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 than 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