We must confess, however, that in our daily living we are short of the experience of the Lord as the great I Am. Although we enjoy singing the hymn about the riches of Christ (Hymns #542), day by day we may still be in poverty. How much do you experience God as Jehovah? It is rather easy to know Him by the name El Shaddai and to declare that He is rich, almighty, and all-sufficient. However, it is quite another thing to have the real experience of the I Am. If we would know God by the name Jehovah, we must have experience. Otherwise, we shall be like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who knew this name without having any experience of it.

Our hymnal includes over eight hundred pieces collected from more than ten thousand pieces from different sources. After collecting these top Christian songs, we felt there was a big shortage of hymns on the things that the Lord has shown us in this half century and on the things we have experienced. Hymn 542 was written at the time we were preparing the hymnal. The chorus says:

O the riches, O the riches,

Christ my Savior has for me!

How unsearchable their measure,

Yet my full reality!

In writing verse 2, I tried to itemize some of the riches: "life and light, wisdom, power, healing, comfort, treasures rich of God's delight." Then verse 3 says:

God's redemption, full salvation,

And His resurrection pow'r,

Sanctifying, glorifying,

All transcending every hour!

Verse 4 says:

O the riches of my Savior-

Nothing less than God as all!

It is easy to say, "Nothing less than God as all," but what is the "all"? Verse 4 continues:

All His person and possessions,

Now my spirit doth enthrall.

Still, not many riches are itemized. Verses 5 and 6 continue:

O the riches of my Savior!

Who can know their breadth and length,

Or their depth and height unmeasured,

Yet they are my joy and strength.

May I know these boundless riches,

Christ experience in full;

I thank the Lord that, even though we are still so short in many ways, He, for His own sake, has spread His recovery, with His riches, to more than two thousand cities throughout the earth. When the Israelites went back to Jerusalem, they were stirred up, they rose up, they went up, and they brought up 5,400 vessels of gold and silver (Ezra 1:7-11). These were the vessels which Nebuchadnezzar had brought out from Jerusalem and had put in the house of his gods. During the first return from the captivity, all these vessels were brought back to Jerusalem. Those vessels are types of the riches of Christ. After I came to this country, I released messages on the riches of Christ, and I also wrote a hymn on the unsearchable riches of Christ (Hymns, #542). In Ephesians 3:8 Paul speaks not only of Christ's riches but of Christ's unsearchable riches. Today the enjoyment of the riches of Christ is by His word.

Today our gospel preaching is the preaching of Christ. To preach Christ is to tell people who and what Christ is. From stanzas 2 and 3 of the Chinese Hymns, #403, we can find at least fourteen items of the riches of Christ. [The English version of this hymn, Hymns, #542, contains twelve items.] First it says, "O the riches of my Savior, / All-embracing…." Then it goes on to list these riches: life, light, wisdom, power, healing, peace, joy, complete redemption, full salvation, justification, sanctification, release, resurrection power, and transcendence, for a total of fourteen items...