Margaret Barber was a great example to Watchman Nee in the one matter of paying more attention to life than to work. He realized that God cares for what we are more than what we do, and his work was according to this principle. He observed how Miss Barber continually stressed the matter of life, paying almost no attention to her work.
From time to time, he and Miss Barber would go together to listen to a Christian speaker. He always admired either the speaker's eloquence, knowledge, zeal, ability, or natural power of persuasion. Then Miss Barber would point out to him that what he admired was neither of life nor of the Spirit. What he admired might be able to stir people up and motivate them to perform certain works, but it could never minister life to people. Through such spiritual diagnosis, he was educated to discern and distinguish the difference between life and work. He began to realize that most of the sermons given by preachers and Christian teachers were not grains of life but flakes of chaff. He also observed that in most Christian work, supposedly carried out for Christ, there is very little life ministered to people.
Watchman Nee pointed out to his co-workers that according to the four Gospels, the Lord in His ministry did not care for popularity; rather, He frequently withdrew when a crowd was seeking Him. Brother Nee often said that the Lord Jesus sowed Himself as a seed of life (Matt. 13:3) and fell into the ground as a grain of wheat, that the life within Him might be released to bring forth many grains (John 12:24).
He told me that when his co-worker, who was five years older than he, was traveling through the country conducting evangelistic meetings, Margaret Barber, realizing the peril of popularity, warned him by saying, "If you continue to travel for evangelistic work, I will not pray for you any longer." She had the foresight to realize that such work would bring shipwreck to his spiritual life. Eventually, that is exactly what happened. That other co-worker was distracted from spiritual life to popular work.
Watchman Nee was afraid of being popular. He was fearful of making a name for himself and of being highly praised and uplifted by people. He looked upon such popularity as an instrument of seduction to tempt the young co-workers away from the right track of life in following the Lord. He was never bothered by the depreciation, opposition, rejection, and accusation of others. Rather, he considered these things a sort of safeguard to preserve him in life and cause him to grow more in the Lord. Such a vision made it easier for him to be one with the Lord in His work and to obey the Lord's leading. He carried out the revelation he received from the Lord, not in the way of work, but in the way of life.