THERE it is fair,
Where thousand thousand flames for evermore
In God's high palace glow.
No more they light the dark and misty shore,
As long ago :
They burn, a crown of every radiant stone,
For ever and for ever round the throne,
Christ's diadem.
Eternal lamps that never can be dim,
Fed by the golden oil that flows to them
For ever from the Heart whence flowed the Blood,
They shine with light of every precious gem,
Light of the joy of God.
Passed, pain and sorrow, and all sighs and tears,
All shadows and all stains,
The former things of all the ancient years,
And Christ remains.
All swallowed up in fulness of the joy
Where Jesus is—
For spirit, soul, and body one employ,
To share His bliss.
There do the lips of babes tell forth His ways,
His wonders deep ;
And sweet their song, and innocent their praise,
For they have known but Heaven's unsullied days
And earth's short sleep,
To wake in everlasting gladness there,
Where all is fair.
—G. TERSTEEGEN.
SOON after this eventful year, Tersteegen began to write his largest book, The Lives of Holy Souls, This book occupied him for no less than twenty years. It consists of the lives of Mystics, all nominally Catholics, though many of them victims of persecution by the Roman Church.
These lives were compiled from records preserved in convents and ancient libraries, amongst which Tersteegen made diligent research. The object of this hook should he described in his own words.
In the dedication, which is addressed to "The Lord Jesus Christ," he writes, " Thou, Lord, seest my innermost heart. Thou knowest that I have only undertaken this work, in order to set before the souls of men the truths of the inner Christian life, the sure, real, heavenly truths to which these saints of Thine bore witness."
In the preface he writes, " If I am asked, To what purpose is this book ? I answer shortly, For the glory of God, and the building up of the Church of Jesus Christ. I would describe these saints as the work of the great Master, to His glory and praise. If we regard them in reference to ourselves, they are members of the Body of Christ. All that God gave to them, He gave to the whole Body. All that He wrought in them belongs to the Body of Christ ; whether Paul or Apollos, or Cephas, all is yours, and ye are Christ's.
" What is there more needful in our days, than to bring forward the cloud of holy witnesses, who not only in the first days of their conversion turned their backs upon the Egypt of this world, but also journeyed through the great wilderness, and reached at last the blessed rest that remaineth for the people of God, the land of promise, the reality of communion with God; and who bring to us the fruits of that blessed land, to show us its delight, and to assure us of victory. For the land is an exceeding good land ; let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it.
" But in these days how is it that souls stop short after the first days of conviction ? Is it not that they are entangled in outward religious observances and critical learning ? or with an untimely zeal for the conversion of others, with violent zeal against the Babel of outward Churches, with their own peculiar notions or high speculations—each after his own manner ?
" Or they get hold of some mystical language, and admire it, and prattle about it, letting slip the reality which lies beneath. Not to mention those who, having dived into theology, stray away amongst the golden hills of the alchemists.
"And is it not well to turn to look at those who had the reality, true and actual communion with God Himself?
"An objection may be raised to these histories ; namely, ' Why should Roman Catholic persons be chosen as examples ? Are there no examples to be found amongst Protestants ?'
"I reply, Let not our eye be evil because God is good; He regards those who fear Him under every name, and in every nation. If He loved them, should we not love them also ? And if we consider the express testimony of these saints, rendered to the weightiest truths of the gospel, we must admit that they have a full claim to be called evangelical Christians. Their lives are a proof of the hidden ways of God leading on to the perfecting of the saints in Christ.
" Not that God has not also such souls amongst Protestants. He has, praise be to Him, such souls in all Christian sects, though they are few in number, and mostly hidden and unknown. Amongst Catholics, however, the custom of providing spiritual guides has been the means by which these lives have been observed and written down.
"It is commonly believed amongst Protestants, and it is a truth much to be insisted on, that God has a hidden seed in the Roman Church, namely, the Mystics ; that is to say, those who walk in the secret paths of God. And such souls are the salt which preserves the mass from utter corruption.
