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Four sisters were vital to Watchman Nee in his life and work. He was saved through the preaching of Dora Yu, perfected under Margaret Barber, and sustained by two elderly co-workers, Ruth Lee and Peace Wang. Dora Yu and Margaret Barber were of the older generation, whereas Ruth Lee and Peace Wang were of the same generation as Watchman Nee.
Ruth Lee was born in the province of Hupei in 1894, about nine years before Watchman Nee. Her Chinese name was Lee Yuan-ru.
The following excerpts are from her personal testimonies given at different times and recorded by Dr. Chang Yu-lan and Weigh Kwang-hsi.
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I was born and raised in a non-Christian family. I considered myself a good person who had no need of salvation. During my first year in the Girls' Normal College in Wuchang, I experienced some fear of sinning against God, although at that time I was not sure there was a God. After passing through some years of schooling and acquiring more knowledge, I became careless.
Later I taught in a school in Tientsin, established by a relative. My maternal uncle was a believer, and I respected his character and learning. Yet I considered him somewhat superstitious. I learned English under a Western lady missionary but would not attend her Bible study. When I was dean of Nanking Public Normal College, I frequently advised the students not to believe in Christ.
In March 1918 while sailing on the Yangtze River, I was enjoying the scenery. At that time I realized that there must be a Supreme Being superior to mankind, who was wise and almighty, as mentioned in Romans 1:19-20.
One day one of my colleagues, a Miss Cheng, opened her Bible and called my attention to Romans 2:28-29. She also read Romans 3:29. At that time I realized that there was a God and that He was also my God.
At the end of April, Miss Cheng invited me to a luncheon held at the home of Miss Mary A. Leaman, an American missionary, where I discovered that my friend had been praying for me. After lunch Miss Leaman admonished me to believe in the Lord and asked me to kneel down and pray with her. After the prayer some of those present sang the following hymn for me: "That my Savior were your Savior too! For you I am praying, For you I am praying" (#933, Hymns).
From then on I read a few verses of the Bible every day. One day I knelt down and prayed that if God was true and if the Bible was true, He must enable me to believe the Bible. After rising up, I was able to believe.
I then desired to learn how to pray and how to sing the hymns. I secretly asked one of my Christian students to copy the words and music of a hymn for me. How wonderful when I sang the first stanza of the hymn: "O happy day that fixed my choice on Thee, my Savior and my God!" I determined to believe that Jesus was my Savior. I sang the chorus, "When Jesus washed my sins away," and rejoiced exceedingly. I felt that God had told me that Jesus had washed my sins away. On that day I was saved.
Later the light of God came to me again. I realized how sinful and heavily burdened with sins I was. I confessed all my sins to God and received His forgiveness. From that time on, whenever I remembered having wronged anyone, I would confess it to them. Thus, in my daily life and in my inward desire, there was a great change.
One day I read Luke 12:8. I determined to confess before men that I believed in Jesus. However, I simply did not have the nerve to confess the Lord before men. I struggled with this for a long time and was greatly troubled. One day I heard a voice within me saying, "Are you willing to forsake everything and follow Me?" At first I did not know what it meant, but later I knew. When I realized what this word meant, I told the Lord, "Lord, I am willing." After I made the decision, I went to the principal and resigned my job.
Not long after this a certain Christian girls' high school offered me the position of dean. I considered employing some methods of my own to improve the religious life in the school. After two weeks I became sick and knew it was the Lord's discipline. I realized that I was not right, for I was ambitious and was depending on my strength to work for the Lord. I began from that time to learn to know God. A short time later God again demanded that I leave my teaching job and serve Him with my whole heart. I resigned in March of 1920. Eventually, I answered the Lord's call to serve Him.
After leaving my job, I worked with an American lady missionary for seven years, receiving much help and edification.
During these years I frequently contacted the various groups in Christianity. I discovered that most of them had fallen into organizations of human opinion. I desired to seek for a straight way. Finally, the Lord brought me to Nanking. There I met some spiritual brothers and sisters who helped me. I began to learn the difference between what was of man and what was of God.
