Brother Nee came into contact with her soon after his conversion, and he received so much help from her. He spent at least several times with me personally to tell me the things concerning his relationship with Miss Barber. Initially, Brother Nee was among a group of young brothers and sisters who had just been saved and went to contact Miss Barber. Miss Barber was deep and also very strict. In her strictness, she used to rebuke the ones under her perfecting. Eventually, the only one that still went to see Miss Barber after a period of time was Brother Nee. Brother Nee told me that whenever he went to her, he was always rebuked. He told me that the more she rebuked him, the more he sent himself to her for her rebuking. He said that he did this because he received the help from her.

In 1936 I was invited to the central part of China. After a few days, Brother Nee was also invited there, and we stayed together. He said to me, "Brother Lee, if Miss Barber were still living, we would be much better than what we are today." Then he said, "In 1933 I went to Europe to visit many spiritual persons. In my being, according to my weighing, no spiritual person whom I visited in the Western world at that time could compare spiritually with Miss Barber." This shows us the kind of preparation the Lord made for Brother Nee as His gift, His servant.

Miss Barber went to the Lord in 1929. That was nearly the same year in which Brother Nee finished his writing of The Spiritual Man. Miss Barber, in her will, gave all her things to Brother Nee. Of course, she did not have many personal things, but she willed Brother Nee her Bible with all her notes in it. That was very precious. Later, Brother Nee told me that he was thinking of writing a biography of M.E. Barber, but he could not find the time to do it. It was a real loss to us that Brother Nee never found the time to write such a biography. If he had been able to do this, it would have been a great help to us even today.

According to what Brother Nee told me, Sister Barber was a person who always lived in the presence of the Lord. One day Brother Nee went to see her. She was in another room while he was waiting in the living room. He told me that while he was waiting there, he had a deep sense of the Lord's presence there. She was a deep person in the Lord, and she composed a number of excellent hymns which are in our hymnal. All her hymns were very deep in the Lord.

Furthermore, day by day she was waiting for the Lord's coming back. On the last day of 1926, she was taking a walk with Brother Nee. When they turned the corner to another street she said to Brother Nee, "Maybe as we turn this corner, we will meet Him." She was a person waiting for the Lord's return. She lived and walked in the presence of our returning Lord. I never met her, but after I heard what Brother Nee told me, I received a great help.

It was through M.E. Barber that he received the foundation of his spiritual life. Brother Nee would tell people that it was through a sister that he got saved, and it was also through a sister that he was edified. As a British person from the Western world, Sister Barber came to know the famous spiritual giants in Christianity at her time. Through Sister Barber, Brother Nee came to know the top spiritual books by people such as Robert Govett, D.M. Panton, and Jessie Penn-Lewis. The best publications on the exposition of the Bible and church history were introduced to Brother Nee through her.