" How needful is such salt ! It is the main cause of the fall of every Christian denomination, that the truths of the inner life have been neither known, nor believed, nor loved amongst them.
"As regards the ceremonies, and human decrees, and will-worship of the Catholic saints, far be it from me to call that good which God has not called good. But seeing that He loved these saints of His notwithstanding their errors, why should not we love them also ? Who shall condemn these elect of God ? For it is God who justifieth, who is he that condemneth?
" Oh, the lovingkindness of our God ! He saw their hearts and their desires, that they longed after Him, and He stooped down to them in His tenderness and love. If we have better means of grace than they, let us thank God for His goodness.
" The last objection which I have foreseen is this, that by editing and commending such writings and such persons, there may be danger of leading others into popery, and that this is especially dangerous in the present day, when many have again and again been misled and ensnared by popish teaching.
"God knows for what reasons, political or otherwise, these persons have adopted popery. I fear, however, it was not with any desire of living such holy lives as these old saints, for this they could have done without joining the communion of Rome. I fear that few of these proselytes would read such writings or feel attracted to such a life. I leave them to the Lord, but by no manner of means would I commend them.
"Therefore, in order that none may make a bad use of these memoirs, by deriving from them a Rome-ward tendency, I would here remark, that between these unquestionably holy and pious souls and popery, as popery, not only a difference exists, but a contrast.
" It is evident from these records that these souls, inwardly taught and enlightened, not only saw, but witnessed to and practiced, the great foundation truths of the gospel in a way which the doctors and the great mass of papists would neither admit nor tolerate.
"The authorities of the Roman Church (would God it were they only l) have at all times, under various pretexts, blamed, oppressed, and persecuted these souls beloved of God, and living an inner and spiritual life. The lives of Teresa, Fenelon, Madame Guyon, and others, may convince any who read them of the truth of this statement. Though it is true that for other purposes many are found to adorn the graves of the prophets.
"Many of their writings are now prohibited ; and those who approve these writings come also under the ban of Rome. We see, therefore, that they are not the true children of this step-mother. Who then would wish to be received into her arms ?
"Let every one judge for himself whether those who are outside of the Roman Church cannot more freely enjoy and turn to profit, not only the holy Scriptures, but all the gifts and graces which God bestowed upon His saints in the Church of Rome, than can those who remain in her communion under bondage of conscience.
"For not only that which is good, but much that is unprofitable and useless, is forced upon all who are in bondage to Rome ; and nothing that the Roman Church rejects may they so much as look at, unless they wish to experience the rigour of her tyranny.
" Not to mention that love to all the children of God and the true communion of saints are nowhere more difficult to carry out than in the bosom of the Roman Church, which recognizes nothing good which has not grown up within her pale ; and in joining her the proselyte has to condemn and reject everything else.
" This ought to be enough to serve as a beacon to every Christian soul, to deter them from selling their birthright of spiritual freedom, and breaking the holy bond of Christian love.
" Let no one lay the blame upon his position, his place of abode, his necessary business, or any outward thing not contrary to God's will, if he is not living such a life of holiness as these beloved saints ; for although faithfulness to the Lord demands that we should lay aside, not only sin, but every weight and hindrance which would make us slothful and slow in the Lord's service, yet even in this we must not follow our own self-will.
" God exercises His saints in various ways ; the cause which hinders us is to be sought at a greater depth. These histories show us that God's inner working is independent of outward circumstances—we find saints in palaces and deserts, in married life and in cloisters, in the church, in the chamber, in the kitchen, in the streets, in all employments and all places.
" Let none then, however difficult his position, regard himself as debarred from the way of holiness. Have we but God, and the cross of Christ, we have means for becoming altogether holy in our walk and conversation. What dungeon is there that can shut us out from this ? Only let us use the present occasions and means faithfully and truly, taking them from the hand of God, and we shall find Him able to free us from all that is really a hindrance. Let us each one desire to be a saint in his own place and calling, instead of building castles in the air of future holiness.
