From chapter seven of The Ministers in the Lord’s Recovery – Genuine Ministers of the New Covenant
Continuing the pattern set by Sister Barber, Brother Nee composed a splendid hymn about the deep and thorough work of the cross on our soul-life. The following stanzas of this hymn poignantly illustrate the glorious result of a minister of Christ’s subjective experience of the death of the cross – the ministering of life to others in abundance for the multiplication of the divine life:
- First the blood, and then the ointment,
Cleansing, then anointing comes;
If we pass not thru Golgotha,
Ne’er to Pentecost we’ll come.
If the blood has never cleansed us,
Ne’er the Spirit’s pow’r we’ll know,
If for Christ we’d truly witness,
Self-life to the Cross must go.
CHORUS:
Through the Cross, O Lord, I pray,
Put my soul-life all away;
Make me any price to pay,
Full anointing to receive. - Christ, the Rock, must first be smitten,
That the living water flow;
Without death the Spirit’s fullness
Ne’er could dwell in man below.
If with Christ we die completely,
Willing thus our all to lose,
He will clothe us with His power
And to win the world will use. - When we see the ripened harvest
Of the golden countryside,
We may know that many seeds have
Fallen to the earth and died.
Ere the fruit of life may blossom,
We must surely suffer death;
If with Christ we’ve not been buried,
We’ll not feel the Spirit’s breath. - Since it must be thus, I pray, Lord,
Help me go the narrow way;
Deal with pride and make me willing
Thus to suffer, Thee t’obey.
I for greater power pray not,
Deeper death is what I need;
All the meaning of the Cross, Lord,
Work in me — for this I plead.
(Hymns, #279)
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