In the prison cell, under the pillow

Favorite author and missionary to China Watchman Nee has been a blessing to many. But his life was not like ours.

Nee was arrested in Manchuria in April, 1952 on charges of tax evasion and corrupt business practices. Four years later, in a public trial in Shanghai, he was found guilty on political grounds and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

His wife Charity was arrested during the same period but was later released from prison because of deteriorating health. She was thus able to visit her husband while he was in prison. Nee was confined to a tiny cell and treated so badly that he soon weighed only 100 pounds. For a while he suffered from coronary ischaemia.

Charity was arrested again at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). She and two of her sisters were put into a small room, interrogated by Red Guards, and brutally tortured. Later, they were paraded through the streets wearing dunce caps and heavy boards around their necks. Still, the three women refused to deny their faith in Jesus Christ.

Nee expected to be released when his fifteen-year sentence was completed in 1967 but officials demanded that he renounce his faith in order to gain freedom which he would not do. Two thugs were placed into the cell with him with orders to torment Nee but he remained firm in his faith despite suffering indescribable pain from his cellmates.

Upon death, it was gleefully proclaimed that he had indeed denied his faith. But after his death a written note was found under his pillow by relatives who came to gather his few remaining possesions. It read: 

Christ is the Son of God. He died as the Redeemer for the sins of mankind, and was raised up from the dead after three days. This is the most important fact in the world. I shall die believing in Christ.