Rejoice ye with Jerusalem! City of peace and light; Her morn at last is breaking fast, Her widow's weeds are gone, Her royal robes put on. All ye who love Jerusalem, Be glad; her day has come ;— Ye who have mourned with her and wept, Formed of each precious gem, Ye who have read upon her walls Ye who have read upon her towers Forgiven and comforted, She lifts her joyful head. Ye who have listened to her sighs, Ye who have watched her drink the cup See now at last that cup has past The wrath has fled away. Instead of bitterness, She drinks the cup of peace. The sun of earth she needeth not, Her moon again shall never wane, Her storms are done, her calm begun, Her long, long fast is done, Her long, long feast begun.1 Nov. 26th, 1881. HORATIUS BONAR. The Ribbon Weaver, Lay Preacher, and Hymn Writer of Mühlheim. HE name of Tersteegen is well known to the lovers and singers of hymns. Wesley and other translators have made English Christians familiar with his sacred songs, which for depth of spiritual and devotional feeling and insight are certainly unsurpassed, even if equalled, by any other singer of the universal Church. A very high authority on the subject has called him "the first master of spiritual song." His character and life were as beautiful as his poetry, and are unknown to many who love and sing his hymns. To the story of his life and work as a whole we would devote this short article. Gerhard Tersteegen was born at Mörs, in Rhenish Prussia, on the 25th of November, 1697. He was the youngest of eight children. His father, Heinrich Tersteegen, a merchant, a member of the Reformed Church and a pious man, died too soon for Gerhard to remember anything of him. His training devolved therefore on his mother. We have very little information about his childhood. He seems to have been a bright, gifted, and beautiful boy, but thoughtless as far as his spiritual interests were concerned. He was sent to the Latin School; went through all the classes, and became so proficient that on some public occasion he delivered a speech in Latin verse which was highly approved by the audience. He also learnt Greek and Hebrew at this 1 Written for the Tract Magazine. school. His attainments in other respects were great and varied, as his writings prove. His mother was advised to dedicate her son to study, but her circumstances forbade, so that he was apprenticed in his fifteenth year to his brother-in-law, Matthias Brinck, a merchant in Mühlheim on the Rühr. He was not happy during his apprenticeship. His brother-in-law did not sympathise with his studious and thoughtful disposition, and refused him permission when he wished, as he often did,to devote an hour to study and meditation. It is said that Brinck made him roll empty casks backwards and forwards across the yard when there was nothing else for him to do. He used to redeem the hours of the night for reading and prayer. It was in his sixteenth or eighteenth year-both periods have been named by different friends-that he experienced the great change. His business training was beneficial in its influence upon him, notwithstanding the trying circumstances in which he was placed. "The Holy Ghost," he says himself, "made my outward work a good school of discipline for me." It checked the exuberance of his feelings; led him to form habits of order, and fostered the sound practical sense which distinguished him. Only one of his brothers had any sympathy with his Christian character; the others treated him badly on account of it, and did not ask him to be present at the division of their mother's effects after her death. After serving his apprenticeship, he carried on business for himself for two years, from 1717 to 1719. Finding that it did not suit him; anxious to escape from its disquietude, he then gave it up and learned a trade. A pious linen weaver taught him his own trade. It proved to be too severe for him, and he exchanged it for ribbon-weaving, which he followed until health and the calls of the spiritual and philanthropic work to which he devoted himself, required him to give up all merely secular pursuits. He lived much alone, and in the simplest manner. pared his own food, and contrived to do good and com He pre 66 municate to others out of his scanty earnings. "I hope,” he once wrote to a friend, “ I shall never love anything so much that I would not give it cheerfully to a brother. It would not be well with me were it otherwise." He employed the evening hours, when he could go out alone, for his errands of love. He had times of great hardship and privation to pass through of which his friends knew nothing till long after, and he was always a great sufferer. He found consolation in the society of the ribbon weaver and of Hoffmann, a candidate of theology, a pious man resident in Mühlheim. In 1719 he was perplexed by some of the sceptical writings of Böhme which fell into his hands, but betook himself to reading the Word of God and to prayer. He was influenced also by the religious movements of the time, which led many into separatism and fanaticism, from which, however, he was preserved. From 1719 to 1724 he passed through a prolonged period of spiritual darkness. He was on a journey to a neighbouring town when he emerged from it. It was on this occasion that he wrote the hymn entitled, "The Reconciling Grace of God." 1 Another trial which he experienced arose from reflecting on the many different sects into which Christians are divided. He was so sorely tempted by this that he almost doubted whether there were any God. He was delivered by such a manifestation of the gracious presence of God that he was quite unable to express it in words. In the year 1725 he gave up in part the solitude he loved so well. He shared his quarters henceforward with Heinrich Sommer, a like-minded man with himself, whom he had known for a long time and who survived him. He taught Sommer ribbon-weaving at his own request, and they worked together, as a rule, from six to eleven in the morning, and from one to six in the afternoon. At certain times they separated for prayer. It was through his friend Hoffmann that Tersteegen was 1 A translation of this hymn follows this article. first led to take part and give addresses at the meetings that were held by believers in Mühlheim for edification, and to become a lay-preacher. These meetings were originated in the year 1660 by the celebrated preacher Thomas Undereick. They were held on Thursday, and were the means of blessing to many souls. Tersteegen was in the habit of addressing them until 1740, when they were discontinued. In 1730 he gave up his trade altogether. Though fond of solitude, and preferring above all things a life of retirement and fellowship with God, his circle of friends and his activity as a Christian worker became very great. Of his missionary journeys, those which he made to Berg and Holland are the best known. He had many friends in the Wupperthal, of whom the Evertsens were the chief. This family were brought to the knowledge of the truth by means of his writings. Engelbert Evertsen was his most intimate friend in that family, and after his death became the centre of the poet's friends in Berg. It was at the repeated invitation of the Evertsens that Tersteegen made his first journey in 1747. Awakenings took place, and he had to travel about for eleven days to speak to the many who were anxious to hear him. The interest was maintained on subsequent visits, and large meetings assembled. On the way from Mühlheim to Elberfeld there was a house belonging to the Mühlenbeck family, near Heiligenhause, where Tersteegen and other friends used to pass the night. It was called "the Pilgrim's Tent." Some of his friends lived there in peaceful retirement, who looked upon him as a father, and on whom he bestowed great care. He often addressed meetings there, and hundreds of pilgrims attended them, the construction of the house enabling all to hear him. He paid a yearly visit to Holland, where he had become known by his writings. He had a friend there called Pauw, who had given up an important post and his position in society near Amsterdam in order to live a quiet and godly life. Whenever Tersteegen was his guest, his privacy was invaded by the numerous visitors who flocked to his house. |