O glorious Christ, Savior mine

Yet man in time, finite to be. (Hymns, #501)

Therefore, every morning when you get up, you should call, "O Lord Jesus!" to begin your spiritual breathing. You should call in this way all day long. Also, you cannot separate the word of the Lord from the Spirit of the Lord. Even the more, you cannot separate the Spirit of the Lord from the Lord Himself. The Lord is the Spirit, and the Spirit is the word. Not only did God come down to the earth from the heavens, and then from the earth to Hades; He also ascended to the heavens from Hades and became a life-giving Spirit. In the universe, among the human race, there is also the word of God written and printed here, and it has been left in our hands. Therefore, every morning as soon as we wake up, we need to call on Him and also receive His word. During the day, we simply do these two things: contact the Lord and receive His word. This is what is spoken of in Hymns, #501, stanza 4, which says:

The Spirit of life causes Thee
By Thy Word to transfer to me.
Thy Spirit touched, Thy word received,
Thy life in me is thus conceived.

Since this is a fact, then we should be filled in spirit with the Triune God, as recorded in Ephesians 5:18, so that out from within us can flow rivers of living water. How do these rivers of living water flow out? This is through the speaking to one another as mentioned in verse 19. With what should we speak to one another? With psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Throughout the years many experienced ones among us have spent a lot of effort to compile many psalms and spiritual songs. These are printed in our hymnal and are ready to be used, without the need at any time for us to compile or to consider. For example, Hymns, #501, says:

O glorious Christ, Savior mine,
Thou art truly radiance divine;
God infinite, in eternity,
Yet man in time, finite to be.
Oh! Christ, expression of God,
The Great, Inexhaustible, rich, and sweet!

The second is speaking words of praise, of teaching, and of admonition (Eph. 5:18-19; Col. 3:16). These words are already in the Bible, which is the "word of Christ" mentioned in Colossians chapter three. The psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs mentioned in Ephesians chapter five are not only in the Bible, but also in our hymnal. For example, Hymns, #501, says:

O glorious Christ, Savior mine,
Thou art truly radiance divine;
God infinite, in eternity,
Yet man in time, finite to be.
Oh! Christ, expression of God, the Great,
Inexhaustible, rich, and sweet!

In addition, in the same chapter, the Lord shows us a little clue that the Spirit of reality whom the disciples were to receive was to be the Son who received all that the Father had (16:15). All that the Son has is to the Spirit, and all that the Spirit receives is opened up and disclosed to us. All that the Father has is to the Son, all that the Son has is received by the Spirit, and all that the Spirit receives is all that the Triune God is. Furthermore, the Spirit also opens up and discloses to us all that the Triune God is. This is the truth that the Spirit reveals to us when the Spirit of reality comes. Its content is the Triune God, who has passed through all the processes to be wrought into those who believe in Him, to make them sons of God and the members of Christ, that they may be constituted the Body of Christ.

Hymn #501 in Hymns says,
All things of the Father are Thine;
All Thou art in Spirit is mine;
The Spirit makes Thee real to me,
That Thou experienced might be.

According to 1 Corinthians 14:26, the saints may have five categories of items to minister to others in the meeting: a psalm, a teaching, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. A saint may have a psalm for both singing and speaking in a Christ-filled spirit, not only to praise and thank God the Father but also to edify and build up the attendants. According to Ephesians 5:18-21, psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs are not only for singing but also for speaking. We should learn to speak the hymns. Hymn #501, "O Glorious Christ, Savior Mine," is a wonderful hymn for singing and speaking. We should read and study this hymn and learn to speak it privately in our homes. Then we can come to the meeting and speak this hymn with others. This one hymn will become a marvelous message full of nourishment, revelation, and edification if we speak it properly. But we have to learn not merely to read but to speak. We have to sing or speak either a psalm, a hymn, or song in a Christ-filled spirit. We must come to the meeting with a spirit filled with Christ to praise and thank God the Father and to edify and build up the attendants.

In our meetings, we must have some psalms, not only for psalming but also for speaking. I hope that in every meeting at least one-fourth of the speaking would be speaking on psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. A hymn, like the cream of milk, is the cream of a certain composition. The best way for us to learn how to speak is to learn how to speak with the hymns. We should learn to use a hymn like "O Glorious Christ, Savior Mine" (Hymns, #501). That hymn will help us in speaking, but we have to learn to speak in a living way, in a very refreshing way, and in a very inspiring way. We should not just read the hymns, but speak in a Way to stir up the saints and inspire every attendant of the meeting. We need to practice speaking the hymns in this way again and again. Then we will be equipped to render much help to the meeting. We can have a very good Lord's table meeting just by speaking one hymn. After speaking this hymn, we can sing it, and after singing it, we can speak it again. We would not need to call another hymn. By singing, speaking, singing, and speaking one hymn, the riches of Christ will be released into the meeting.

This should be the condition of our meetings. Sometimes the weather is not good, but we still come to the meetings, because the purpose of our meetings is to eat the Lord, to drink Him, and to enjoy Him. We also meet to supply one another with the flow of living water. Stanza 4 of Hymns, #501 says, "Thy Spirit touched, Thy word received, / Thy life in me is thus conceived." When we receive the word, we touch the Spirit in the word and are inwardly supplied. We should eat, drink, and enjoy the Lord not only in the meetings but also in our daily life so that He can become our supply. This is a practical way to experience the Triune God as life.

I also hope that more people will be able to write some hymns of good quality for all the saints to enjoy. In 1961 I wrote eighty-five new hymns within two months. Among them are "Spirit begets spirit, spirit worships the Spirit" (hymn #450 in the Chinese hymnal), "O glorious Christ, Savior mine" (Hymns, #501), and others. These hymns contain expressions that have never been used in Christian hymns throughout the ages. Altogether 1 wrote more than two hundred hymns in English and more than one hundred fifty hymns in Chinese. Although I cannot say that every hymn is good, they all contain solid spiritual meaning and truths.

For the home meetings we also need the high standard of hymns. The hymns must be high in significance and in expression. Hymn #501, "O glorious Christ, Savior mine," is a hymn of a high standard. When I was young, I was taught the song, "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so." Even the unbelievers were able to sing that hymn, and some young boys on the street would mockingly sing it to the Christians. This short hymn is good, but too low. Our hymnal, entitled Hymns, was compiled in 1964 with one thousand and eighty selected hymns; two hundred sixty-eight more have since been added. We have had these hymns for over twenty years, but we have mainly used those which were written by ourselves. Nevertheless, all those hymns were included, and a detailed table of contents was composed in a proper theological way. After reading the table of contents, one could realize that we do have a proper understanding of theology.