Against the Tide: The Story of Watchman Nee Read online

  CONTENTS

  Foreword: by Leslie T. Lyall

  Preface

  Who's Who

  1. The Gift

  2. Honor Your Ancestors

  3. Revolution

  4. Dedication

  5. Across the Grain

  6. The Proof of Faith

  7. Foreign Fields

  8. The Old Wineskins

  9. Fragile Clay

  10. Disenchantment

  11. New Horizons

  12. Rethinking

  13. Heyday

  14. Withdrawal

  15. Return

  16. Consistent Choice

  17. The Trap Closes

  18. Ordeal

  19. Suppressive Action

  20. Unhindered

  Notes on the Text

  Maps:

  China

  Foochow

  Shanghai

  To Jean

  FOREWORD

  /N EVERY age of human history, men and women have emerged with qualities of character and intellect which have been recognized by their contemporaries as qualifying them for leadership. In the history of Europe the names of Garibaldi, Napoleon, Cromwell, and Churchill at once come to mind. North America has produced an Abraham Lincoln, a George Washington, and an Ike Eisenhower. All these men have impressed their personalities on their contemporaries, and their convictions have altered the course of history. They were men of destiny.

  So too in sacred history. Abraham was the founder of Israel. Moses molded a community of Hebrew slaves into a potentially great nation. David, despite his humble origin, became king of Israel and Judah. But what is so refreshing and so encouraging to us who know ourselves to be far from perfect is to see the honesty of the sacred historians in depicting the lives and the work of their heroes. Moses was not always the meekest of men, and even after he had learned meekness he impetuously forfeited the hoped-for privilege of leading his people into the Promised Land. David, the man after God's own heart, at the height of his power sank to the lowest moral depths and set in motion a sequence of tragic events affecting his family and the nation.

  The history of the Christian church is studded with the names of "men of destiny": Paul, Augustine, Francis of Assisi, Luther, Calvin, Xavier, Knox, Wesley, Zinzendorf, Livingstone, Carey, Hudson Taylor, C. T. Studd, etc. But no one who has read the intimate biographies of these men can be unaware that they were all very human and that their sanctity did not deliver them from errors of judgment nor even serious mistakes which affected their followers, the Christian church as a whole, and the missionary movement in every continent.

  China, like the other great fields of missionary endeavor, has produced her national heroes—men of spiritual stature to serve their own generation in the will of God. Pastor Hsi, the converted scholar and drug addict, pioneered the church in Shansi in the last century and composed hymns of beauty and spiritual understanding. Heroic Chinese Christians chose death rather than deny their faith in the Boxer massacres of 1900. Men like Wang Chi-t'ai called the church to revival in 1910. Ting Li-mei also exercised his gifts as an evangelist in the early years of the Nationalist revolution. Dr. James Yen pioneered mass education in China in the name of Christ. Dr. Ch'eng Ching-yi, in the early days of the Chinese Communist Party when the Chinese church was being seriously threatened, summoned the church to revival and dependence on God alone. Dr. John Sung and Dr. Andrew Gih profoundly stirred the Christian church and led many to faith in Christ during the '30s. Marcus Cheng was a gifted Bible teacher and writer, while Dr. Chia Yu-ming was an outstanding Biblical scholar and convention speaker right up to his death at the age of over 90. And in an era when association with foreign missionaries was embarrassing and unpopular, men like Chang Lin-shen (True Jesus Church), Ching Tien-yin (Jesus Family), and Watchman Nee (Little Flock) headed movements independent of foreign missions and the traditional denominations. Wang Ming-tao maintained an individual independence without starting a separate movement and exercised a nationwide influence on the churches.

  The list of outstanding Chinese Christians is long, but the records of most of them have never been written; and so everyone will welcome the life story of a man whose name has become a household word among Christians all over the world. Watchman Nee personally wrote and published only one book, but he left an almost complete record of his sermons, lectures, and conference addresses which were published in the several magazines he edited. Some of these Angus Kinnear has collected and skillfully edited under such titles as The Normal Christian Life, Changed into His Likeness, and Love Not the World. Over the years Dr. Kinnear has also collected much historical information about the life and work of Watchman Nee, whom he came to know personally in England in 1938.

  Calvin Chao, a first generation Christian who became an outstanding evangelist and student worker, once said that it takes a third generation Christian to produce the maturity and depth of insight needed to expound the mysteries of the gospel with the pen of an Andrew Murray or a Bishop Handley Moule. Watchman Nee, unlike Calvin Chao and other contemporary leaders, was a third generation Christian, and to him was certainly given an insight into Biblical truth which is unique. Few modern Chinese preachers have so glorified Christ and so edified their hearers as did Watchman Nee from the depth of his experience and the breadth of his reading.

