The First Letter from Maerten van der Straten to his Wife

I, Maerten van der Straten, your dear husband and brother in the Lord (both unworthily, however), wish you, my affectionately beloved wife, Beliken van der Straten, who are with me, according to Paul's writing, in the mouth of the lion (Second Timothy 4, verse 17), and wounded by Babylon's watchmen (Song of Songs 5, verse 7), much grace and mercy from God our heavenly Father; and may the love of His Son be multiplied to you, and may the power of the Holy Ghost richly dwell in you, so that you may, to the praise of the Lord, bring forth good and fitting fruits, and let your light shine before men, like a city that is set on a high hill, so that you may leave behind you a good name among the heathen, and a good memory in Israel; and may the God of our fathers grant you grace, and prosper what you undertake, so that Israel may rejoice over you, and that your name may be counted among all the saints, and that you may hereafter play the new song before the throne of the Lord, forever and ever. Revelation 14, verses 2 and 3. This I wish you, my chosen love, with all the strength of my soul, and from a heart full of love.

Out of a fond heart filled with love, an affectionate greeting to you, O my dearest love, whom I love with all my heart, in keeping with the Word of God, that a man shall leave father and mother, and hold fast to his wife. For you, O my dear lamb, are flesh of my flesh, and bone of my bones; and no man, says Paul, ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it. Ephesians 5, verse 29. So I have good reason to love you, as I also do; this the Almighty Lord knows, who, according to the words of Jeremiah, tests men's hearts and inward parts. Jeremiah 17, verse 10.

Further, after this my proper and Christian greeting, know, my affectionately beloved wife, that I, according to the words of Sirach, add day to day through much tribulation, like one who lodges in the field, and receives many a storm, hail and rain on his body. But God, who kills and makes alive, will, I hope, preserve me, so that I shall with Eleazar prefer an honorable death to a shameful life.

Furthermore, my dearly beloved, whom I took by the hand with tears of joy, I hope and trust that you are also well in soul and body, ready with Susanna rather to fall into the hands of men than to sin in the sight of the living God, who, with His eyes, which are like a flame of fire, sees through all things. Susanna, verse 23; Revelation 1, verse 14. May the Almighty Lord of lords, who, according to Paul's writing, is rich in goodness, and abounds with grace and mercy, look upon you and us all with His gracious eyes, and deliver us from this misery; for I, like you, am at this time in great distress, besieged like those of Bethulia (Judith 7); my enemies have turned away the water with which I used to refresh my heart, and they have surrounded the fountains where I used to quench my thirst. But the Almighty King is the true fountain, who, as Jeremiah says, with His learned tongue comforts the weary soul, and, according to the words of the prophet, in time of need gives bread, and in thirst water; Him, I hope, they shall not entrench or surround; for He regards neither grated windows nor bolts, neither locks nor doors; and He, I hope, will visit us before long, for He knows that we are most sorely smitten and wounded by Babylon's watchmen, in a dry and dark land, far and deep in Babylonia, where neither His word nor His beautiful songs of praise are heard. Jeremiah 31, verse 25; Isaiah 30, verse 20; Song of Songs 5, verse 7; Psalm 137, verse 1.

So I hope that He will exercise mercy above justice over us, since He sees our tribulation, and knows that I, for my part, am not able to bear it, because my weakness is so great; for among all who fear God there is no one so imperfect as I am. For my miserable weakness is so manifold that I often bewail it with tears, and I am so despondent that it seems to me my heart is convulsed, because the Lord does not take away my reproach. So I may well say with David: "O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before You: let my prayer come before You: incline Your ear to my cry; for my soul is full of troubles and my life draws near to the grave. I am counted with those who go down into the pit; I am like a man who has no strength: free among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom You remember no more: and they are cut off from Your hand. You have laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. Your wrath lies hard upon me, and You have afflicted me with all Your waves." (Psalm 88, verses 1 to 7); for all my persecutors take counsel against me, to starve my hungry soul altogether, and to deprive my thirsty soul of drink. So I may well say with the prophet: "My enemies wait for my soul, and they repay me evil for good, to bring me into sorrow." Psalm 56, verse 6.

So, O my love, my dearest love, I cannot keep from uttering my complaint before you, to ease my sorrowful heart, which is often so disconsolate, indeed, so disconsolate, that I might well say with David, in my despondency: O Lord, I am cut off from before Your eyes (Psalm 31, verse 22); yet I trust that He will before long hear the voice of my supplication. So I ask you, my dear lamb, do not let your ears grow weary of hearing my sorrowful complaint, nor let your eyes tire of looking at my afflicted face. I hope that the Lord will so order it that it will not last much longer; so bear patiently with me for a little while yet, as you have always done toward me. For when it did not go well with us according to the flesh, you always showed more patience than I did, for which I heartily thank you. For your hands were more diligent than mine to maintain the household; and you walked more piously by your faith before God than I did; and your patience is greater, even to this present day, than mine. So I have good reason to love you more than Paul loved the church at Ephesus, which he yet warned for three years night and day, with anxiety, with watching, and with tears. Acts 20, verses 19 and 31. O my lamb, my love, my dearest love, I have now, God be praised, also had you for about three years, and in these our bonds of tribulation I have had great anxiety day and night for you, and have sighed so many a sigh, and wept so many a tear, which I would not have wept had I been able to speak to you. But now, my affectionately beloved wife, since God has so ordered it that I must leave you, and, as it seems, go before, I say this: Though I am not worthy to exhort you, I still exhort you in this letter with tears, and beg you always to have the Lord before your eyes, and to hold fast to Him with prayer and fasting. For I know that if God takes me out of the flesh before you, you will after my departure be severely assailed; and therefore I beg you, O my only lamb, for the Lord's sake, that you will watch carefully, as the good and wise virgins did, who expected their bridegroom every hour. And I ask you, O my love, my dearest love, if I have found grace before your eyes, remember me, as the pious, God-fearing Judith remembered her husband. Judith 16, verse 22. O Beliken, Beliken, my dearly beloved, the three years which we have lived together do not seem to me to be three days; so when I think of the parting, my heart is troubled. Yet I would, if it must be, that the Lord would come quickly. For I have, the Lord knows, so many sore vexations, so that I may well utter my complaint with David, and say: "O Lord, my chastisement is ready every morning" (Psalm 73, verse 14); for he who seeks my soul, like a bird without cause, neither sleeps nor slumbers day nor night, evening nor morning; but I expect with Paul that God will before long deliver me and us all out of the mouth of the lion. Second Timothy 4, verse 17. Further, my affectionately beloved wife, Beliken van der Straten, whom I love from the heart, let me please tell your love that I do not know much more to write at this time, but I commend you to Almighty God, and to His comforting Word. Moreover, I take leave of you, like bound Israel, who gave their children the last milk; however, God, who made the heavenly host, is well able to turn the elephants back again. Third Maccabees 180. His will be done, and not ours. Nothing more. The Lord be with you. [n1083-1] Greet those who are with you, from me. Adrian also greets you much.

Written by me, your dear husband and brother in the Lord. MAERTEN VAN DER STRATEN.