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Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 14:26; Eph. 5:18-19; Col. 3:16
If we desire to be the speaking ones in the meetings, we have to know the hymns. In order for us to enrich, strengthen, enliven, refresh, and uplift our meetings, we need to use the hymns. We have seen that according to 1 Corinthians 14:26 and Hebrews 10:25, we need both speaking and singing in our meetings. The speaking is not only the speaking of the word of God or the speaking forth of Christ but also the speaking of the hymns. The first item listed by Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:26 is a psalm. A psalm is poetry. In both Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16, we are charged to speak in hymns. This indicates that the saints in the early Christian meetings used a lot of hymns. Many times we may not be able to find a verse or some verses in the Bible to meet the real need in the meeting, but we can easily find a hymn to meet the need. This is why we have to know the hymns. If we use the hymns adequately and properly in our meetings, they will be uplifted, enlivened, and refreshed. But we have to do everything in a living way, not in a legal way. Legality brings in death and deadness. We must stay away from the legal deadness. We should try to do everything in a very living way that is flexible and applicable.
Brother Nee was the first person to put out a hymnal among us in mainland China. By the time I came into the Lord’s recovery in 1932, we had a hymnal of one hundred eighty-three hymns. The majority of those hymns were translated by Brother Nee. Some new hymns were also written by him and one or two others. That hymnal contained many hymns from the Brethren. Brother Nee entitled that hymnal The Little Flock. Many of the missionaries called us “the little flock” fifty or sixty years ago because of the name of our hymnal. Brother Nee announced a few times that “the little flock” was just the title of our hymnal and not a name that we adopted to denominate ourselves. Despite this, people still called us “the little flock.” As a result, Brother Nee made the decision to change the name of our hymnal to Hymns, which is also the name of our present hymnal.
In the early 1940s we in northern China became prevailing in our gospel work, so I began to collect some hymns for the gospel such as “Rock of Ages” (Hymns, #1058), “Jesus, lover of my soul” (Hymns, #1057), and “In tenderness He sought me” (Hymns, #1068). Because these hymns were so popular, Brother Nee did not collect them in his earlier hymnal. But in the early forties we felt that we had the need to collect these hymns in a small hymnal for the sake of the gospel work. In 1947 and 1948 many young people in Shanghai were brought into the church life through our work on the campus. At that time our hymnal was not adequate to meet the need of these young people, so I prepared a hymnal with short songs that were good for the young people. Thus, when we moved to Taiwan for the Lord’s work, we had three hymnals. The first collection of one hundred eighty-three hymns was compiled by Brother Nee, and the other two hymnals were compiled by me.
From 1960 to 1961 I was burdened to minister Christ as the life-giving Spirit to the saints in Taiwan. By that time we were short of hymns on Christ, the Spirit, life, and the church. In 1961 I spent two months to write eighty-five new hymns on these subjects. A number of these have been translated and are in our present English hymnal. Hymns, #499—“Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace!”; Hymns, #501—“O glorious Christ, Savior mine”; and Hymns, #608—“What mystery, the Father, Son, and Spirit,” were written in 1961 in Taipei and translated into English in 1964 in Los Angeles. After I wrote these hymns in Taiwan in 1961, the saints there had four hymnals to bring to the church meetings.
When I came to the United States and the Lord’s recovery began in this country in 1962, we had the deep sensation that we needed an adequate hymnal that could greatly help our meetings. When I traveled throughout the United States from 1962 to 1964, I looked at various hymnals to see if there were any hymns that would be useful for our collection. When we compiled the hymns in our hymnal, we also looked into the British Keswick Convention hymnal. Most of those hymns were useful to us, so a number of them were included in our present hymnal. From 1963 to 1964 I wrote about two hundred new hymns, which were also included in our hymnal.
