OFT comes to me a blessed hour,
A wondrous hour and still—
With empty hands I lay me down,
No more to work or will.
An hour when weary thought has ceased,
The eyes are closed in rest ;
And hushed in Heaven's untroubled peace,
I lie upon Thy breast.
Erewhile I reasoned of Thy truth,
I searched with toil and care ;
From morn to night I tilled my field,
And yet my field was bare.
Now, fed with corn from fields of heaven,
The fruit of Hands Divine,
I pray no prayer, for all is given,
The Bread of God is mine.
There lie my books—for all I sought
My heart possesses now ;
The words are sweet that tell Thy love,
The love itself art Thou.
One line I read—and then no more ;
I close the hook to see
No more the symbol and the sign,
But Christ revealed to me.
And thus my worship is, delight ;
My work, to see His Face,
With folded hands and silent lips
Within His Holy place.
Thus oft to busy men I seem
A cumberer of the soil ;
The dreamer of an empty dream,
Whilst others delve and toil.
0 brothers ! in these silent hours
God's miracles are wrought,
He giveth His beloved in sleep
A treasure all unsought.
I sit an infant at Isis feet,
Where moments teach me more
Than all the toil, and all the books
Of all the ages hoar.
I sought the truth, and found but doubt—
I wandered far abroad ;
I hail the truth already found
Within the heart of God.
—G. TERSTEEGEN.
AMONGST the souls called by God, most remain at a standstill after the first workings of the Spirit. They are led to repentance, to conviction of sin, and sorrow more or less deep, and are awakened to a sense of the awful danger of the unsaved. They are led to long for the grace of God in Christ, to hunger after forgiveness, and to cease from dead works in the shape of outrageous sins. They are led to betake themselves to a life and walk in some degree pious and outwardly blameless. And they are then apt to think that this is all that is comprised in the scriptural expressions of being converted or born again.
" And when, in addition to all these things, they have from time to time an experience of refreshment, or sweetness, or joy, they remain all the more firmly rooted to the spot to which they have advanced. They imagine that the whole treasure is now theirs—they have passed over the mountain ridge, and have reached the place of communion with God. They then take to themselves the precious promises and titles and privileges which are given to true Christians by God in His word. And here the wheels of their chariot stand still.
"I do not mean to say that this is their plan, or deliberate intention, or determination, as if they had now reached the goal of holiness, and need press forward no longer ; but I mean that their imaginary progress is really standing still, if not going backwards.
" Observe in what their progress usually consists. They are in the practice of reading, hearing, speaking, singing, praying, and such-like exercises, all in themselves useful practices and duties. They consider the truths of God by thinking over them, and trying to get a clear idea of them, or, as people are apt to say, to acquire a fund of knowledge. In such and similar activities they seek to delight themselves and to enjoy themselves. And when they are conscious now and then of a passing feeling of delight, or a good inclination which stirs or moves them, they are glad, and regard it as an edifying experience, and often do not know how to make enough of it. But if such experiences arc wanting they become mournful, as if God had forsaken them, and venture to compare their condition with that of Job, David, or other saints, when passing through deep spiritual troubles.
"I do not know whether the practice and progress of these religious people consist in anything more than I have described ; for as to those faults and sins which remained unaltered after the first change, they still remain in all their former strength. It may be that they sometimes fight against them more or less, but they never overcome them, and therefore acquire a habit of looking at them as ' failures' or infirmities,' from which they can never hope to be free here below.
"If the life and walk of such souls is observed, it will be found that in their religious observances they are tolerably devout ; but as to the rest of their time, and their daily intercourse with others, they are under very little restraint. To be absorbed in making money, and growing rich, they regard as harmless—to talk by the hour about perfectly unprofitable external things, and to mix themselves up needlessly with the world, they regard as a part of Christian liberty. To indulge their senses in seeing, hearing, and tasting, they consider too allowable to be curtailed. As to thoughts, I will not take up that part of the subject, for they are not in the habit of taking any note of them, and without any rhyme or reason they allow them to wander where they will, by the hour, or the day.
