PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
The author of these studies, Mr. Watchman Nee
(Nee To-sheng) of Foochow, a true bondservant of Jesus Christ, placed a great
many of us in his debt when, on a visit to Europe in 1938 and 1939, he set
forth so lucidly in his ministry to many groups of young workers and others the
foundation principles of the Christian life and walk.
Several of the addresses forming the material
from which this book has been compiled have already been published
independently and have been the means of blessing to many. Others, covering
similar but wider ground, have existed for long in manuscript or note form. It
is with the conviction that their message merits a wider circulation at the
present time that I have undertaken the editing of the available material to
form this larger book.
Being deprived of personal contact or
communication with the author, I have myself to take full responsibility for
the work of editing. This has involved the bringing together of matter from a
number of sources to form a logical sequence within the framework provided by
two of the original series of studies. Due to the wide variety of this
material, including verbatim records of spoken English addresses, private notes
of Bible readings and personal conversations, and a few translations from the
Chinese, liberties, perforce, have had to be taken with the literary
arrangement -- not, of course, with the doctrine -- making the hand of the
editor more evident that I would have wished. But the privilege of close
personal contact with Mr. Nee during 1938, and the help and criticism of others
who enjoyed his ministry or who have worked with him, and who knew him better
than I, have combined, in the few places where interpretation was necessary, to
make faithfulness to his thought the more certain.
Work on this book has been a searching
experience. It goes out now with the prayer that its strong emphasis upon the
greatness of Christ and upon the finality and sufficiency of His work may be
used of God to bring His children to a place of greater spiritual effectiveness
and thus of increasing value to Him.
Angus I. Kinnear
Bangalore, India
1957