Many of the hymns that we collected from other hymnals were adjusted, corrected, and improved by us. Some of the lines were not according to the truth of the Scriptures. Hymns, #1068 is a good example of this. I love this hymn very much, so I translated it into Chinese. But it was seriously wrong in one point. The chorus says,
According to the scriptural revelation, the fold signifies the law, or Judaism as the religion of the law, in which God’s chosen people were kept and guarded in custody and ward until Christ came (John 10:1-9). The flock, on the other hand, signifies the church as the one Body of Christ (v. 16). At the time this hymn was written, the church was considered as a fold, but the fold in John 10 refers to the Jewish religion. The Lord’s desire was to bring the Gentile and the Jewish believers together into one flock to form the church. When the pasture is not available in the winter time or in the night, the sheep must be kept in the fold. When the pasture is ready, there is no further need for the sheep to remain in the fold. All the sheep can be led out of the fold to be gathered together as a flock to enjoy the pasture. The pasture (v. 9) signifies Christ as the feeding place for the flock. Because of this scriptural revelation, we changed the word fold in the chorus of this hymn to flock.
By reading the hymns written in the last century, I discovered that many of them had the thought of going to heaven, using the Jordan River as a type of death and Canaan as a type of heaven. When I was young, I sang some of these hymns. One hymn talks about the cold waves of Jordan. When we collected some of these hymns for our hymnal, we changed this thought of going to heaven to the thought of being a victor, an overcomer.
Charles Wesley, the brother of John Wesley, was a great writer of holy songs. He wrote the hymn “Hark! the herald angels sing.” The last stanza of this hymn in our hymnal says,
In the last line of this stanza Charles Wesley used the term second Adam. But 1 Corinthians 15 refers to “the last Adam” (v. 45b) and “the second man” (v. 47). To match the truth of the Scriptures, we corrected this to read final Adam. We studied much to arrive at the word final since we had to have a two-syllable word to fit the meter.
We made these alterations to the older hymns, except where a copyright had been involved, in order to improve their accuracy in truth and enrich their spirituality in meaning. In this delicate and difficult work, we departed from the meaning and words of the original author only where it was necessary.
To know the hymns we have to know some of the crucial points of the contents of the hymns. First, we must know some of the hymns on the blessing and experience of the Triune God. The word blessing is used here not to refer to the good things the Triune God has given us but to the praise, the blessing, we offer to Him. An example of a good hymn on the blessing of the Triune God is Hymns, #7—“Glory, glory to the Father!”—and an example of a good hymn on the experience of the Triune God is Hymns, #608—“What mystery, the Father, Son, and Spirit.” We also need to know hymns in the categories of the praise of the Father and the praise of the Lord.
Another crucial point of the contents of the hymns is the filling of the Spirit. Some have used the term the fullness of the Spirit, but we have seen from the Word that fullness is used for the expression of the riches of our God. This is different from filling. The Bible reveals that there are two aspects of the filling of the Spirit—the inward filling for life and the outward filling for power. The Greek word pleroo refers to the inward filling, and the Greek word pletho refers to the outward filling.
We also need to know hymns concerning the identification with Christ. I feel that identification is a better word than union. We are not just united to be together with Christ, but we are actually one with Christ. A number of hymns in this section of our hymnal were written by A. B. Simpson, the founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. Many of these deeper and excellent hymns written by A. B. Simpson cannot be found in today’s hymnals of the Christian and Missionary Alliance churches, but we have included them in our hymnal.
The experience of Christ is another crucial point of the contents of the hymns. Hymns, #499—“Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace!”—and Hymns, #501—“O glorious Christ, Savior mine”—are excellent hymns in this category. We also need to know the hymns on the crucial points of the inner life, the church, the assurance of salvation, consecration, and comfort in trials. Hymns, #720 is a good hymn in this section. The first stanza of this hymn and the chorus read,
We also need to know the hymns on the crucial points of spiritual warfare, the gospel, the meetings, the hope of glory, and the ultimate manifestation. Hymns, #948 and #949 are excellent hymns concerning Christ as the hope of glory, and Hymns, #972 is a very good hymn on the ultimate manifestation. Hymns, #949 was written to the tune of “He Lives, He Lives”:
We can choose three hymns from our hymnal to illustrate what we mean by the standard of the hymns—Hymns, #70, #154, and #152. These hymns are concerning our love for the Lord and His love for us. The standard of Hymns, #70—“Oh, how I love Jesus”—is very low in life, truth, experience, and revelation. Hymns, #154—“It passeth knowledge, that dear love of Thine”—is of a much higher standard. The first stanza of this hymn says,
Hymns, #152—“O how deep and how far-reaching”—is of the highest standard. The first stanza of this hymn says,
In order to know the hymns, we must know the standard of the hymns. Some hymns are of a low standard, others are of a higher standard, and others are of the very highest standard.
