After the initial advance made by the mystics such as Madame Guyon and Father Fenelon, mysticism was further developed by William Law. He made mysticism practical, but his improvement of mysticism was not that complete. Then Andrew Murray continued after William Law to improve the understanding of the inner life. He made the matters of the inner life much clearer.

In the eighteenth century, Count Zinzendorf and other brothers in Moravia began to experience something of the church life. They probably did not have the term church life, but they certainly practiced it. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Brethren were raised up. They advanced a great deal in the study of the church.

The study of theology began with the Trinity and Christology. Then it went on to justification by faith and the discoveries of the presbytery, baptism by immersion, the inner life, and the initial practice of the church life. Then the Brethren rose up to stress the church very strongly. Although the Brethren opened up the Word to a great extent, they did not see the matter of life adequately.

The Lord raised us up in China about seventy years ago. Brother Nee was saved in 1920, and in 1922 the Lord's recovery in China began when a church meeting was established in his hometown. The Lord used Brother Nee to bring into focus the history of all the theological truths. I heard this history directly from Brother Nee. We had many personal talks. In these talks he perfected me. Then starting from 1932, Brother Nee began to see something further. From 1932 until today many truths have been discovered. If they were all listed, the list would be quite long.

From the time I was saved, I have loved the Gospel of John and the book of Romans. In my youth, these were my favorite books, so I have studied them very much. Over the past fifty-five years of study, my understanding of these books has always been progressive. I have written a number of notes on various verses in the book of Romans, but if I had time to write these notes today, many of them would be new. The book of Romans reveals how we are saved in the divine life.