"I would conclude with the weighty words of the ninth chapter of German Theology (written by a medieval knight), 'Although it is good to ask and learn what good and holy men have done and suffered, and what it was that God worked in them to will and to do, yet is it a hundredfold better that a man should ask and learn how it stands with himself, and what it is that God wills and works in him, and for what purpose God would use him, and from what hold him back.
"'Therefore it is a true saying, No going out is so good as staying at home. For all the works and wonders that God has ever worked, or even will work, as far as they are outside of me, and remain outside, will not make me blessed, but will do so only, so far as they are wrought in me, owned by me, loved by me, experienced and tasted by me. To this end alone may God accompany the writing and reading of this book with His blessing. Amen.'"
It will be seen from these remarks that Tersteegen had no desire to lead men in the direction of Rome ; that, on the contrary, he regarded the power and rule of Rome as opposed to God and the gospel of Christ. He was all the more thankful to find in the midst of so corrupt a communion souls taught by God and saved by the precious blood of Christ. And we must admit that by the grace of God such true saints have been found in all ages, in times of the greatest darkness and ignorance.
We know also that the teaching of God the Holy Ghost can never vary, and that as far as the souls of men have been subject to His teaching, they have alike owned the blessed Person and the glorious work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Though found in a variety of sects, they have been alike in their faith in God, and their love to Him who died for them and rose again. And we can well sympathize with the joy of Tersteegen in finding in the old convent records the expressions of their faith and love.
Thus do we read in his history of Mechthilde of Hackeborn, born in the middle of the thirteenth century, that peace was given to her soul whilst praying to the Lord Jesus that He would intercede for her with the Father. The answer came to her in words spoken of old by Him, not to her, but to God : " Thy fierce wrath goeth over me ; Thy terrors have cut me off." (Ps. 88:16.)
And then to her heart He spoke, saying, " It is I upon whom the wrath of God was poured out. It is I who have reconciled men to God by My blood ; for Me, His only Son, He did not spare, but He delivered Me into the hands of the wicked. And so fully have I borne the judgment and the curse, that whosoever will may find that no wrath remaineth for him."
And when she considered how small was her love to God in return for this unspeakable love, He said to her, " All Mine is thine ; be not afraid." Then did she understand that it was with His love that God the Father was well pleased, and that in Him, not in herself, she was well-pleasing to God.
"It is I," He taught her, "who sing praise to the Father ; and thine imperfect praise is offered up by Me, so that the song is perfect. Even so all desires, all works and prayers of My own beloved ones, I offer up to God the Father ; and, joined to My prayer and praise, they are a sweet incense ascending up to Him.
"And all other prayer, though so fervent as to ring through heaven, would never reach to God. And thus with all hearts and all works that are offered up by Me to God; for the hearts of My own are one with Mine. And all works done by them—all sleeping, eating, drinking—if done in unison of heart with Me, are accepted as perfect with My perfection before God the Father."
And at another time she told the Lord that she desired to bring Him a gift that would be sweet to Him, And He answered her, "Thou canst give Me no gift so dear to Me as a house wherein I may dwell and delight Myself. But this house must have a window out of which I may speak to men, and from whence I may give to them My gifts and treasures."
And she was made to understand that this house was her heart, and this window her mouth, out of which the Lord would give His gifts to all who came to her.
And at another time she asked the Lord if He would Himself give her a gift ; and He answered, "Behold, I give thee Mine eyes, that with them thou mayest see ; and My ears, that with them thou mayest hear and understand; and My mouth, that therewith thou mayest sing and pray and speak ; and My heart, that therewith thou mayest remember Me, and love Me and Mine with Mine own love.
"And in separating thyself from earthly things, thou shalt learn the height of My majesty ; and in stretching forth thy hands in love and pity and tenderness to all, thou shalt learn the breadth of My love ; and in humbling thyself, and sinking thy soul in Me, shalt thou learn the depth that is unfathomable, and drink sweetly of the river of My pleasures."
Thus did Paul say of old, "I live, but no longer I, for Christ liveth in Me."