A. B. Simpson’s hymns on the identification with Christ are of the highest standard. Hymns, #481 is a very sweet song on being identified with Christ’s death and resurrection. Stanza 2 and the chorus say,
Do you feel that it is hard to die? Here is a word that tells us it is not hard to die. To die with yourself is hard, but to die with Christ is not hard. It is not hard to die with Christ “when His risen life we know.” This refers to Philippians 3:10, where Paul says, “To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”
Hymns, #482 is another excellent hymn by A. B. Simpson on being identified with Christ’s death and resurrection. I especially appreciate the third stanza:
We can compare these hymns by A. B. Simpson to Hymns, #1059, another hymn on knowing the cross of Christ. The first stanza and the chorus say,
The chorus of this hymn indicates that the writer was referring to Galatians 6:14—“But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.” The word boast may also be translated “glory.” Thus, the hymn says, “In the cross...be my glory ever.” Yet this hymn does not properly convey what Paul meant in Galatians 6. Paul gloried in the cross because of the circumcision exalted by the Judaizers. The cross was really an abasement, but the apostle made it his boast. He was glorying in the shame of the cross. The most shameful death for a criminal was crucifixion. Circumcision foreshadowed the dealing with man’s flesh; the cross is the reality of this dealing (Col. 2:11-12; Gal. 5:11). The Judaizers endeavored to bring the Galatians back to the shadow; the apostle Paul struggled to keep them in the reality. Circumcision was fulfilled by Christ’s crucifixion. Thus, the apostle only boasted in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This truth in Galatians is not conveyed in Hymns, #1059. This hymn was written before A. B. Simpson’s writings. At the time it was written, the revelation concerning the Lord’s subjectiveness was not that deep. It is a good hymn, but it is obvious that the hymns by Brother Simpson are of a much higher standard.
If we learn to sense the hymns, we can know their standard. If we sing or read a hymn, we will have a deep sensation. We can sense that Hymns, #152 is deep, high, and profound. The sensation comes from the thought of the hymn. When we select a hymn for a meeting, we must do it according to our sensation based on the thought of the hymn. The sensation of a hymn also refers to its taste. Whether or not certain foods are delicious is determined by their taste. We want to know the hymns not only in an objective way but also in a subjective way by learning to taste them.
We also have to discern the wording of the hymns. Hymns, #152 was written in Chinese in 1961 and translated into English. Although the English version is very good, the Chinese version is more poetic since it is easier to rhyme words in Chinese than in English. If the rhyme of a hymn is not that good and it is not that poetic, we should not choose it for our meeting. A hymn without rhyme sounds ugly. Anything that is poetic must have the proper rhyme. Some lines of certain hymns are close to rhyming, but they actually do not rhyme. Flowed does not rhyme with blood, nor does flock rhyme with dark. To write a good hymn is not an easy task. A hymn must have the proper thought and proper poetic wording to take care of the rhyme and the rhythm.
The tune of the hymns is also an important aspect of our knowing the hymns. Many good hymns can be killed by a poor melody. When we compiled our hymnal, we picked up this important point of having a proper and uplifted melody for the hymns. We listened to the melodies that we selected to see whether they fit the thought and the sensation of the hymns with which they were matched. All of the new hymns written by us for our hymnal were composed with an old melody. We did not compose any new melodies. “Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace!” was written to the tune of Charles Wesley’s famous hymn “And can it be that I should gain.” This melody for Hymns, #499 stirs up people’s desire and feeling. I treasure many of the melodies composed in the last century and at the beginning of this century. After the Second World War, most of the melodies that came out could not match those earlier sacred melodies. For instance, the tunes for “Rock of Ages” (Hymns, #1058) and “Jesus, lover of my soul” (Hymns, #1057) are very solid. We should try to follow that kind of style in our composing of the hymns.
In conclusion, if we are going to have meetings according to the scriptural way, we must know the hymns. We have to know the crucial points of the contents of the hymns, the standard of the hymns, the sensation of the hymns, the wording of the hymns, and the tune of the hymns. We must remember that the hymns are not only for singing, but they are also even more for speaking in the meetings. Our speaking of the proper hymns to one another and our singing of them to the Lord will enrich, enliven, uplift, refresh, and strengthen the meetings.