"Thus their heart is divided between many objects, though they scarcely may be aware of it. For how little do these well-meaning people care to restrain their pleasures and inclinations, and their love for the external things in which they hope to find amusement, or comfort, or enjoyment ! and how little do they suspect themselves, when they are following their own inclinations and self-will in one way or another under the most plausible excuses ! So that often there is scarcely any mark of distinction left between themselves and the world around them.
"Is not this the truth ? and will not many a one who reads this be constrained by his conscience to answer 'Yes ' ? For is it not plain enough that such souls have never experienced more than the form of godliness, and know nothing of its power in a real overcoming of the world, in them, and outside of them—nothing of its power in delivering them from the sins, the disorderly affections and tempers, the selfishness, the self-seeking, the self-will of the old nature ?
" Is it not plain that they do not yet possess the great privilege of the new covenant ; namely, that God Himself writes His law in their inward parts, so that no longer from fear or the compulsion of an uneasy conscience, but from the love of the inmost heart, from delight, and from the clinging of the heart to God, the soul fulfils His will as one set free to please Him ?
" Such souls, therefore, never attain to a true and settled peace, or to a personal knowledge of God in Christ, and communion with Him. And that which from time to time is spoken or written, of joy, of the blessed satisfaction and delight of the soul in Christ, is to these poor hearts something of which they know little in their own innermost experience. It is to them something they have read about, or of which they have heard other Christians speak. And despite the performance of all their religious duties and observances, their hearts remain sad and unsatisfied, and their consciences ill at ease. And if perchance they find some satisfaction and pleasure in the duties and good works that they perform, it is not a well-founded, nor constant, nor by any means a pure enjoyment.
Very soon the old accusations of the uneasy conscience will again disturb them, after having been silenced or disregarded for a time ; for all the work that is done in such a condition springs for the most part (though they are little aware of it) from their own natural faculties and efforts, which are soon wearied out. They lead, therefore, either to discouragement, or to a high degree of self-satisfaction and self-righteousness ; but they bring little glory to God, and no true and settled peace to the heart."
There were many then, there may be many now, who will own to this portrait of themselves. " And the question," writes Tersteegen, " needs to be answered, How it is that these men and women, who have received light and grace, and who have no desire to deceive themselves, can for a moment suppose that their state is the true Christian state, and one pleasing to God, whilst it is so evident, even to themselves, that it is a miserable and faulty state, a state of universal shortcoming and failure ?"
" The answer," he says, " is to be found in the fact that it is very common for those who are awakened and converted, to form their own ideas of divine truth and of the true Christian state. And having formed their own conception with the best intention of laying hold of the true ideal of Christianity, they are thenceforth limited to their ideal, which is bounded by human wisdom and human thought. For having this fixed conception of their own by which to measure all they may afterwards hear and meet with, they consider all that goes beyond it to be false, and therefore to be rejected ; and they remain sitting firmly in the place they have taken, though it must necessarily, as it is according to human thoughts, be a condition of weakness and of imperfection.
"And they never arrive at a thorough knowledge of their inward corruption and their hidden self-love, nor of the perfect, holy, secluded, hidden life in Christ which is the life of the new creature. Nor do they know the power of the Spirit of Christ working in His own members, and bringing forth in them the outward life of holiness to God. For all these things are taught to the soul by God, and would never have entered into the thoughts of man ; and they have limited themselves to their own thoughts and conceptions, and are, thus to speak, imprisoned in their own ideal.
"And how is it that any are brought out of this prison of their own building ?
" It may happen," writes Tersteegen, " to some suddenly, to others gradually, that all their outward and inward activity and energy, upon which, unconsciously to themselves, their Christianity was mostly built up, become dulled and spent ; their reading, and hearing, and speaking, and praying, come, as it were, to a standstill ; and all they do has to be done with weary toil and force ; and where before they found pleasure and contentment, they find only a dry and barren land, dreary and empty.