Let us compare these words with others recorded by Tersteegen, those of the Marquis de Renty, in another land, and four hundred years later. " It is about a fortnight ago that these words were laid upon my heart, ' Seek the fountain of living water.' And whilst I thought upon these words they were clearly explained to me as in a picture. It was as if I followed a great river up to its fountain-head, and there did I see Jesus Christ. "And my soul followed up His course from the beginning of His pilgrim life to the heights of His glory, where He sits on the throne at the right hand of God the Father—-from whence He sent down His Spirit to live and move in His Church, and to quicken the dead souls that are His. I saw that He is the Fountain-head whence the stream of living water flows down, and that it is to Him therefore, to Him only, that we must turn."
"I own," he said later to a friend, " that nothing is pleasant to me, in which I do not find Jesus. If I saw a man working miracles, and found in him nothing of Christ, I should wish to hear no more of him ; and all conversation from which he is absent appears to me an idle waste of mind and time, and a dangerous pitfall for the soul."
Can we not rejoice with Tersteegen to trace this stream of living water through the wasted fields and neglected vineyard of God—the teaching always the same, of the Holy Spirit who testifies of Jesus, and who dwelt in all, however ignorant, who came to God by Him ?
Yet it must, notwithstanding, be admitted that Tersteegen's book is painful to read, and by no means to be recommended as a guide to souls. He did not succeed, even if he attempted it, in taking the precious from the vile, and the accounts of visions, dreams, and delusions with which the histories abound, bring discredit upon all that is of God in the experience of these saints.
Tersteegen said he copied out the histories as he found them in the archives of the convents, considering that truthfulness demanded that he should give them as they were originally written. He probably did not reflect that they had already, in most cases, been altered and re-altered by ignorant priests and monks ; nor did he further reflect that the ignorant and unwary would in many cases retain the evil and folly, and overlook the gems which lay scattered in the mire.
And upon himself the writing of such a book must have had a most hurtful influence. No doubt most of that which is the great defect in his teaching may be traced to it. It may here be observed once for all, that although Tersteegen had a deep sense of the work of Christ for us ; although, in contrast with the older Mystics, he was continually insisting, "If we had no Christ for us, we could have no Christ in us ;" yet the danger is great in blindly following his teaching without testing it in all points by the word of God.
He never clearly saw, that as all our salvation is of the Lord, so also all our holiness and perfection are to be found in Christ, and that it is by fixing our eyes upon Him we are changed into His image ; that in Him we are created unto good works, and that a continual endeavour to bend and shape the old nature into conformity with God—to deaden the flesh instead of reckoning ourselves as dead with Christ, and alive unto God through Him—must end in disastrous failure.
At times, to judge from his hymns, Tersteegen felt, and marvelously experienced, rather than saw this. His teaching will profit us, if we are stirred up by it to the earnest, devoted, whole-hearted love to Christ which filled his soul ; if we learn from it more than our cold hearts are apt to learn of the beauty and glory and love of the Lord Jesus, so that, beholding Him, we may have our eyes blinded by the glory of that light, as Tersteegen's certainly were, to the world in its noonday splendour.
It is not simply the knowledge of the great truths overlooked by Tersteegen that will lead us into a deeper communion with God than was his. On the contrary, the effect of light and knowledge is to puff up and to chill the heart, unless it is by the Spirit of God that we are taught, and as He teaches us, we are humbled in proportion to our light, and warnod in proportion to it also.
Let us take shame to ourselves that our lukewarmness, our worldliness, our self-indulgence, our pride and self-importance, are put to shame by the lives, the longings, the endeavours, however ill-directed, of these old saints of whom Tersteegen tells us ; whose love was deep, but whose light was a flickering flame. Their examples were followed by many Mystics in later times, as far as self-mortification goes, but the object of that self-mortification was, in the case of many, the attainment of a condition in which they could be satisfied with themselves.
The difference between this self-love, and the simple but unenlightened love to Christ of many in the darkest days, can hardly be better exemplified than in the life of a remarkable man, well-known and loved by Tersteegen, who, setting forth with an earnest purpose to acquire holiness by strenuous efforts, found it at last in Christ.