The third thing that the serving ones in the recovery must do is to pursue progress in life. This means that you must first endeavor to know the Spirit, Christ, life, the cross, and resurrection. Then you should have the practical experience of all these things. As long as you have the heart to do so, it will not be difficult to practice this matter. There are many books among us concerning the knowledge and experience of life. If these writings had been available sixty years ago, I would have been excited to spend all my time storing up all these riches within me. Unfortunately, at that time I could not find one book that even explained the truth of regeneration. We, however, have studied this matter of regeneration in a thorough way. Of course, we received help from a word given by Brother T. Austin-Sparks. He said that regeneration is to receive a life in addition to the life that we already have. Based on this word, we have further developed this matter. Among all of the books in Christianity today, the ones that give the clearest explanation of regeneration are our books.
To pursue the progress in life, you must study The Knowledge of Life. The more times you read it the better. Then you need to study the book The Experience of Life. It would be good to read this book once every two years and to actually practice what it teaches regarding both the dealings in life and the learning in life. These two books contain the messages that I gave during the trainings in 1953 and 1954. They were first published in a series in The Ministry of the Word. The brother who wrote the preface said that throughout the generations many people had spoken about life and had taught about life but did not know what life was, not to mention the experience of life. It was I who used the scientific method to completely present what so many throughout the generations had taught and experienced, plus my own experience. So I hope that you would all study it diligently.
I will not train you as I did in the former days. We already have the richest and most complete truths among us. Thus, there is no need for me to speak more to you. Instead, I will use the method of graduate study to teach you, that is, to let you study the reference books and then to test you. It would be more than sufficient if you collected all the books published among us from the time of Brother Nee until today and seriously studied them one by one.
One matter that truly worries me is that those of you who are being trained here all want to do something special. This truly grieves my heart. I worked with Brother Nee in China for eighteen years. I was completely one with him. I spoke what he spoke, and I preached what he preached. I even imitated his gestures. There was no difference between us. Anyone can testify for me that wherever I went, I did not speak on other topics but only repeated to the brothers and sisters the messages that Brother Nee had released. I am proud of this. However, I found out that this is not the situation among my co-workers. Rather, everyone wants to have his own “new tricks” and “new gimmicks,” not realizing that it is these new things that delay the Lord’s work.
I never tried to play tricks or use gimmicks. Rather, I simply worked with all my effort to compare and study the Bible in its original language, in Chinese, and in English, and then to find the basic truths and present them. I hope that you also would not try to invent new things. Simply absorb these basic truths and teach them accordingly. Concerning the pursuit of life, what other books are more basic than The Knowledge of Life and The Experience of Life? What other book can speak as clearly and transparently as the chapter on the three laws and four lives in The Knowledge of Life? These books are like the multiplication table; they are very basic and cannot be replaced with a new gimmick. If you teach multiplication, you must use the multiplication table. Do not think that you do not have to teach it because it has already been taught by others. This kind of thinking truly causes my heart to ache.
I do not have the time to speak all these things to you again. You have to understand that all the basic items are in the books. All you have to do is to study them thoroughly. In particular, you must spend time and energy to get into The Knowledge of Life and The Experience of Life. I have decided to incorporate all the points covered in these two books into the forty-eight lessons of the Truth Lessons. I hope that you will all be able to have a solid pursuit and progress in life.
The fourth point is that you need to learn how to conduct yourself, how to do things, and how to work. This point is all-inclusive. When I was here holding the training thirty years ago, I once said, “If you do not know how to conduct yourself, you will not know how to do things, and if you do not know how to do things, you will not know how to work.” I called this the “three how-to’s.” At that time I also spoke concerning the thirty items of the character training. In this message I will not explain them one by one but will only fellowship about them briefly.
Anyone who loves the Lord and is serving the Lord, even if he is not a full-timer, must be built up in his entire person, including areas such as whether one’s attire and hairstyle are appropriate and whether one’s shoes have been shined. In 1953 I used some wood to build the workers’ home across from the meeting hall. It looked simple and crude outside, but it was orderly inside. During the training, when no one was paying attention, I would often go to the workers’ home to check how well the tables had been wiped, the beds made, the shoes organized under the beds, and the clothes hung in the closets. It is a pity that later on the co-workers did not practice these matters thoroughly.
Although Mormonism is heretical, the Mormons are more proper and neat than people in Christianity. When the young people among them reach a certain age, they have to render two years of church service. During the service, the boys’ hair has to be proper; it cannot be too long. The girls have to be even more proper and dignified. Their schedule is very tight. They do not drink alcohol, tea, or coffee, and they do not smoke. Their practice is successful due to their conduct. Paul told Timothy, “Let no one despise your youth, but be a pattern to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity” (1 Tim. 4:12). The conduct mentioned here includes the matter of our clothing and attire being tidy, proper, and dignified.
