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We have seen that we should not bring in any distractions or frustrations to the Lord’s ministry. I do not mean that we do not have the liberty to read the old books. We should not exercise any control over the saints. This is absolutely wrong. Please do not think that in my fellowship concerning the way to use the reference books and other writings I intended to control the saints from reading others’ writings. This is absolutely wrong. You are free to go to any books, but if you go to those books, I would say that you run a risk, and you will probably waste your time. If you ask for my advice, I would say that you had better not go to others’ books until you have finished the course of the Life-study messages and the Recovery Version with the footnotes to get a strong footing and a proper foundation that gives you the best discernment. Then it is safe for you to go to other books.
I would also like to give an illustration of having the proper discernment in reading the spiritual books. The Pilgrim’s Progress, which was written by John Bunyan, an Anabaptist, was one of the top selling books next to the Bible. It was even more popular than George Cutting’s Safety, Certainty, and Enjoyment, which is a booklet concerning the assurance of salvation. Despite the popularity of The Pilgrim’s Progress, if you look into this book with some discernment, you can see that there is very little stress on Christ as life. The main theme of the book is that Christians need a full separation from worldliness. The Pilgrim’s Progress helps one to get out of the world. When I was in the Southern Baptist elementary school in China, The Pilgrim’s Progress, translated into Chinese, was a textbook in the classes. Many Christians received the help from that book to be separated from the world, but they could scarcely see any stress on Christ as life in it.
I also would like to fellowship with you concerning the reading of spiritual biographies. The better Christian biographies are those concerning people like Hudson Taylor, George Müller, D. L. Moody, and Charles Spurgeon. All these biographies are profitable in a number of points concerning the individual Christian life. They are very helpful to some extent, and I personally have received much from these biographies. I read most of them in my youth. We must realize, however, that the Lord’s recovery has brought us absolutely back to His New Testament economy and the New Testament ministry. We must also realize that the twenty centuries of church history are a history of the deviation from these two points — the New Testament economy and the New Testament ministry. Actually, not one of the spiritual biographies is cleansed from the matter of division.
I appreciate Hudson Taylor’s life greatly. I received much help from his life. We must realize, though, that even with him the element of division was still there. There was nothing wrong with him picking up a burden to bring the gospel, the Lord’s name, and the Bible to China. This was altogether God’s doing, and I do believe that the burden that came to him was from God. I appreciated that from my youth. I am not speaking this in a light way, because we have paid very much attention to the China Inland Mission, which was founded by this dear brother. We always considered that this was the top mission to China and was very scriptural, spiritual, and evangelical. After we had seen God’s New Testament economy with God’s New Testament ministry, however, we could not absolutely say Amen to this mission.
This does not mean, however, that we were as strong as John Nelson Darby was concerning Hudson Taylor. In the late 1800s the Lord raised up Hudson Taylor with a burden to bring the gospel to China. This was during the same time when the Brethren assemblies were very prevailing. John Nelson Darby and George Müller were living at this time. These two brothers were the top brothers among the Brethren. They eventually held different opinions concerning the matter of receiving the believers. Darby felt that since denominations are condemned by Paul as something of the flesh and thus something sinful (1 Cor. 1:10-17; Gal. 5:20), anyone who joined a denomination or remained in a denomination was a “companion of sin.” He felt that the Brethren assemblies could not receive a “companion of sin.” To join a Brethren assembly, you must leave the denominations absolutely and officially. They used to ask people to write a letter to their denomination asking them to take their name off the membership roll. It had to be very official. This was the reason Darby was condemned as being very exclusive, and we cannot agree with him in this point.
George Müller did not agree with this either. He said that you should not consider a brother such as Hudson Taylor a “companion of sin.” Hudson Taylor was George Müller’s friend in the Lord, and George Müller greatly helped the China Inland Mission financially. George Müller maintained that Hudson Taylor’s personal Christian life might have been better than some of the brothers in the Brethren assembly. As a result of these differing opinions, there was a division among the Brethren. This was the origin of the so-called closed Brethren and the so-called open Brethren; the leader of the closed Brethren was John Nelson Darby, and the leader of the open Brethren was George Müller.