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At the end of 1922 Ruth Lee was invited to visit Foochow for evangelistic work. The brothers and sisters in Foochow were preparing to meet her at the pier. The night before her arrival, Watchman Nee was considering whether or not to join the reception, thinking that although she might be a good evangelist, since she was a female, she should not be too highly esteemed. However, during the night he had a dream. In that dream he and others met her at the pier. When he saw her in the dream, the Lord told him that she would be his co-worker. The next morning he awoke and seriously considered the dream. He realized that if that dream was of the Lord, he would miss the Lord's will if he did not meet her. So he went. When her boat arrived at the pier, many brothers and sisters went on board to welcome her, but Watchman Nee stayed somewhat behind. They shook hands with Sister Lee and introduced her to Brother Nee. He said, "I have seen her already." Of course, they did not understand what he meant. In 1926 Ruth Lee and Cheng Chi-kwei invited Watchman to Nanking for some rest. At that time he had further contact with Ruth Lee and some others. In his Narration of the Past, given in a meeting in Shanghai on December 4, 1932, Watchman Nee referred to Ruth Lee's situation as follows:
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A year before I went to Nanking, I fellowshipped with Sister Lee concerning the truth of the church. However, since her attitude was very rigid and since she was not at all receptive, I made no further mention of it. Later she read a book on church history, saw that the origin of the denominations was not scriptural, and became somewhat clear. Eventually, I heard that she was baptized by immersion. Later she and several other sisters began holding bread-breaking meetings every Lord's Day. When I arrived in Nanking, naturally I attended the meeting to remember the Lord with them.
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At that time Ruth Lee was invited to be the editor of The Spiritual Light, a leading spiritual magazine, published by the outstanding Christian writers of the country. She accepted the position, but through her contact with Watchman Nee, she received light concerning the proper way of the Lord's move and determined to turn to the Lord's recovery. She therefore presented her resignation as editor of The Spiritual Light. The chairman of its committee turned down her request and wished to keep her at any cost. Since she was a person with a deep sense of responsibility, she had no way at that time to carry out her desire to resign.
In 1927 Nanking was occupied by the revolutionary army. Several of the church buildings and the office of The Spiritual Light magazine were desolated by those who opposed Christianity. The magazine was terminated, and Ruth Lee was released under the Lord's sovereign arrangement.
Being now free from her editorial responsibility, she traveled to Shanghai to meet with some sister co-workers. In the same year Watchman Nee moved his gospel bookroom to Shanghai and asked Ruth to help him in the editorial work.
She had an excellent command of the Chinese language, and from 1927 on, all of Watchman's writings were edited by her. She was a great help in his publication ministry.
In 1933 he decided to publish Collection of Newsletters for communications and fellowship between the saints and the churches. He asked Ruth to be his acting editor. She was a great help and saved much of his valuable time.
In 1937, because of the Japanese invasion, the brothers and sisters were scattered. At that time Watchman began to publish The Open Door magazine to facilitate the flow of information among the saints and the churches. Because of his need to visit Europe, Ruth Lee was again asked to be his acting editor. Her editorials provided much help to all the churches throughout China and the Southeast Asian countries.
In the years 1950 to 1952, Watchman Nee was desperately burdened to speed up the publication of messages from his 1948 and 1949 trainings. In this task Ruth Lee was of immeasurable assistance to him. Through her help, most of those messages were published in book form before his imprisonment and have become a great heritage to the Lord's recovery today. How we thank the Lord for this!
Moreover, Ruth Lee not only had a solid foundation in spiritual life and knowledge; she was also adequate in knowing and experiencing human life. She was a very able person with deep insight coupled with a disciplined character. She was able to supply much care not only to the sisters but also to the brothers, both in the churches and in the work.
The following excerpts from her open letters, published in The Present Testimony while substituting for Brother Nee, show to some extent her spiritual weight. She wrote the following in the seventh issue of March 27, 1929:
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The more our vision is enlarged to see the eternal will of God, the more joyful and hopeful we are, and the more we need to recognize clearly the boundaries which God has measured to us. If God has raised up some to do another kind of work, we ask the Lord to bless it and our hearts rejoice for it. But we, in ourselves, dare not start a work in order to meet the pressing need in our environment. What we pray for and hope for is that we may be faithful to the Lord within the limits which He has measured to us. When we consider that the church shares the same life as Christ and will ultimately grow up fully into Him, the Head, we simply cannot refrain from praising with singing this mystery of the gospel. Oh brothers and sisters, may the Lord stir up our fervent and loving heart to rise and pray. Pray to hasten the completion of the building of the Body of Christ and the coming of His kingdom.
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The following excerpt is from the eighth issue of The Present Testimony, published May 18, 1929:
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We do not want the truths of God to be stored only in the heads of men, nor to always be displayed on bookshelves. Rather, we want them to be assimilated into the human spirit and to be manifested in human living. Hence, although every issue contains only a few pages, the messages therein are important. We hope that with every issue you receive you do not merely read it through, but rather spend time to comprehend it in depth. It is not simply by knowing the truth that it becomes yours. Rather, it is after you have experienced the truth that you obtain its deliverance and freedom.