Question: We have been trying to write children’s songs using the Scriptures to help the children memorize the Word. It is almost impossible to rhyme these songs since their content is the Scriptures themselves. How do you feel about this point?
Answer: To write songs for the children is a difficult task, but in principle, I do not agree with writing songs for them with verses from the Scriptures. If we want to help the children remember some verses from the Bible, we can simply instruct them to read and recite the verses. We should not try to make the verses singable for the children. I do not mean that we should not do this at all, but this is difficult to do. To write songs for the children requires a great amount of skill. Poetry must be composed for the young ones in a very skillful way. I saw a number of songs for the children that were all below standard according to my feeling. It is better not to have songs if the songs that we have are of such a low standard.
Question: When are we going to have a revision of our hymnal? I think that our present edition has served its purpose, showing how broad and all-inclusive we are. But after twenty-two years, the standard in the Lord’s recovery is much higher. I think that we need a revision of the hymn book. The hymnal that we have entitled One Hundred Selected Hymns has been a great help to the saints. It gets them on the right track and has really uplifted the meetings. If possible, I think that it would be good to have a new edition of the hymn book. How do you feel about this?
Answer: To recompile our hymnal is a hard task. In 1961 I wrote eighty-five hymns within about two months. Then in 1963 and 1964, I wrote over two hundred hymns. From that time until now, I have not had the time or the capacity to labor on the hymns.
When we published our hymnal, we had the intention to show others that we knew the truth and that we were all-inclusive. In our hymnal about three hundred hymns have been written by us. The other approximately seven hundred and eighty were selected from more than eleven thousand hymns. We even selected some good hymns from the Pentecostal movement. Hymns, #551 is a very good song from the Pentecostal movement. The chorus of this hymn says,
Brother Nee passed on the chorus of this hymn to us in a special conference in 1934. I translated the chorus of this hymn into Chinese, and it became very popular among us for many years. When we compiled our present hymnal, we included this hymn, and we improved some of the wording so that it would be more according to the truth. Hymns, #310—“Glorious freedom, wonderful freedom”—is another Pentecostal hymn that we included in our hymnal on the assurance and joy of salvation. Our hymnal has collected the best hymns from many different sources.
I agree that the purpose of our present hymnal has probably been fulfilled and that it would be good if we had a revised one. But it is very difficult to decide which hymns to drop and which hymns to keep. I wrote Hymns, #18 on the faithfulness of our Father God to the tune of “America the Beautiful.” Even though we do not sing this hymn often, it is an excellent song on God’s faithfulness, so it should not be dropped from a revised hymnal. It is hard to “draw the line” to decide which hymns to drop and which hymns to keep. Hymns, #19—“Great is Thy faithfulness!”—is a very popular song, but I do not appreciate it so much in the aspect of the truth it contains. It is not that solid, complete, and perfect. Hymns, #18, however, is full of truth. Every verse was written with the truth revealed in the Scriptures as a basis. This hymn begins with the universe and ends with the New Jerusalem. The rainbow around the throne and the foundation of the New Jerusalem both signify God’s faithfulness. The colors of the twelve layers of the foundation give the appearance of a rainbow, signifying that the holy city is built upon and secured by God’s faithfulness in keeping His covenant (Gen. 9:8-17).
If we did drop some hymns from our present hymnal, I believe that about four hundred hymns could be dropped. Although we might not use many of the remaining hymns in our meetings, we would have to keep them for the sake of the truth. We also need more hymns. In the past twenty-two years we have received many higher visions from the Lord, but there are no hymns to match or express them.
Question: Can you fellowship with us concerning the use of the hymns in the Lord’s table meeting? We have a tendency to flip from one hymn to another in the Lord’s table meeting, and we sing many hymns. We can hardly consider the content of one hymn before we move to another hymn. Furthermore, our scope of knowing the hymns is very limited. We may touch only fifty or sixty hymns at the most. When I was in the Far East, I enjoyed that the saints were not in any hurry to get through the hymns in the Lord’s table meeting. Two or three hymns were enough to dwell on for an entire meeting. Another thing that is troubling to me about the calling of hymns in the Lord’s table is the lack of sensitivity to the flow of the meeting. Someone will call a hymn that is not according to or completely contrary to the flow. If I say that we need to change the hymn, I feel bad, but if I do not change it, the meeting suffers, and many times it is impossible to bring the meeting back to the flow of the Spirit. Can you fellowship with us about the use of the hymns in the Lord’s table meeting since it seems like that is where we use most of the hymns?
