tim. 4:3, 43For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. (2 Timothy 4:3‑4)), and when they are exchanging the foundation truths of Christianity, for a so-called philosophy and a powerless morality.
" It has therefore come to pass that the very light of the understanding, with which they desire to enlighten the world, has, according to the divine Word, become darkness itself. And how great is that darkness !
" Yet, God be thanked, we find in His word and in history, that when the darkness is the greatest His light has always shone forth with greater power ; and He has each time raised up witnesses to the truth, in order to bring back His wandering people. Let them not reject these witnesses, and judge themselves unworthy of eternal life, lest the candlestick be removed, and the judgment of a hardened heart fall upon them.
" Amongst such witnesses raised up by God in modern times we may especially count Gerhardt Tersteegen, a man prepared by God Himself as a guide and teacher, and placed as a burning and a shining light in Western Germany, so that by his means thousands were brought to God."
In reading this catechism, we can see that Tersteegen was truly one of these witnesses ; and whilst remarking in it some imperfect statements of truth, some expressions that might be altered with advantage, we must own that God only could thus have taught the heart and mind of His beloved servant, thus have preserved him from the errors and extravagances of Catholic and Protestant Christians around him.
The next year, 1725, Gerhardt at last listened to the advice of Hoffmann to live less as an ascetic, and also to give up the delights of his solitary room.
This was hard to Gerhardt. His little room had been a haven of rest to him when the lesson hours were over. But Hoffmann had seen the dangers of those minds who become necessarily self-absorbed, because they are living in ignorance of that which is passing in the minds of other men. He did not undervalue times of solitude, on the contrary, he knew it to be a necessity for the healthy soul to be often alone with God. " But Gerhardt," he said, "will be all the better for a good companion. He shall take young Henry Sommer to live with him, and teach him ribbon-weaving, and read and pray with him, and they shall comfort themselves together, and edify one another, and then come and tell me if they repent of it."
So Henry Sommer came, and forty-four long years passed by before they parted. When that time came, Tersteegen only left his beloved friend to depart and be with Christ. The nephews had found another tutor, so that Gerhardt and Henry Sommer had their time to themselves.
They began the day with singing a hymn. Then followed a cup of coffee, the one reading aloud to the other meanwhile in the New Testament. Then Tersteegen prayed aloud, shortly and simply. Then they both began their daily work. They worked at ribbon-weaving from six till eleven, and again from one to six. From eleven till noon they separated each to spend an hour alone for reading and prayer, and again from six to seven. The rest of the evening Tersteegen spent in translating edifying books from Latin or French, working at these translations till eleven o'clock. Then after prayer he went to rest.
The cup of coffee was the result of Hoffmann's exhortations to "treat the poor body more kindly."
We are to imagine Gerhardt dressed in a long brown coat, which had to be worn till it was threadbare. When that time had arrived, he would tell the Lord, who had commanded him to take no thought for his raiment, for he seldom had money enough to buy a new one. But he was never allowed to want. As time went on he won the hearts of many, who rejoiced in any occasion of ministering to his needs.
He had long been in the habit of denying himself, and now, when self-denial was no longer a means to an end, but the result of having reached the rest and gladness of God, he loved to deny himself for others. "I have to take care," lie said, " not to sit down on the sandbank of selfishness, but to leave all for the Lord to order it. If then I make shipwreck, it will be in the wide sea of God's love, the depths of which are as welcome to me as the surest haven. But nature fights against the thought of venturing forth we know not where, out of self into unknown regions."
Into these unknown regions he launched forth exhorted and encouraged by Hoffmann. In the year of his joy and gladness, 1724, he had begun to write his songs and hymns, since so well known and loved amongst German Christians.
"When he sang," writes one who loved him, "he sang from the depths of his heart, and he thus uncloses to us the door into the mysteries of the blessed communion between his soul and God. Therefore the impression made by his hymns is so overwhelming, we are led on by a strange compulsion into the sacred glow of the depths of God, in which his soul was for ever rejoicing. We are overshadowed with the awe of his worship, in presence of the eternal majesty of God, and with him we fall down in speechless adoration.
"Thus as a spiritual singer he stands alone, and out of reach, in the rest of God. It has been said that his songs are marred by sameness. We will grant that there is some truth in this censure. But the music of the sea is monotonous. It is a harp for ever sounding, to-day as yesterday, and yesterday as a thousand years before. And yet it is this monotony which is unspeakably grand. It is that which fills our souls with thoughts inexpressible. There is scarcely any sound more soothing, and at the same time more soul stirring and cheering, than that sublime monotony.
