PREFACE

This book originated in a series of addresses given by Nee To-sheng of Foochow in the early months of 1940 to Chinese Christians meeting at Hardoon Road, Shanghai. I am greatly indebted to a friend whose notes, taken down in English at the time, have made it possible to reproduce his talks in the present form with no more than essential literary tidying-up. The author starts with a practical exposition of the patriarchal story, designed to offer by analogy a solution of our own problems of Christian faith and walk by pointing again to the sufficiency of God in Christ in the face of human failure. Some readers may feel they have heard much of this before, and be tempted to exclaim, Yes, but does it honestly work out in practice? It is a joy therefore to move into his important final chapters, where, with telling flashes of insight, he educes from the same exposition an impressive example of the real and radical transformation God in fact brings about in the man or woman truly committed to Him. These chapters are, I believe, a valuable contribution to the understanding of God's ways with all His own. Scripture quotations in the text of this book follow the English Revised Version of 1885. London 1967.

ANGUS I. KINNEAR