Who Was Gerhard Tersteegen?

By Jarred Fenlason · Encounter Press

Gerhard Tersteegen (1697–1769) was a German Reformed mystic, hymn writer, and spiritual counselor — a ribbon weaver by trade who never took holy orders, yet became one of the most trusted spiritual guides of eighteenth-century Europe. His hymns, including "Gott ist gegenwärtig" ("God Himself Is Present"), are still sung around the world, and his devotional writings have guided readers into the hidden life of prayer for nearly three centuries.

Early Life in Moers

Tersteegen was born on November 25, 1697, in Moers, a small town on the lower Rhine. His father, a merchant, died when Gerhard was a young child. Though a gifted student, family circumstances ended his formal education early, and he was apprenticed to a merchant relative in Mülheim an der Ruhr.

Finding the life of commerce crowded and distracting, he gave it up for the humbler trade of silk-ribbon weaving — work he chose deliberately because it left his mind free for prayer and his room free of company.

Darkness and Covenant

His early spiritual life was not serene. Tersteegen passed through roughly five years of inner darkness in which the sense of God's nearness vanished entirely. The darkness broke in 1724, and in gratitude he wrote a covenant of self-dedication to Jesus Christ — signing it, according to the well-attested account, in his own blood.

The Quiet Ministry of Mülheim

Tersteegen never married, never sought office, and never left the region of his birth, yet by mid-life he had become spiritual counsel to seekers across Europe. From the late 1720s he gave up his trade to devote himself entirely to ministry: speaking at devotional gatherings in Mülheim, keeping up an enormous correspondence of spiritual direction, preparing simple medicines for the poor, and hosting the stream of visitors who found their way to his door. His home became known as the Pilgerhütte — the Pilgrims' Hut.

Writings and Hymns

Tersteegen's best-known work is the Geistliches Blumengärtlein inniger Seelen (The Spiritual Flower Garden of Inward Souls), first published in 1729 — a collection of epigrammatic verse, meditations, and hymns that became a staple of German-speaking piety for two centuries. His letters of spiritual counsel, sermons, and addresses were collected and reprinted throughout his life, and he translated and retold the lives of Catholic mystics for Protestant readers in his Select Lives of Holy Souls.

His hymns crossed into English early: John Wesley translated "Verborgne Gottesliebe du" as "Thou Hidden Love of God," and translators have returned to Tersteegen's verse ever since.

Legacy

Tersteegen died in Mülheim on April 3, 1769. Standing within the Reformed church yet drawing freely on the broader contemplative tradition, he modeled a rare combination: doctrinal sobriety, mystical depth, and tireless practical charity. Readers of Thomas à Kempis, Brother Lawrence, and Fénelon consistently name him among the essential voices of Christian inwardness.

Tersteegen in English

Encounter Press has published two major Tersteegen volumes: Hidden in God: The Life and Writings of Gerhard Tersteegen, the most comprehensive English collection of his writings in nearly 200 years — biography, 25 pastoral letters, 8 treatises, 8 sermons, and hymns — and The Spiritual Flower Garden, the first complete English translation of the Geistliches Blumengärtlein.