I've believed the true report

Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
I am living in the presence of the King.
(Hymns, #551, chorus)

Thirty-five years ago in China, there was a prevailing evangelist named Dr. John Sung. I went to one of his meetings. The crowd was sitting waiting for him, and when he came into the meeting, he was singing and shouting. "Down with Satan; down with Satan!" Then he came to a person and said, "Down with you; you are sinful; you must repent." This was the way he started the meeting. There were no forms and no regulations. One day the Methodist Church in the old capital of Peking invited him to conduct a gospel-preaching meeting. There were many nicely dressed missionaries sitting at the back of the platform while he was preaching. At a certain point, he turned to all the missionaries and said, "Go home; go back home. Don't sit here and eat the best food." You may say that this is too much, and I agree with you. But in his practice you can see the principle. That Methodist Church would not invite him anymore, but all the younger generation followed him. They would parade down the streets singing the same kind of slogan song: "Down with Satan; down with Satan; down with you!" Instead of teaching you, I am showing you the principle. We do not need to imitate anything; but we should not keep ourselves in oldness and under the influence of old Christianity. We should not be controlled by our own natural tendency. We must be against these things. If I am a quiet person, I have to learn to be noisy and to make a joyful noise before the Lord (Psa. 95:2; 98:4). We should come into the meeting singing. We may sing, "Hallelujah! Hallelujah! / I have passed the riven veil, / Here the glories never fail, / Hallelujah! Hallelujah! / I am living in the presence of the King" (Hymns, #551). You may say, "Brother Lee, I do not know how to sing. I am not a good singer." I sympathize with you. I am an even poorer singer than you are. I can compose, write, and compile hymns, but I cannot sing them. You can at least come to the meetings and say, "Hallelujah, Amen."

We can see that from the time of the Apostles, through the time of the Council of Nicaea, and continuing until the twentieth century, there have been Bible scholars in every generation. We thank the Lord that most of the light that they saw has been put into writing. Sixty or more years ago we were raised up by the Lord. The first leading one among us was Brother Watchman Nee. He set a very good pattern by having no bias. He knew the proper way to read, and even the more he knew how to select books. From 1923 to 1925, when he was just over twenty years old, he collected many prominent Christian writings and Christian masterpieces, about three thousand books. This collection included books of the church fathers, books about church history, books of Bible scholars, and biographies of famous Christians with many of their good messages. He read nearly all of them. Later, I came into the Lord's recovery and became his co-worker. I thank the Lord that from the beginning Brother Nee had a high regard for me. He often sat down and discussed with me the books he had read. My memory was able to retain all that he spoke to me. He brought out many good points from the Catholic church, from the Greek Orthodox church, and from many of the Protestant denominations. He even brought out the good points from the Pentecostal movement. Some of our hymns are from the Pentecostal movement. Hymn #551, "Hallelujah! Hallelujah! I have passed the riven veil," is one of them. Hymn #310, "Glorious Freedom! Wonderful Freedom!" is another. These are masterpieces of the Pentecostal movement.

In October 1934, when Brother Watchman Nee was giving the fourth Overcomers' Conference in Hangchow, he felt that a certain hymn from the Pentecostal movement was very good and suggested that the brothers translate the chorus for singing in the meetings. I picked up that burden. The chorus of that hymn, Hymns, #551, says "Hallelujah! Hallelujah!/I have passed the riven veil,/Here the glories never fail,/Hallelujah! Hallelujah!/I am living in the presence of the King." Singing a hymn like this was a new thing in the Lord's recovery because up until then our meetings had been very structured. We had never sung a short chorus like this. It is worth remembering that just after that conference, we had Brother Nee's wedding meeting, and we sang this short hymn there. My burden in saying this is that you would see that when we put out our hymnal, we had a focus and an emphasis, and we did not cut ourselves off from any truth. Today there is no other collection of hymns like ours that includes all the major truths. When we put out our English hymnal, an elderly American sister, who had spent many years in China, read the table of contents and told us that it was very precious because all aspects of the truth were included there. We did this because we wanted the brothers and sisters to know that our knowledge of the truth is many-sided, but we still have an emphasis and a focus. This is particularly manifest in the more than two hundred hymns written by us, many of which exclusively concern the Spirit with our spirit and the two spirits becoming one spirit. This is a very important point.

