Am I a soldier of the Cross

For example, when he worked on hymns, he struggled to find words that rhymed. It was hard for him to differentiate between the sounds of slightly different syllables. Many of the hymns that he worked on have imperfect rhymes for these sounds. Sometimes, I would point out these errors, and he was genuinely willing to learn. The structure of Chinese poetry is such that long lines cannot rhyme with short lines, and odd and even lines should have an alternating rhyme pattern. For example, if a hymn has alternating lines of eight syllables and six syllables, the odd lines of eight syllables should rhyme, and the even lines of six syllables should rhyme. The only exception is when the lines of the poem are the same length; then the couplets can rhyme. However, Brother Nee did not follow this rule. Instead, he rhymed lines containing eight syllables with lines containing six syllables. For example, the first verse of the Chinese Hymns, #468 says, "If I veer slightly from the way,/ I'll then in comfort stay; / But I remember my Lord, how / He with suff'ings did bow." [Editor's note: This translation is provided to reflect the eight-six meter rhyme scheme.] This hymn has an eight-six meter; therefore, the odd lines of eight syllables should rhyme, and the even lines of six syllables should rhyme.

Although Brother Nee accepted my fellowship and wanted to revise hymns containing improper rhyme patterns, he was unable to do so because he had written them in a way that if he changed a single character, the meaning would suffer some loss. Chinese Hymns, #468 and also English Hymns, #472, which says, "Many crowd the Savior's kingdom, / Few receive His cross," were both favorite hymns among us in the 1950s because they really touch one's heart. We were often brought to tears while singing them. Since we have seen more of God's central lane and His New Testament economy, we do not sing these hymns as much as before. When I worked on the second edition of the Chinese Hymns, I followed all the rules of Chinese poetry.