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This last quotation is from the ninth issue of The Present Testimony, published June 20, 1929.
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None of the articles in this issue is vain theory. If we will humble ourselves and give diligence, we will see the truth of "Christ in us." How real, how significant, and how glorious! We shall also see how much prayer we need in order to be fellow workers with God, and what attitude we need in order to cause Satan to be cast out of heaven.
Oh readers, now is really the time that we need the Lord to revive us. However, we must discern the difference between a revival of human works and a revival of the Holy Spirit. If it is an artificial revival, even though grandiose and noisy, it is but the flesh in another form. When we learn to put ourselves aside and only exercise our faith to identify with Christ in His fullness, how restful it is. We already have too many ways, and we already have too many failures. God does not want us to save the situation, nor does He want us to be discouraged and shrink back. Rather, He wants us to admit that we have come to the end of our road and that the goodness of our flesh is but vanity. Thus, we must turn to Him to seek His will. Our greatest dangers are that we are not willing to ask God to examine all our lives and works, that we are not willing to lay aside our natural ability and opinions and wholly trust in God, and that we are not willing to stop struggling in our failures and weaknesses and look to God alone. We really have to pray to the Lord to grant us the light of revelation that we might know ourselves and the salvation of God, in order that we may obtain the revival of the Holy Spirit.
To my readers who are expecting to be raptured, I would say that we all must be watchful! A little thought for the flesh is enmity with God; a little care for this life is sufficient to make our hearts entangled. If we are not yet ready, then let us not be at peace. Our brother Watchman Nee says, "I tremble at the thought that the lamps of the foolish virgins will not burn long enough." Readers, how do you feel?
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With her clear knowledge of the truth, rich experience of life, absoluteness in following the Lord, and accuracy of discernment, she was able to give timely help, proper support, and practical care to many needy ones. Through all the years, Watchman Nee relied much upon her. She was a real provision of the Lord.
Ruth Lee was imprisoned from 1956 until she rested in the Lord at the age of about seventy-five. She kept her faith to the end.
Peace Wang was born of non-Christian parents in 1899. She was five years younger than Ruth Lee and four years older than Watchman Nee. Her family was from the province of Anhwei. Her original Chinese name was Wang Yih-sun. After she became a Christian, she adopted the new name, Wang Pei-chen, which means admiring and wearing the truth.
Desiring that she could receive a modern education, her parents sent her to a Christian girls' high school in Hangchow in the province of Chekiang. It was there that she not only contacted Christianity but also heard the gospel, believed in the Lord Jesus, and received salvation. By that time her father was a county mayor in the province of Chekiang. It was a great shame to her parents that she had accepted a foreign religion. Hence, she was very much opposed.
She was not only saved but also very much attracted by the Lord, and she became zealous for the preaching of His gospel. This provoked her parents to be even more angry with her. Yet this was not all. Since she was so attracted by the Lord and fell in love with the Lord, she deeply felt that the Lord wanted her to give her life to serve Him in evangelistic work. This was extremely upsetting to her parents. They were greatly surprised at her announcement that she was leaving home and intended to travel for the preaching of the gospel. This was intolerable to them. They were determined not to let her leave. She prayed and fasted. Her stepmother, seeing how desperate she was and realizing that she was more than determined and that her mind could not be changed, interceded with her father and advised him to release her. Eventually, her father's anger calmed down, and he decided to let her make her own decision. The day came when she felt it was time to leave home and follow the Lord by faith. When she walked out the main gate of the house, her father and mother followed her, each standing at one of the two doorposts with tears in their eyes, saying, "My daughter! My daughter! You don't want your father and you don't want your mother; you only want your Jesus!" They all wept together. But even such parental affection did not influence her to change her mind. After leaving home she went to study at Nanking Girls' Seminary for a period of time.
Before she was saved, her father had engaged her to a young man of a well-to-do family, a recently returned student from Germany with a very promising future. In answering the Lord's call to give her life for the preaching of His gospel, she was desperate to terminate her engagement. Realizing her irreversible determination, her father was compelled to notify the young man of her decision. But the young man would not give her up until she herself had personally explained her situation to him. When this was done, he became sympathetic and released her from their engagement. Eventually, they all agreed that her cousin, the daughter of her father's brother, should be engaged to the young man in her place.
After finishing her studies in the Nanking Girls' Seminary, she began her evangelistic work. Her preaching was so convincing and prevailing that many denominations invited her to hold meetings. In the early years of her preaching, she traveled through a number of provinces, and hundreds of people were brought to the Lord through her preaching.
