What follows is from the twenty-ninth issue, published in January—February 1933:

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This surely is a time of temptations; everything is confusing, cold, and harsh. In this hour it is indeed difficult for Christians to stand. But have we not known this for some time from the beginning already? What else can we say?

We walk in solitude and bewilderment; we must either put down our weapons or be raptured. O Lord, which do You think is best?

This is the first issue of this year. We cannot say that there is greater hope, greater courage, or greater interest than last year. On the contrary, there will probably be greater hardships; still we need to go on as usual.

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Opposition came not only from local Christians but also from missionaries. Most of the missionaries opposed Watchman Nee because of his anti-testimony. Since they had sacrificed their countries, their homes, and their careers, and had come to a pagan country to help people be saved and to build their mission churches, they deeply resented his ministry. In the midst of that situation, this young man, a young national who had never been outside of China, rose up and published arguments which attacked the very foundations of their work and the denominational churches they had built. He taught that all denominations were unscriptural and that only one kind of church is scriptural: the church in the locality. He expressed appreciation to the missionaries for bringing the gospel to China, but he strongly protested their bringing the denominations with them and building up their mission churches in division. He said that all the denominational names such as Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Anglican, etc., must be dropped. He put this message in print and spread it all over China. He was strongly convinced that his view was scriptural, and he paid a high price to maintain it.

After he offered a prayer in 1939 in the Keswick Convention that deeply touched the attendants, the chairman, who was also the chairman of the China Inland Mission, talked with Brother Nee. Brother Nee grasped the opportunity, feeling that it was the proper time to fellowship with a leader of one of the best missions that had gone to China. Throughout their fellowship, the chairman of the CIM agreed with him. He told Brother Nee that what the Lord had commissioned him to do in China was exactly the burden of Mr. Hudson Taylor, the founder of the CIM, and that their missionaries in China were wrong in opposing him. Eventually, the chairman of the mission went to China and called the missionaries of the CIM together in Shanghai and told them that they were wrong in opposing the work of Watchman Nee. He told them that what Watchman Nee was doing was exactly what they should be doing. He advised them never to do anything from that day forth to oppose him. But after he left and returned to London, they still kept opposing him.