We need to speak and sing these psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs long before coming to the meeting. Even in our home, it is very good to be speaking and singing. The husband may say, "This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior...." Then the wife may respond with, "All the day long" (see Hymns, #308). Or she may say, "I have passed the riven veil. Here the glories never fail." Then the husband responds with, "Hallelujah! Hallelujah! I am living in the presence of the King" (see Hymns, #551). If we are filled in spirit, we will have something to utter. The small group meeting may begin at 7:30 p.m., but if a couple begins to sing at dinnertime, around 6:00 p.m., the small group meeting will have already begun. Such a meeting can continue as they drive together to the meeting with the other saints.

To recompile our hymnal is a hard task. In 1961 I wrote eighty-five hymns within about two months. Then in 1963 and 1964, I wrote over two hundred hymns. From that time until now, I have not had the time or the capacity to labor on the hymns. When we published our hymnal, we had the intention to show others that we knew the truth and that we were all-inclusive. In our hymnal about three hundred hymns have been written by us. The other approximately seven hundred and eighty were selected from more than eleven thousand hymns. We even selected some good hymns from the Pentecostal movement. Hymn #551 is a very good song from the Pentecostal movement. The chorus of this hymn says:

Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
I have passed the riven veil,
Here the glories never fail,
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
I am living in the presence of the King.

In the old covenant, the way of the Holy of Holies was not yet manifested; except for the priests, those under that covenant could only enter the outer court. But as soon as the better sacrifice was accomplished, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies were opened to us. Today we are no longer in the outer court; we have entered into the Holy of Holies. The hymn which says, "I have passed the riven veil" (Hymns, #551), speaks of this matter. Today we are no longer in the outer court; we have passed through the second veil of the tabernacle. The first veil was the curtain at the entrance to the tabernacle in the Old Testament, and the second veil covered the ark of testimony in the tabernacle. We have passed through two layers of veils. Now we are in the Holy of Holies, that is, we are living in the presence of God. Therefore, this sacrifice is the better sacrifice, and the blood which Christ shed is the better blood, which has eternal efficacy.

The meeting should actually start before we leave our home. We should go to the group gathering singing and praying. While we are on the way to meet with the saints, we may sing, "Hallelujah! Hallelujah! I have passed the riven veil, Here the glories never fail" (Hymns, #551). When we arrive at the meeting place, what shall we do? According to our old way, we would sit there in silence and wait for the meeting to begin. But the "crazy way" is not like that. We should start the meeting in our home, singing and praying in the car on the way. When we come into the meeting place, we should continue to pray. When others come, they can join our prayer.

As we compare these two hymns, we see that Darby's hymn is higher than Wesley's. This indicates that Darby's experience of Christ as expressed in his hymn was higher than Wesley's as expressed in his hymn. Although both Darby and Wesley experienced Christ as a bullock, Darby's bullock was larger than Wesley's.

If we go on to compare their experiences of Christ with the experience expressed in Hymns, #551, we will see that this hymn expresses a much lower experience of Christ:

1. I've believed the true report,
Hallelujah to the Lamb!
I have passed the outer court,
O glory be to God!
I am all on Jesus' side,
On the altar sanctified,

Revised version:

1. This true fact I've now believed;
The Lord's death I have received.
Outer court I've now achieved;
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
Precious sin-redeeming tide!
Back to God I'm sanctified;
To iniquities I've died;
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!

Chorus:
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
I have passed the riven veil,
Here the glories never fail,
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
I am living in the presence of the King.

2. Through the outer veil am I
Ent'ring Holy Place thereby;
I've gained all God's rich supply;
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
I at peace with God abide
Through the altar sanctified;
All that's not God, cast aside;
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!

3. Inner veil I've passed apace,
Entered in the Holiest place,
Come before God's throne of grace,
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
Now before God I abide;
God's my home, where I reside;
Self no more does us divide,
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!

4. I am now a priest to God
By the Lord's redeeming blood;
This position's mine for good,
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
Now in spirit I reside,
In God's presence, glorious, bright,
With no hindrance, day and night,
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!