O glorious Christ, Savior mine

In order to do the translation work well, you must be able to write well. Translating can be compared to writing poetry. Writing poetry requires hard work. Similarly, translation requires hard work in order for it to be done wel1. This work can also be compared to building a house in a sloppy or a careful way. In order to build carefully, one must take care of many fine details. Such details include polishing everything and even doing fine engravings. The hymns that I wrote, "O glorious Christ, Savior mine" (Hymns, #501) and "Thou art all my life, Lord, / In me Thou dost live" (#841), are good examples. I spent much time and effort on these hymns, considering and revising where to place certain words. The translation of the Recovery Version into Chinese requires even more consideration and time. The serving ones must set aside the time and come to the Book Room to work during normal office hours as if they were in the army. They must come to work in the morning and depart in the afternoon. In order to be in the church life or to serve in the churches, the serving ones in the Book Room must use their spare time after work for this in the same way as other working saints. Eight hours of the day must be spent on the work of the Book Room, and the serving ones must coordinate in a good way. Even if the church has a conference, they cannot miss work to attend the conference. This is the only way for us to get the work done. If we do not do this, we will not know when we will be able to publish something, nor will we have the assurance that the work will be done well. Everything depends on time. We cannot have an attitude of doing things carelessly or finishing in a hasty way. We cannot make many mistakes, because it is hard to make corrections after a book has been sent to the printer.

I wrote some of the hymns in our Chinese hymnal in 1961, and I composed them by walking while intoning. It would be difficult to improve Hymns, #501, "O glorious Christ, Savior mine," because the rhythm and rhyme are very good, the parallel structures are proper, and the composition is excellent. However, I did not spend the same amount of time on the other hymns that I translated from English; therefore, the rhythm and meter of some hymns can still be improved. In order to write a good composition, we must spend an adequate amount of time, especially to study poems and songs. The text of the Bible is a classic work; therefore, our translation must have a certain elegance. In translating the New Testament we must pay attention to the meaning of the Greek text, but we cannot neglect the writing style. For this reason we should not depart from the writing style of the Chinese Union Version unless it is absolutely necessary.

The fifth "gold bar" is in 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, which says, "Even as the body is one and has many members, yet all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ. For also in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and were all given to drink one Spirit," This shows that we all are members of the Body of Christ and have the same life and element as Christ; thus, all the members joined together constitute the Body of Christ.

Verse 13 says that in one Spirit all the believers were baptized into one Body. This Spirit is the life-giving Spirit. This Spirit may be compared to a large pool of water. Thousands upon thousands of believers have been baptized in it into one Body. Not only so, we also drink of this one Spirit. Thus, we not only have the Spirit as our sphere outwardly but also are filled and saturated with the Spirit inwardly. The Spirit that we drink will ultimately saturate and permeate us. Drinking the Spirit may sound a little wild, but 10:4 also says that the Israelites "drank the same spiritual drink"; thus, we certainly see the concept of drinking in this book. Christ is the portion of us all; the way to enjoy Him is to be baptized into the Spirit and to drink the Spirit until we are wholly saturated by the Spirit, and our whole being is full of the Spirit. At that time our condition will be like the condition described in Hymns, #501: "Thy Spirit will me saturate, / Every part will God permeate." The way to be saturated and permeated is by drinking the Spirit.

You must see clearly what the Lord is recovering today. First, this is the recovery of Christ. Christianity preaches merely that the Lord Jesus was crucified to save you from your sins so that you would not go to hell but would go to heaven. This is too low and shallow; this is a low gospel. According to the revelation in the Bible, we see Christ. Stanza 1 and the chorus of Hymns, #501 say, "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! / God mingled with humanity/ Lives in me my all to be." This is the Christ whom we know today in the Lord's recovery. The subject of the recent summer training was "The Conclusion of the New Testament." In this training we presented over four hundred aspects of the riches of Christ. We should know and experience all these riches.

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In the Lord's recovery we see a rich Christ who is unlimited and immeasurable. This Christ is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. This is a great recovery, and this recovered truth has been published in our various publications, but unfortunately, many among you have not gotten into them. Therefore, I want to solemnly fellowship that the first thing you should know in the Lord's recovery is this all-inclusive rich Christ. The Son is the embodiment of the Father, and the Spirit is the realization of the Son. Today He is the Spirit dwelling in our spirit. Stanza 3 of Hymns, #501 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." This is absolutely a word of truth as well as a word of experience and a word of life. We must know Christ to such an extent.

