Preface

  The Collected Works of Watchman Nee is a collection of the messages, sermons, publications, manuscripts, and hymns of Brother Watchman Nee. This publication is divided into three sets. The first set comprises his early writings, covering the years from 1922 through 1934; the second set comprises the second part of his ministry, covering the years from 1935 through 1942; and the third set comprises the last decade of his ministry, from 1943 through 1952.

  In editing this publication, we have done our best to present each work in its original format. This means, in some cases, that the versions presented here may differ slightly from some familiar existing editions. Most of these works were originally published in the Chinese language. The present publication is a fresh translation from the Chinese. None of the existing English translations have been consulted, with the exception of those translations previously published by the Living Stream Ministry. Because we have tried to be as faithful to the original meaning as possible, we have not taken too much liberty to make adjustments in style and expression. The difficulty can at times be compounded by the fact that some of the earlier writings are somewhat archaic in their original Chinese form. However, we do not wish to sacrifice accuracy for beauty of style.

  Readers who understand the Chinese language will notice that the titles of a few of the English books and articles are slightly different from their Chinese counterparts. In all of these cases, we have adopted the original English title provided by Brother Nee himself. (For example, the literal translation of the magazine title The Present Testimony is Revival, but we have adopted the former because it was provided by Brother Nee himself.)

  We have tried our best to include only those works which were written or spoken by Brother Nee himself. Some of the articles published in two of his earlier magazines, The Christian and The Present Testimony, as well as some chapters of his first book, The Christian Life and Warfare, were written by other Chinese writers (such as Ruth Lee and others) or were translated from English. We have eliminated all of these articles from this publication. However, in the few cases where the source of an article is unclear, it has been included in this publication.

  Wherever possible, Scripture quotations are taken from the Recovery Version published by the Living Stream Ministry. Quotations from those Old Testament books for which no Recovery Version exists are taken from the King James Version.

  The EditorJune 1992