  But, like David and Paul, Wesley and Studd, Watchman Nee was not free from human error and human frailty. His insistence on the "one locality, one church" principle led him into separatism and a denunciation of all churches other than his own, and this inevitably caused deep division in the Body of Christ. His well-intended but misconceived venture into industry and commerce alienated him from his own church people, hindered his usefulness to God for at least five years, and provided a weapon for the Communists to use against him. His belated attempt to emulate the early Church and to impose on his churches the practice of having all things in common again divided his followers and presented his enemies with ample grounds for criticism and condemnation. These were the kinds of aberration which almost inevitably occur when a single individual both starts and then controls a movement, lacking the credit checks and doctrinal safeguards of the more established churches. Church history, ancient and modern, contains plenty of examples of this principle. So lessons are to be learned from Angus Kinnear's biography.

  But when the history of the Chinese church comes to be written, it will be impossible to ignore the life and work of an outstanding leader whose influence will last and whose legacy may well be a Christian fellowship which will survive the fires of persecution and the attempts being made to destroy the Christian church in China. Watchman Nee was surely another "man of destiny" who endured to the end as seeing Him who is invisible. In twenty years of imprisonment he never betrayed his Lord. Among his converts, colleagues and followers, as in other branches of the church, there are many of like courage and faith in God who live on to continue the testimony.

  Leslie T. Lyall

  PREFACE

  THIS ACCOUNT of the life and ministry of Watchtman Nee is presented from the standpoint of an observer at a distance who has at no time been involved in the China scene. When in 1938, as a young missionary about to leave Britain for India, I was privileged to spend some valuable weeks with him, I found my whole outlook on Christian life and service greatly enriched and given a fresh direction and purpose; and now that there has fallen to my lot the task of setting his remarkable story in writing, he has once again profoundly affected my thinking. For, as one might expect, his message proves to be inextricably woven into his life. By setting the one in the context of the other and making full use of his own many interpre
tive anecdotes, we are able to trace God's hand in the course of his pilgrimage through a scene of world-shaking events.

  Over the years I have been privileged to meet and converse with many who knew Nee intimately, and it is largely to these that I owe the vivid picture it has been possible to reconstruct in these pages. Some earlier encounters were, alas, all too brief, and it is to my sorrow that prevailing circumstances have not allowed me to pursue some of them further. Of these personal accounts, many have helpfully dovetailed to reinforce one another, but for some details I have had to rely—and have felt it right to do so—upon the evidence of single witnesses quoting from memory. Furthermore, occasionally, where the evidence was slender, I have had to make my own prayerful deductions as to precise timings and sequences and, for the sake of brevity, to take a few short cuts. For any errors and inconsistencies I must assume personal responsibility, as also for my assessments of Nee and his colleagues. I wish to apologize in particular for any pain or inconvenience that might possibly arise from my misunderstanding of the meanings, causes, or motives behind events.

  I have been given a great deal of assistance by many people, and in the first place I must record the immense debt I owe, in all my work for Watchman Nee, to the gifted versions and transcriptions by the late Miss Elizabeth Fischbacher of the best of his preaching and writing. She has skillfully captured and preserved the spirit of the man, and her contributions have appeared, hitherto unacknowledged, in the series of books by Nee I have been privileged to edit. They are drawn upon again in the present volume. In the interpretation of events, the view I have taken owes much at several critical points to the mature spiritual wisdom of another servant of God. I refer to Watchman's friend from boyhood days, the late Mr. Faithful Luke.

  At different periods I have received much help in the form of reminiscences and impressions, private documents, translations, etc., from the following: T. Austin-Sparks, Hubert L. Barlow, David Bentley-Taylor, Joy Betteridge, Dorothy Beugler, Lena Clarke, Elizabeth Fischbacher, Theodore Fischbacher, Mrs. Nancy Gaussen, Doris E. Hinckley Herald Hsu, Hilda Holms, Victoria Holms, Mary Jones, Sophia Jorgensen, Stephen Kaung, Witness Lee, Gaylord Leung, Serene Loland, Faithful Luke, Leslie T. Lyall, James Ma, Shepherd Ma, George McHaffie, Kristeen Macnair, Simon Meek, Joy Meggach, D. Vaughan Rees, Mrs.