Answer: We must be raised up by the Lord to know the hymns. I would advise all of us to read the hymnal and become acquainted with all the hymns. Thirty or forty years ago we were very strict in the Lord’s table. We did not allow the saints in the Lord’s table meeting to choose hymns that were far away from the purpose of the table. In the Lord’s table meeting we remember the Lord Himself by displaying His death. We do not remember His death, but we remember His very person by exhibiting, or displaying, His death. In this sense, all the hymns that are chosen and used in the Lord’s table meeting should be in two categories: (1) The hymns in the Lord’s table should be concerning the Lord’s person and should always help people to appreciate Him. (2) We also need some hymns to show forth His death. If we can learn the hymns in our hymnal, we will be much better off in selecting the hymns.
To sing hymn after hymn in our Lord’s table meeting is not good. In one Lord’s table meeting it is possible to use just one hymn. In order to do this, we need to speak the hymns. Thirty or forty years ago we were too legal. We instructed the saints strictly that they should choose hymns only in the proper category for the Lord’s table meeting. There are basically two sections to the Lord’s table meeting. The first section is for remembering the Lord, and the second section is for worshipping the Father. We need some discernment to choose the right hymns in the Lord’s table.
I hope that we will spend some time to study the hymns. Our knowledge of the hymns will help us and will be a great help to all the meetings. It is really hard for us to adjust or correct the saints when they call an inappropriate hymn in the meeting. We may do this sometimes, but generally it is not so profitable. I hope that some leading ones in all the churches would say something concerning the hymns once a week for ten or fifteen minutes. Then the saints will gain some help for the long run, and the meetings will be spontaneously adjusted and enriched.
Question: How did you write the hymns?
Answer: The secret of learning anything is to do it again and again. In learning to do something, we make mistakes, and we are perfected by learning from those mistakes. I wrote Hymns, #501—“O glorious Christ, Savior mine”—and then I polished, corrected, and adjusted it close to one hundred times. Now it is very hard to improve this hymn because it has been polished and adjusted to the uttermost. Some of the hymns that others among us wrote in the past were written in a quick and light way. This is not proper. The spiritual songs and hymns are the cream of a person’s writing, thought, learning, life experience, and spiritual experience. If I did not have the experience of living Christ, I could not have composed that hymn “Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace!” That hymn is the cream of my experience, my thought, my learning, and my writing.
I would especially encourage the brothers who are forty-five or under to look to the Lord in this matter of composing the hymns. We need good composers and writers among us in the Lord’s recovery. A person who is forty-five can write for twenty-five years until he is seventy. We need such people. When a hymn is written, it has to be polished, adjusted, and improved again and again. The best writers and composers use lexicons to help them. To write a hymn is a difficult task, but we need some doers in this matter.
To sing the psalms of the Old Testament is somewhat according to the Old Testament economy. We need some melodies on the book of Ephesians. We need songs on the truth from Ephesians 1:3-14 and from 3:3-11. These portions of the Word need some melodies that help the saints get into the feeling of the New Testament economy. To sing the verses from the Scriptures, we do not need to be bound. We can rewrite the verses to fit the meter and have the appropriate rhyme while maintaining the revelation and the truth that is there. We can use proper phrases from the Scriptures, like unto sonship (Eph. 1:5), in our hymns. We need a few Charles Wesleys among us. His writings and his melodies are really marvelous. One of his great melodies is the one for “And can it be that I should gain” (Hymns, #296). That melody is marvelous. A. B. Simpson is another great writer and composer of hymns who we should take as a pattern.
I want to mention again that we need to learn to speak the hymns in our meetings. This practice with Christ as the center is refreshing, nourishing, edifying, and building up. If all the saints in the Lord’s recovery practiced speaking the hymns in the meetings, the meetings would be living, refreshing, and rich. This would give all the saints a way to share their enjoyment with others. We should pick up the burden to speak the hymns and endeavor to do it in our locality.
