ONE with Christ—within the golden City
Welcomed long ago,
When for me He passed within the glory
From the depths below.
Still the gladness of that blessed welcome,
Mystery of that kiss,
Meeting of the Son and of the Father,
Floods my soul with bliss.
That sweet welcome mine—and mine for ever
That eternal home,
Whereunto when all these wanderings over,
I shall surely come.
There my heart is resting, and is joyful,
With a joy untold—
Earth's dark ways lit up with that fair glory,
Gleam as streets of gold.
Words of blessed greeting as I wander
Fall upon my ear,
As a song aloft in palace towers,
Deep and sweet and clear.
In the midnight steals o'er him who saileth
On a lonely sea,
Then I know I near the blessed country
Where He waits for me.
God, my Father, waiteth there to greet me,
Child of His delight ;
In the well-beloved Son presented
Faultless in His sight.
Loved with all the love that fills the Heavens
With eternal song—
Weep not, weary heart, how short the sorrow,
And the love how long !
AS old age came on, the many infirmities which had so long made his life painful and burdensome, continually increased. He mentions in his letters many days of great suffering, many sleepless nights, fever and pain and weakness. " I might say I was something like Lazarus, except that I have less endurance, and better food, drink, and bed, and numberless other comforts; besides which the sympathy and kindness of others do not accord with the condition of Lazarus. But none the less am I the care of angels ; yes, cared for by the love of God, and going the same way that Lazarus went. All the suffering and weakness are a part of the way, and we pass on, leaving behind now a rough bit, and now a miry bit of road. The sweet eternity is our home, and Jesus who makes all things sweet our companion on the road. What grace and love !
" Once, I remember, I had some idea I could suffer as a hero. Now what I wish for you and me is to suffer as a child. A child cries when it is in pain, and laughs in a moment when it sees its mother. When the pain is over, it thinks neither of what is past nor what is coming—-it is happy with its dear mother, and has no thought for anything else."
Up to the last he laboured on as far as his strength permitted. One labour after another had to be given up. " When the mother is going to put her child to bed, she takes off its clothes one by one,"
he said to an old friend. "Paradise and eternity are much on my mind. God is preparing me for that."
In March, 1769, dropsy came on, which made his breathing difficult and painful. He had to remain sitting day and night in an armchair, suffering greatly. " But," said Pastor Engel who was with him, "he was always heavenly and cheerful." Many friends came from far and near to take leave of their beloved teacher. For each one he had a word of cheer and of affection. "0 sister," he said to one, "the way is a good way. Follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth."
"I have no great things to say of feelings and experiences, but suffering as I do, God gives me grace to forget myself. Malachi has been preaching to me : ' He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.' (Chap. 3:3.) That is what He is now doing. He finds much to purge away."
" You ask me to bless you," he said to another. "May the great High Priest Jesus bless you, and give you peace and joy, and comfort and power."
Three days before his death his beloved friend, Engelbert Evertsen, arrived unexpectedly from Barmen. He had heard nothing of Tersteegen's illness, but an irresistible impulse had led him to go to Mülheim and visit him.
" He suffered terribly," said Evertsen ; "but his endurance, and his child-like intimacy with the God into whose hands he commended Himself, strengthen me to this day."
On April 2nd it was plain that his end was near. He slept almost continuously, and the waking intervals became shorter. He spoke little. Once he said to himself, " Poor unsightly Lazarus ! Yet the holy angels are not ashamed to bear thee away."
On April 3rd, at two o'clock in the morning, he departed in his sleep. "Those present," writes one, "seemed to feel all around them a company of angels, who welcomed his spirit with joy into the eternal kingdom of blessedness, peace, and glory."
On April 6th he was buried in the churchyard of Mülheim, where, in the year 1838, the monument now standing there was raised to his memory. Great multitudes from far and near followed his remains to their last resting-place. Many were the lamentations over him, still preserved in letters, and in sermons preached at the time of his death.
" He was a great and faithful witness for the truth in our fallen Church," said Hasenkampt, "a great saint, and a true and consistent friend of God. When I last had the happiness of hearing the words of wisdom from his gentle lips, he spoke with a majestic simplicity of his delight in God. ' I would rather,' he said, not exist, I would rather that nothing existed, than that God should not be.' "
Another eye-witness of his death relates how for forty-seven hours he sat leaning forward on a pillow, at first suffering much, but latterly sleeping constantly. In waking moments he would say, " O God, O Jesus, beloved Jesus ; " and " at last," writes one, " it was as if the kiss of heavenly love released the imprisoned spirit, and to him was the prayer of the great High Priest fulfilled : " Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am."
So passed away the Mystic who was no visionary —the simple childlike believer in the words of Christ. He had cast aside the wisdom of the world for the wisdom of God ; the righteousness of man for the righteousness of God. And to him the God who loved him "spoke face to face as a man speaketh to his friend," and sent him forth to tell the blessed secrets of the heart of God to. all those who had ears to hear, and hearts to understand.
Even now his work is not yet done ; for in the land of his birth, above the scoffing of infidels and the disputes of theologians, and the boastings of human religion and human righteousness, the still small voice is yet heard, which spake by his lips, and called in weary souls from the darkness and confusion, the delusions and the misery of the world, into the still chamber where Christ stands to welcome His beloved.