  Carol T. Stearns, Newman Sze, A. G. Taylor, Mary Wang, K. H. Weigh, Mary Weller, Mrs. Betty Williams, Lucas Wu, and Alan C. L. Yin. Printed sources are acknowledged in the Notes.

  I should like also to express my gratitude to Miss Jean Wood and Miss Rosemary Keen of the Church Missionary Society and to Dr. Jim Broomhall and Miss Irene King of the Overseas Missionary Fellowship for their willing help, and to Hugh Fuller of Victory Press for his encouragement and long patience while I have been writing this book. And I wish to thank most warmly the four who have read through the manuscript and helped so constructively with advice: Gaylord Leung, Janet Killeen, Leslie T. Lyall, and my wife Jean, who also did all the typing.

  A word about the transliteration of Chinese names. Except where older spellings have been universally used, I have tried to follow the Wade-Giles system, but without the "frills." That is to say, as in newspapers and reference books, I have omitted the accents and apostrophes as being meaningless to the great majority of English readers. Inconsistencies and misspellings are due to my own ignorance of Chinese. To reduce the number of difficult personal names in the text, I have supplied a Who's Who of the Nee family and other main characters in the story.

  The "Notes on the Text" (at the end of the volume), besides acknowledging valuable sources and supplying hints for further reading, are designed to embody a fairly full bibliography of Watchman Nee's writings and edited addresses available in English up to the date of this publication, linked where possible with their date of origin and historic setting.

  The task of preparing this book has been a rewarding one in which I have been aware of the constant help of God. To His hands, for His use, I now entrust it

  ANGUS I. KINNEAR London, 1973

  WHO'S WHO

  THE NEE (NI) FAMILY (in the Foochow dialect: NGA)

  Watchman s Grandfather:

  The Rev. Nga U-cheng (U. C. Nga) of Foochow, born c. 1840; Congregational pastor with the American Mission Board, Foochow. Died 1890.

  Watchman s Parents:

  Ni Weng-hsiu (W. H. Ni) or Nga Ung-siu of Foochow, born 1877, the fourth of nine boys. Officer in the Imperial Customs Service. Died in Hong Kong, December 1941.

  Lin Huo-ping (Peace Lin) of Foochow, born 1880.

  Died in Swatow, 1950.

  Their Nine Children:

  1. Ni Kuei-chen, born 1900 (Mrs. H. C. Chan).

  2. Ni Kuei-cheng, born 1902 (Mrs. P L. Lin).

  3. Ni Shu-tsu or Henry Nee (or in the Foochow dialect Nga Shu-jeo), born in Swatow, November 4,1903; renamed (i) Ni Ching-fu, (ii) Ni To-sheng or Watchman Nee. Married Charity Chang. Died in AnhweiProvince, June 1,1972. They had no children.

  4. Ni Huai-tsu or George Nee, research chemist.

  5. Ni Sheng-tsu, died in school years.

  6. Ni Tek-ting (Mrs. L. H. Wong).

  7. Ni Teh-ching (Mrs. Chang).

  8. Ni Hong-tsu or Paul Nee.

  9. Ni Hsing-tsu or John Nee.

  THE CHANG FAMILY

  Charity's Father:

  The Rev. Chang Chuen-kuan (C. K. Chang) of Foochow, pastor in Tientsin with the Christian and Missionary Alliance.

  His Children:

  1. Chang Pin-tseng or Beulah Chang (Mrs. G. S. Ling).

  2. Chang Pin-fang or Faith Chang (Mrs. K. L. Bao).

  3. Chang Pin-huei or Charity Chang (Mrs. Watchman Nee). Died in Shanghai, October 1971.

  4. Chang Yi-lun or Samuel Chang.

  SOME CHRISTIAN LEADERS AND WORKERS

  A • denotes those directly associated with the Church Assembly Hall ("Little Flock" Movement)

  •John Chang (Chang Kwang-yung) early Shanghai worker. •James Chen (Chen Tseh-hsin) of Amoy, worker in Hong Kong.

  •Stephen Kaung (Chiang Sheo-tao) worker in Chungking. •Miss Ruth Lee (Li Yuen-ju) worker in charge of Shanghai Book Room.

  •Witness Lee (Li Shang-chou) of Chefoo; later senior worker in Shanghai and Taiwan.

  •Philip Luan (Luan Fei-li) of Shantung, worker in Hangchow.

  •Faithful Luke (Liok Tiong-sin) of Kutien, worker in Indonesia.

  •Shepherd Ma (Ma Muh) Christian merchant in Shanghai.

  •Simon Meek (Miao Shou-hsun) of Lieng Chieng, worker in Manila.

