The Normal Christian Life
by Watchman Nee
Preface
The ministry of Watchman Nee had been known in English only from
transcriptions of his spoken messages in tracts and magazine articles
when, in 1957, The Normal Christian Life was published in Bombay and was
at once accorded a widespread welcome. Compiled from such records and from
private notebooks, this collection was edited in the author’s absence,
and is based upon addresses originally given by Mr. Nee during and shortly
after a visit to Europe in 1938-39.
From the day in 1920 when, as a college student, he found the Lord
Jesus Christ as his Savior during the visit of a Chinese evangelist to his
native city of Foochow, Nee To-sheng gave himself without reserve to God
for work among his own people. Over the years he became widely known in
China as a gifted preacher of the Gospel and an original expositor of the
Word, whose ministry bore remarkable fruit in individuals and in many
groups of spiritually virile Christians. This book sets forth something of
his personal understanding of the Christian life towards the end of those
first years of unrestricted service for his Lord.
In the twenty years that have followed, the Church of God in China has
passed through recurring periods of the severest testing with but brief
interludes of respite, and the author, together with many of those
associated with him in work and witness, has had his full share of these
experiences right up to the present. It is perhaps not surprising
therefore that his ministry should come to us today with freshness and
power. Many have already testified to the transformation this book has
wrought in their lives through new discoveries of the greatness of Christ
and of his finished work on the cross.
The demand now for a new edition has made possible a further careful
revision of the text. Readers are again reminded that this is a
compilation of spoken addresses and not, despite superficial appearances,
a systematic treatise of Christian doctrine. It is to be approached not as
an intellectual exercise but as a message to the heart. Read thus it will,
I believe, speak as from the Spirit of God himself, with challenging
power.
Angus I. Kinnear
London, 1961
Back Cover
Watchman Nee’s great Christian classic tracing in practical terms the
steps along the pathway of faith and presenting the eternal purpose of God
in simple terms. Its central theme: "Christ our Life."
The great Chinese writer and preacher Watchman Nee was for many in the
West a symbol of Christian steadfastness under the pressure of
totalitarian government.