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You must first exercise the part in you where Christ is. This part is your spirit. Stanza 3 of Hymns, #501 says, "The Spirit makes Thee real to me." The Spirit is Christ as the Spirit, who enters into your spirit. This Spirit is not in your mind, emotion, or will. If you think about what you should speak or utter as you come to a meeting, you are exercising your mind. If you feel happy and want to say something, you are exercising your emotion, and if you decide not to speak in the meeting, you are exercising your will. All these do not involve the Spirit. You should not meet in such a way. When you come to a meeting, you must put aside your mind, emotion, and will, and exercise your innermost part, your spirit. Calling, "O Lord Jesus!" is not about calling based on your emotion, mind, or will, because Paul says that no one can say, "Jesus is Lord!" except in the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3). All proper calling comes from your spirit.

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It is not sufficient for us to follow the Spirit, exercise the spirit, and grow in life; we must also know the Bible. Stanza 4 of Hymns, #501 says, "The Spirit of life causes Thee / By Thy Word to transfer to me," The Spirit is the Lord Jesus. Today the Spirit is very abstract, but we also have the Bible, which is the Lord's embodiment. In the beginning was the Word (John 1:1), and this Word is the Lord. Therefore, we must study the Bible diligently in order to know the Lord.

We should realize that the Lord's recovery is to recover Christ, the Spirit, life, and the church. Christ is the embodiment and expression of the Triune God; He is the all-inclusive God-man. Concerning this point, Hymns #501 has given a simple, clear, and appropriate description. The Spirit is the ultimate expression of the Triune God. The theology in Christianity has separated God into three Persons: the Father being one Person, the Son being one Person, and the Spirit being another Person. But we see from the Bible that Christ is the embodiment of God and is not separate from the Father. He Himself says, "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30). Then, again, He says, "You, Father, are in Me and I in You" (John 17:21). The Bible also says that the Holy Spirit is the reality of the Son (John 14:17-20; 1 John 5:6). Hence, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are one. This Triune God has passed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection from the dead, and He has become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). Therefore, now the Lord is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). At the end of the Bible it says, "The Spirit and the bride say, Come!" (Rev. 22:17). The Spirit here is the ultimate expression of the processed Triune God. Moreover, life is simply Christ, and life is also the Spirit. In John 14, Christ says, "I am the life." This Christ who is life, having passed through the processes to become the life-giving Spirit, entered into us to be the life that we enjoy.

Wherever I went, I always preached Brother Nee's teachings. Some people considered this a shame, but to me it was a glory. At the beginning of my speaking I would tell people that what I was sharing was Brother Nee's message. I even learned to follow Brother Nee's gestures, posture, and accent. It was a glory to speak what he spoke. Before I began the work in the United States, I wrote Hymns, #203, which speaks of the one grain that became many grains to be the Lord's continuation. The Lord covers me to say that this is a very deep hymn. I also wrote "O glorious Christ, Savior mine" (#501) and "Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace!" (#499). When I came to the United States, the first message of the first conference I gave in English was on the all-inclusive Christ, based on Deuteronomy 8:7-9. However, in all this I never changed. What I speak is still from Brother Nee.

Much of what I have spoken and written since 1963 has been concerning the eight sections of God's organic salvation. For example, regarding Christ, Hymns, #501 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." All that the Father has is the Son's, and all that the Son possesses is in the Spirit, who brings everything into us so that it becomes real to us for our experience. Hymns, #750 concerns transformation. It is brief, dear, and to the point. We have seen these things in the past but never as completely and wholly as we do now. The Lord has given us a complete picture of what He is doing.

After returning from England, I spoke on the building of the church, but I discovered that everyone's spirit was not living. How can there be the building up of the church if the spirit does not rise up? Therefore, by 1961 I began to speak on the matters of exercising the spirit, releasing the spirit, and being mingled in spirit. I even wrote new hymns, such as "Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace!" and "O glorious Christ, Savior mine, / Thou art truly radiance divine" (Hymns, #499, #501). These hymns caused people to become more living, but I eventually discovered that the co-workers sang them to the point that they did not like to sing them as much. The more I spoke on exercising the spirit, the less spirit there seemed to be. At the end of that year I went to America.

The troubles in Manila were provoked by the people in Taiwan, and the troubles in Taiwan were incited by the people in Manila. They joined together with one another just like Herod and Pilate. In the summer of 1961 I went to the Philippines to lead the young people's training in Baguio, a city situated on a mountain. That training was unprecedented. The young people became vitalized, and everyone was praying. During the meetings they sang from the eighty-five new hymns that I wrote, including, "O glorious Christ, Savior mine, / Thou art truly radiance divine," "Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace!" and "O Lord, Thou art the Spirit now" (Hymns, #501, #499, #493). The more everyone sang, the more they were released; eventually, everyone was released.

The younger saints are blessed because they can be filled with God in their youth. However, in addition to being filled with God, we also need to be saturated with God and allow Him to be expressed through us. One of our hymns says, "Thy Spirit will me saturate, / Every part will God permeate" (Hymns, #501). I hope that the younger saints will be saturated and permeated with God until God can be seen in every part of their being, that is, until God is in their tongue, eyes, shoulders, walk, and words. Then they will be young persons who truly belong to God.