On the one hand, I agree with George Müller and not with John Nelson Darby. He was wrong in this point. Hudson Taylor was called by God and received his burden for China from God. This was wonderful. In China I never said anything or did anything to discredit the China Inland Mission, because I appreciated their work of bringing the gospel to the interior of China. That was a marvelous work, which I appreciate and treasure. On the other hand, we cannot deny that even with this wonderful work an element of deviation remained.
This element of deviation can be seen in the practice of the China Inland Mission concerning the matter of the church. The China Inland Mission collected many devoted believers to pick up the burden to go to the interior of China to preach the gospel of Jesus there, yet all these believers came from different denominations. Some were Episcopalians, Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians, and some even came from the Brethren. Hudson Taylor was very general. The decision was made that if you joined the China Inland Mission to bring the gospel to the interior of China, you could establish a church according to the denomination that you came from. If you came from the Methodists, you could establish a church in the interior of China according to the Methodists. If you came from the Presbyterians, you could establish a Presbyterian-style church in the interior of China. Therefore, under the name of China Inland Mission, the divisive forms of denominations still remained.
China Inland missionaries under the leadership of Hudson Taylor tried not to bring divisions to China, but they compromised with all the divisions. Actually, in the eyes of the Chinese Christians, the China Inland Mission was the same as the other denominations. Some of the denominational forms were still there under the one name of the China Inland Mission.
I agree that Hudson Taylor’s biography is a great help to the individual Christian life. However, once a reader gets the help from that book, it might be hard for him to have a clear and accurate view concerning the church. Mostly, the reader who receives so much help from such a book would just “swallow up” the whole book. Even if the reader did not swallow the entire book, there would be an unconscious entrance into his being concerning this deviation. Some young saints who read this book might think, “Could such a great evangelist who was used by God to such an extent be wrong? Could he be wrong in the way he established churches?” Then there would be a question in this young one’s mind concerning the recovery. This shows us that the subtle serpent is here. I passed through this stage as a young man. When I read Hudson Taylor’s biography, I unconsciously asked myself whether or not he could be wrong. I asked myself whether or not we could be right in this matter. By the Lord’s mercy, I had passed through many kinds of testing situations before I read his biography. Thus, I was not affected.
We must consider the young ones among us. In such a biography some germs are there. The food is nourishing, but are you sure that the germs there would not poison the eater? This biography is very good, but it is not absolutely pure. At least, some element of deviation is there. Truthfully speaking, we must also realize that Mrs. Howard Taylor, who was Hudson Taylor’s daughter-in-law, was a good writer who was very promoting. This is why I stopped the publication of my writing of Brother Nee’s biography. I am still considering whether or not I might be promoting there. I do not like to give people an impression that I am writing a biography of Brother Nee just to promote something. One must be a very pure person to write a biography or a history without promoting.
We do not need to control the saints, and even more we do not need to stop them from reading what they want. As leaders in the Lord’s recovery, however, we should conduct the saints to the right way. We do not need to tell them not to go a certain way, but we must tell them to take the right way. We are here for the Lord’s recovery. The publications that can help and serve the Lord’s recovery in carrying out His New Testament economy for the fulfillment of His heart’s desire, I still would say, are the Life-studies and the Recovery Version with the footnotes. Since this is the case, why would we not wisely conduct the church toward this way? For example, if someone asks us the best way to drive to Phoenix, we should conduct him to the straightest way.
We are not here merely for the individual Christian life, a mission work to the foreign field, or bearing the Lord’s name to the heathen countries. These are all good things, but this is not our commission. Our commission is to let the Lord carry out His New Testament economy by His New Testament ministry. This is why I feel very sorry that in certain places the leadership was not that strong or adequate. If the leadership in that part of the world had been strong and adequate, it would have conducted all the saints in every church to the right way. We should not waste time, we should not delay people, and we should not let confusions come in. We should not fail the Lord in His New Testament economy.