"At the same time they become conscious by degrees of an unusual yearning of the soul for stillness and solitude, and for a rest and quietness in which all the natural powers are hushed and silent. And their hearts seem to them to be drawn away into a region where all external things become distasteful, and pass into forgetfulness. And they are drawn sweetly and gently in the hidden power of love, to God Himself, and awaken to a sense of His presence.
" This is the needful point to which I would draw attention ; for when this is reached, the soul gives itself up to God, waiting upon Him in blessed simplicity and stillness. And from all the former distraction, and reasonings and workings of the mind, is it weaned and quieted, and can listen humbly and silently to the inward teaching and counsel of the eternal Wisdom, and is guided into the path of the life hidden with Christ in God. And gradually does the constant dying with Christ to self, and to the power of created things, become the experience of the soul.
"And from thenceforward all the pompous, reasoning, unreal Christianity which gains favour with the world, or exalts us in our own eyes, falls like the withered leaves in autumn, and the soul becomes simple and childlike, and delights in the poor, despised, and hidden path of the cross of Christ. And the suffering and the poverty and the shame of Christ are lovely to such a soul ; and all worldly honour and glory and wealth are suspected and unsought."
And Tersteegen describes further, how the soul now lives in the constant presence of the Beloved, fearing by any idle or hasty word, or wandering thoughts, or anxious cares, or selfish motives, or self-commendation, or rising of temper, to grieve the heart of the divine Guest ; and as He abides in the soul, so does the soul abide in Him, as a creature in the element to which it belongs—as a fish in the water, or a bird in the air.
" Nor is this simply an imagination or a parable, but it is literally true that the soul breathes in divine life and strength from Him in whom it dwells, not only being dead with Christ to the old things that are passed away, but alive with Christ to God, living the life hidden with Christ in Him.
" Yes, hidden ; so that the reason of man perceives nothing of this life—sense knows it not, fleshly eyes see nothing of it—for poverty, contempt, and suffering are three veils that hide it from the world, which knows not and conceives not that the King's daughter, all glorious, is within, veiled from the eyes of men. Therefore the world looks upon all such hidden ones, as a poor, wretched, despised, afflicted people—as a sect everywhere spoken against—foolish, absurd, weak simpletons, making crosses and troubles for themselves, whilst others enjoy life and have a good time.
" Such people were the first Christians in the days of the apostles, such people have a glory and an honour and a blessedness in time and in eternity ; for of them God's word declares it. I will give a few passages regarding them, and let the reader who seeks God consider them well before His face, and esteem it no small thing should he feel his heart drawn with a hidden force, with the drawing of love, to this seclusion and separation, the signal grace and holy calling, the glorious privilege and blessedness which God bestows, now and for ever, on His beloved ones.
"` With Him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold.'
" ' Levi hath no part nor inheritance with his brethren ; the Lord is his inheritance, according as the Lord thy God promised him.'
"` With gladness and rejoicing they shall be brought, they shall enter into the King's palace.'
"` Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest, and causest to approach unto Thee, that he may dwell in Thy courts : we shall be satisfied with the goodness of Thy house, even of Thy holy temple.'
"' In My Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you ; I go to prepare a place for you.'
"'Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth : but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you.'
"'There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars ; for one star differeth from another star in glory. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy, and as is the heavenly [man], such are they also that are heavenly.'"
Let it be clearly understood, that when, in the writings of Tersteegen, we find the word "Mysticism,"
it is simply to this communion of the believing soul with God that he applies the name. All other definitions of Mysticism may be laid aside in reading the letter that follows, where it will be observed that he is speaking of a spiritual knowledge of God, learnt not from the old books read in his early years, but from the Bible only, taught to his heart by God the Holy Ghost.