I do not like to see my co-workers and the full-timers dressed slovenly. The people in Shanghai call these kinds of people “bums.” Some people have not polished their shoes for half a year, and their black shoes have become gray shoes. If such a one were to stand before me and speak, I would immediately discredit what he would say by fifty percent, regardless of what he would say. I would not have any confidence in him. One day when I was giving this kind of message about our dress, a brother immediately testified that what I had said was absolutely correct. He said that his father, who is an employer, looks at applicants’ shoes when he is interviewing and hiring people. You need to learn in all these matters.
Not only should we dress properly and neatly, even our living place should be clean and tidy both inside and outside. We Chinese are very negligent in this matter. The Japanese clean their dwellings every day. They wipe their tatami once a day. They pay special attention to the four corners of the room and wash the front entrance. The Germans not only wash the steps up to the front porch but also scrub them with soap. It would be considered a great accomplishment if a Chinese family cleaned their house once a week. If you go and examine our meeting hall, you will find that it is very unseemly. There is dust everywhere, yet we do not have any feeling regarding it. The Lord has entrusted so much to us, so how can we allow our meeting hall to be arranged in such a poor way? This is distasteful in the eyes of the unbelievers. We have disgraced ourselves.
Your attire is also often unseemly. Some brothers dress like bums. When they stand up and speak, dressed like a bum, who will listen? I do not have the time today, but if I were to conduct the training myself, the first thing I would do would be to change you thoroughly from head to toe. I am not asking you to buy good clothes. Rather, I want you to dress in a dignified, proper, tidy, and elegant way. You have to admit that if those who work in the bank dressed like you, they would be disqualified. You also have to agree that the church is higher than a bank. The work that we are doing today is much more valuable than the work that is done in a bank. However, the way you look today, you would not be hired, even if you were applying for a job at the bank.
Because of this, I have told you young people many times that you should not acquire the looseness that is among us. I do not like to see you in such a condition, doing things half-heartedly and without enthusiasm, coming to the meetings late, and taking your seats in a disorderly way. As we are learning to serve the Lord, we should be proper, even in the way we walk into a meeting. Do not forget that we are doing a great business for the King of the heavenly kingdom and are representing Him on the earth. Of course, we should not pick up the worldly way. Nevertheless, we need to represent the Lord in a suitable manner.
One time I went to a small group meeting, and a sister told me that she had been touched when she had seen an elderly sister in that meeting who looked graceful and elegant. In my opinion, that elderly sister was very ordinary. She was nothing special. However, when others saw her, they saw a certain kind of expression. This proves that the saints are observing how we who serve the Lord dress and adorn ourselves and how we speak and act. Some of you act very lightly. You swing your arms and shuffle your feet while talking. When you get excited, you push and shove one another like elementary school children. How can you serve the Lord if you behave this way?
Therefore, you also have to learn how to speak. You cannot speak loudly or softly as you like. When you call a hymn in the meeting, your voice must be loud and clear, being considerate of others’ ears. If you do not learn to speak with the right volume, speed, and expression, your preaching of the word will be unbearable to others. You also need to learn the proper way to conduct and deport yourself. Do not think that your deportment is unimportant because you have only recently enrolled in the Full-Time Training as a trainee and are nobody important. You are not merely trainees; you are also those who go out to teach people the truth. If you are not properly built up, how can you gain people’s respect? In building up yourself, you must pay attention to these small, fine matters.
Consider the matter of attire for example. Some of you are very peculiar in your attire. You wear black shoes with blue socks and brown pants with red ties, which are as far from matching as heaven is from earth. When you stand in front of people and they see you dressed in such a peculiar way, how will they receive your exhortation and teaching? The clothing that you wear is bought with your money, so you should give careful consideration to the clothes that you buy. There is a Chinese saying—“You can tell how things will develop by the small beginning.” A person’s character is established little by little, just as a house is built by setting small bricks on top of each other one by one. If you do not establish your character in these minor things, it is like building a house with small pieces of bricks that are not uniform in color and shape. The house naturally will not look pleasant or sturdy. Who would want to move into such a house?
I charged you before to thoroughly read and study 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. Now I would like to ask whether you found all the crucial points concerning fleeing and avoiding in these three books. If you study these points carefully, you will have some understanding regarding this matter of character building. Philippians 4:8 says, “What things are dignified,...what things are well spoken of, if there is any virtue and if any praise, take account of these things.” Does your attire and adornment cause others to feel that you are dignified? Does it invite praise? This does not mean that you should pay attention only to one aspect of your character. Rather, you should pay attention to every point and aspect of your character. If you do not take account of these things and do not pay attention to them, then there will be no way for you to build yourself up.
Besides the building up of your character in relation to how you conduct yourself and how you do things, you also need to learn how to carry out the Lord’s work. In working for the Lord you need to learn several matters in particular. The first matter is contacting people, the second is ministering the word, and the third is visiting people in their homes or on the campuses. If you learn these few things, you will be quite useful in the Lord’s recovery.