  Mary Stone, M.D. (Shih Ma-yu) first Chinese woman doctor and founder of BethelHospital, Shanghai.

  John Sung, Ph. D. (Sung Ju-un) revivalist preacher associated with the Bethel Evangelistic Band.

  •Daniel Tan (Chen Chu-yen) of Amoy, worker in Singapore.

  •John Wang (Wang Lien-chun) elder in Foochow.

  Leland Wang (Wang Tsai) of Foochow, founder of China Overseas Missionary Union.

  Wang Ming-tao, fundamentalist pastor of the Tabernacle, Peking.

  •Miss Peace Wang (Wang Pei-chen) worker in Shanghai.

  Wilson Wang (Wang Tse) of Foochow, brother and colleague of Leland Wang.

  •K. H. Weigh (Wei Kwang-hsi) of Kutien, worker in Hong Kong.

  K. S. Wong (Wong Kai-seng) Christian merchant in Singapore.

  •Lukas Wu (Wu Jen-chieh) of Tsin-kiang, worker in Manila.

  •Dr. C. H. Yu (Yu Cheng-hua) ophthalmologist, elder in Shanghai.

  Miss Dora Yu (Yu Tsi-tu) evangelist and Bible teacher used in the conversion of Watchman Nee. She died in 1931.

  •Alan C. L. Yin, Christian manager of Sheng Hua Pharmaceutical Company.

  China

  Foochow

  Shanghai

  1

  THE GIFT

  SPRING was well advanced in the Middle Kingdom and the season of Pure Brightness had given way to the season of Corn Rain. The night air was clear, with fleecy clouds drifting across a silvery moon. Foochow-fu had closed its seven gate
s beneath their fantastic storied towers. From the crumbling, crenellated walls obsolete cannon looked out over broad ricefields and spreading suburbs. Foot traffic had ceased on the eight-century-old Bridge of Ten Thousand Ages that linked the town on the north bank with Chung-Chou and Nantai islands. Tonight no mist shrouded the huddled sampans of the boat dwellers on the River Min.

  Among the close-packed streets and houses the day's cacophony had long since died. Gone were the rhythmic noises of the streetside craftsmen, the song of bamboo coolies hefting giant loads, the grinding of huge pestles hulling rice, the unending slip-slip of straw sandals, the squeal of trussed pigs borne to market, the cries of hawkers and the whining pleas of beggars. All these had fallen silent and so, too, very gradually, had the last home-bound footsteps through the narrow lane: a sedan chair with toiling bearers bringing home a late-working scholar official; a chattering band of longshoremen returned from loading a junk to catch the tide; a shuffling addict drawn along by his ceaseless craving for the deadly "foreign smoke." Now at last, all was still. In the rambling Nga home the large household slept.

  Po-po! po-po! Beside her sleeping husband Lin Huo-ping stirred uneasily on her mat, aware tonight of the third child secretly within her. She listened. From Kuei-chen and from the little one there was only quiet breathing. Po-po! po-po! Again that staccato sound, and louder. It must be the night watchman on his circuit, alert while most men slept, to give the alarm of fire or thief or any danger. Po-po! po-po! The assuring clapper-note (to-sheng) of his bamboo rattle was receding now as the voice came reedlike, calling: Past midnight, neighbors. All is well!

  An oil lamp with floating wick bathed the little room in its faint glow. The flame guttered and flared as Huo-ping lay back, assured that all was well. She closed her eyes once more, but not to sleep. Again, perhaps for the hundredth time, she whispered, "Let it be a boy!" She recalled with burning resentment today's household gossip, the barbed, mocking words that had made this visit to her in-laws' home so painful. Chinese society placed a premium on male offspring, and to her gentle Nga Ung-siu she had already borne two girls. Her Cantonese mother-in-law had been furious. The unfortunate wife of her eldest son could conceive only females—six of them—and Ung-siu's woman, she affirmed, was another just like her. 'Avenge me, O God," Huo-ping cried now in bitterness, "and take away this reproach!" Then somehow there came back to her mind the half-hearted promise she had made and as quickly forgotten when, a year back, her second child was on the way. "God," she had prayed then, in words that echoed Hannah's, "if You will give me a little boy, I will give him back to You to be Your servant all his days."1 They were good familiar words. She had known the Samuel story from childhood. But now, all at once they aroused in her heart an impulse she had not felt before. She would not only say them; she would mean what she said. She did not hesitate. "I'll keep my word, Lord!" she exclaimed. Quiet then came to her at last. Smiling, she drifted back again to sleep.