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When Watchman Nee was a teenager, he fell in love with a young girl by the name of Charity Chang. Their two families had been friends for three generations. After Watchman Nee had turned to the Lord, Charity was still unsaved. At times she ridiculed the Lord in Watchman's presence. This bothered him. How could he who loved the Lord marry one who despised the Lord? At the time he sought to be filled with the Holy Spirit, the Lord required him to give her up. He struggled for some time with this matter. Eventually, the Lord forced him to give her up. At that time he made a thorough consecration of himself and his future to the Lord. He experienced the reality of Psalm 73:25 in a practical way, to have no other love in heaven or on earth but the Lord.
Ten years later, after finishing her university education, Charity turned to the Lord and began to attend the church meetings in Shanghai in 1934. Through those ten years she was sovereignly kept by the Lord from marrying. Eventually, the Lord brought her back to Watchman Nee. Charity's aunt, however, strongly opposed the marriage. She looked upon Watchman Nee as simply a poor preacher. On the one hand, this caused Watchman to hesitate in going ahead with the wedding; but on the other hand, his mother was very much concerned for his marriage, since he was thirty years of age. In 1934, during his fourth overcomer conference held in Hangchow, all the co-workers were present. His mother grasped this opportunity to speed up the wedding. As a result, immediately following the conference, the wedding took place. Charity's aunt was extremely unhappy about her niece's marriage. She made a threat that if Watchman Nee would not pay her the customary courtesy call she would cause him trouble. He would have surely paid her such a visit if she had not made such a threat. However, her threats caused him not to do so. He felt he could not comply with her desire under such duress. People would think he was playing politics to please her. For this reason he refused to do what she asked. Through this conflict, a great turmoil burst out in Shanghai caused by Charity's opposing aunt. This caused Watchman a great deal of suffering. However, this marriage was the provision of the Lord. Charity was the helpmate he needed to take care of him in his sickly condition. She was the only one permitted to visit him during his twenty-year imprisonment. The Lord took her away one year before Watchman died. It was God's sovereign arrangement that they had no children to burden them while undergoing such a long trial.
Watchman's second brother was a qualified chemist. In 1938 he began a small pharmaceutical factory. He was experienced in pharmaceutical production but was inexperienced in business management. Watchman was blamed by his parents for helping many other brothers, but not helping his own brother in business. Due to this family feeling, Watchman began to help his brother in the management of the pharmaceutical factory in the latter part of 1939. At this time he was also burdened with the supply of his co-workers. He felt that some profit could be made through the business to meet their needs. He therefore picked up the full management of the factory and reorganized it. Because of this unavoidable involvement, some brothers employed in the factory became unhappy with him. Through this whole situation, Satan stirred up turmoil among the saints in Shanghai against Watchman. This resulted in his inability to function in the ministry. At the same time the occupation of the invading Japanese army compelled him to move the factory far to the interior, from Shanghai to Chungking. Chungking was the Chinese capital during the Sino-Japanese war. There he carried on the business and was also employed by the government. After the war, he brought the pharmaceutical factory back to Shanghai. Through the profits derived from this business, he was not only able to care for the need of a number of brothers and sisters; he was also able to purchase a training center with approximately twelve bungalows on Kuling Mountain, close to his hometown. In 1948 a revival was brought to the church in Shanghai, and he resumed his ministry. At the same time he also handed over the factory to the work as an offering to the Lord. That act influenced many brothers and sisters to also hand over their possessions to the work.
The following is a testimony of Samuel I.L. Chang, Mrs. Nee's brother, concerning Watchman as a businessman:
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I received my college degree in the field of chemistry, and in 1938 I engaged in the pharmaceutical enterprise as an assistant to Watchman Nee's second brother, Hwai-tsu (George). From the time Watchman Nee began to manage the enterprise late in 1939, I worked with him for about ten years, until I left the China mainland in 1949.
Due to the Japanese invasion, our factory was moved from Shanghai to Chungking. In 1943 Watchman Nee went back to Foochow. At that time he cabled me to come there. After arriving, he told me that there was a brother who needed approximately ten thousand dollars to clear his debt. I was quite puzzled at the time that he was exercising such generosity to unconditionally pay off this brother's large debt. But this incident made me clear that he was running the business, not for his own needs, but for the needs of others.
Sometimes the Lord provided for Watchman's needs; sometimes He did not provide. Then he would work with his own hands to supply his own needs as well as the needs of others.
As time went on, the restriction on obtaining raw materials from abroad became acute, and there was no way to develop the pharmaceutical business on a large scale. The saints still needed to be provided for, yet the income was limited. This situation forced Watchman to work at a government job in order to not become a burden to others. He worked not only in order to provide help for others but also to meet the need of his own living expenses.
After the war he returned to Shanghai with the pharmaceutical factory. He built the business on a sound foundation, and there was such blessing from the Lord that another factory, which produced dye, was added to the business. From the financial blessing of these two factories, Watchman was able to offer a large sum to the church in Shanghai for the building of the meeting hall. He was also able to maintain the training center on Mount Kuling, Foochow, with a number of living quarters.
I believe I was the only one with him from the beginning to the end of his time in business. I can bear witness that his motive was absolutely not to make himself rich. He was utterly captured by the Lord. Although he was criticized for going into business, I must testify that he did not spend the profit for his own enjoyment. The money he made was for the Lord, and he spent it in the way the Lord desired.
Because of his rich experience in the Lord, he was enabled to work with government officials in a very efficient way. All his superiors admired him. He never attempted to prove that he was superior; rather, he lived and worked in the spirit of submission and took orders from those above him. For this reason, when the war was over and the government returned to Nanking, he was offered a high position. However, because of his relationship with the Lord and his ministry with the co-workers and the churches, it was necessary to give up the government job.