"But as at times the waves beat softly, at times roar loudly in their full grandeur, so in Tersteegen's songs, whilst the key-note is the same, there is a rise and fall which suits the many states of the heart and soul. But it is never the wild and raging sea ; it is never the earthquake nor the fire ; but it is ever the still small voice, before which Elijah the Tishbite hid his face in his mantle in the cave of Horeb—for the Lord is there.
"This it is that is the peculiar, the characteristic power of Tersteegen's songs. Whatever storms or strife may rage around, here in the song is a still undesecrated sanctuary—an eternal holy day."
" Many of his songs," writes Professor Lange, " have a beauty of form which reminds us of Goethe "; and Bunsen calls him the foremost master of spiritual song. But there is more than the bcauty of form in these simple words, so fresh, so pure, flowing from the heart that dwelt continually in the heart of God—at times childlike in their innocence, at times few and short, awed as it were by the great Presence that filled his soul with reverence, and all the more with love.
Tersteegen was now twenty-seven years old. It was not that he had outlived a young man's enjoyment of the world. But to him, as to Paul, the noonday had become dim, and the exceeding glory of the light beyond the sun had sealed his eyes to the glory of the world.
And, on the other hand, the light from the glory of God, revealed to him the misery and the death around him. It is the heart rejoicing in the love of Christ that yearns over the souls He died to save.
At that time there was a great and remarkable awakening in the town of Mülheim. Crowds from all parts came to the preaching and the prayer-meetings in Hoffmann's hall, and in any private houses where the owners were willing to give up rooms for gospel meetings.
Gerhardt came out of his solitude to preach, and with such power that many souls were saved. He did not then leave them to starve. He was gifted by God with an extraordinary wisdom in the guidance of those who believed. He was speedily known far and wide as a " Seelenführer," a "guide of souls."
His own difficulties and temptations of past years gave him insight and sympathy. He was deeply loved by those who loved Christ ; for he was tender and gentle, not only from the marvelous refinement of his nature, but from the indwelling of Him who is love.
But nearer conformity to Christ, means further separation from the world out of which He delivers His own. He soon found himself in opposition not only to the ungodly and profane world, but to the religious and orthodox world of Mülheim.
It was not that he had strayed away into heresies and delusions, as many of the Pietists had done. On the contrary, " Tersteegen was," writes Goebel, "a Reformed and Protestant Christian, and desired to be, and to remain such. He was thoroughly orthodox as regards all the fundamental and important truths of the gospel, as, for instance, in his belief in the atonement, and justification by grace, utterly opposed to all self-righteousness and justification by works, speaking only of the pure grace of God, and of man as entirely incapable of all good.
"He also insisted upon the acknowledgment of holy Scripture as the specially inspired and infallible word of God, and the most glorious and usual means employed for converting, awakening, and nourishing the soul.
" But he taught, as did other mystics, that there is another manner in which God, by the Holy Ghost, speaks to the soul. He studied and enforced the study of Scripture with great diligence and zeal ; but he blamed the evil habit of attributing to human creeds and formularies almost or quite the same amount of infallibility which belongs to the actual word of God.
"He also blamed yet more severely the pretensions of unconverted preachers, who expected men to listen to all their empty babbling in the pulpit as if it were the pure, unerring word of the living God, and to respect it as such, as if the Holy Ghost worked only by their ministrations.
"` God has nowhere pledged Himself to this,' said Tersteegen ; and He will not allow His hands to be bound by human decrees.'
" On the other hand, he owned it to be the word of God when an enlightened messenger of God, himself a child of God, spoke or wrote His message.
"In the same way did Tersteegen hold all the other evangelical doctrines of salvation more deeply, more spiritually, or, as it would be called, more mystically, than did his Church, without contradicting or denying the truths taught by the Church. He could thus write, Extraordinary mysteries are not to be looked for in my teaching. My way is to preach the gospel quite simply—God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.'
"At the same time he immediately adds, This God and Saviour is inexpressibly near to us, knocking at the door of our hearts, and entreating us to turn from our sins and be reconciled to Him. Every uneasy sense of our danger, every insight into our utter corruption, darkness and powerlessness, every sorrow and lamentation on account of sin, are the work, wholly and solely, of this love of God in Christ Jesus near us and in us.'"