In April 1925 she was invited to my hometown of Chefoo to preach in the Southern Baptist auditorium. I heard the report and was intensely curious to witness such a young lady evangelist, twenty-five years old, preaching the gospel. We had never heard of such a thing before. Therefore, I attended her meeting, and I can testify that from that day to the present I have never seen preaching that was so prevailing. She preached to a crowd of over one thousand, not about sin or about hell, but concerning how Satan possesses and occupies people. She used the story of Pharaoh possessing the children of Israel as the basis of her message. I was immediately caught by the Lord.
While studying in the seminary in Nanking, she met Sister Ruth Lee along with other sisters and also Watchman Nee. Through her contact with them she received enlightenment concerning the denominations negatively and the church positively. Her fellowship with them caused her later to turn to the Lord's recovery in an absolute way. By doing this, she dropped her popular preaching which was highly esteemed by hundreds of Christians in the denominations. To them it was foolish to give up such a promising gospel work. To her, however, it was obedience to the heavenly vision for which she was willing to pay the price at any cost. Near the end of 1926, she and some other sisters moved to Shanghai where they began to meet together.
Following the establishment of the church in Shanghai, she became a great help among the sisters. At the same time she still did much evangelical work, preaching in schools and visiting in other cities. She was excellent not only in holding gospel meetings but also in contacting individuals for salvation. When she stayed in Shanghai, she would visit new contacts with the gospel. Very rarely was there one to whom she had spoken not eventually saved. While Ruth Lee was a great help to the sisters, Peace Wang's burden was to care for the gospel candidates.
She was a strict and frank person. Because of her love for the Lord, she disciplined herself very much. Hence, she had an excellent character. Her consecration to the Lord was more than absolute with a constant burning zeal. Her will was always submissive to the Lord's, her mind was constantly and instantly sober in understanding spiritual things, and her spirit was pure, strong, and always out front in contacting people. Hence, she reached a high point in spiritual things and had a great measure in spiritual life. By possessing all these qualities, she was equipped with a keen discernment in helping others.
Her whole being was for the Lord and His recovery. Nothing preoccupied, frustrated, or distracted her from the Lord's interest. She was always willing to take care of others' needs at the sacrifice of her own needs. She had a broadened heart to embrace the innumerable spiritually as well as physically needy ones. Thus, hundreds of believers, not only sisters but also brothers, received her warm, brooding care.
She possessed a prominent spirit with a loving heart, a sober mind, and a frank character. She was always bold to point out in tenderness and humility, the weak points, shortcomings, defects, faults, and sometimes even sins of those with whom she spoke. Her word was strong, sometimes even sharp, but her tone was full of grace and anointing. Under such speaking, those to whom she ministered always received rich and appropriate help, not only in life but also in the practical matters of their daily living. Watchman Nee treasured her assistance in these aspects very much. The valuable help she imparted to her recipients will need eternity to reveal.
She was not only a great help to the church in Shanghai, but she visited the churches in other cities throughout China and the Southeast Asian countries as well. Early in the year following the establishment of the church in Chefoo, she came to visit us. Her visit greatly strengthened and helped us in the Lord's way. In 1943 I was sick, and the church in Chefoo was depressed due to my long illness. She arrived in the fall of that year to visit me and the church. That visit brought us timely help in our trial. On that same journey, she also visited the saints in Tsingtao and afforded them the supply they needed.
In her work of spreading the Lord's recovery, she was assigned a young sister apprentice to help me in starting the Lord's testimony in Tientsin. As a senior of ten years in the work, she sustained me in whatever needs I had in the Lord's work. Both the church in Tientsin and the church in Peiping were greatly and continually benefited by her presence. Peace Wang and I, along with others, traveled through northwest China and ministered in many places. In our trips she always strongly supported me, and those with her always received her help and care.
In the turmoil caused by the opposition of Mrs. Nee's aunt to her niece's marriage, Peace Wang was the only one who remained in Shanghai facing the difficult situation through the whole period of trouble. During those days she helped me care for the church there during Watchman's absence. Later, in the turmoil stirred up among the brothers and sisters in Shanghai in 1942, when Watchman was forced to discontinue his ministry, Peace Wang had a clear vision of the real situation from the Lord and stood firmly for the Lord's gift to His church, Watchman Nee. By then she was really a wall against the tide, withstanding all the misunderstanding and attacks. Her standing laid the foundation for the later recovery of Watchman's ministry.
After the church in Shanghai closed in 1942, she remained in Shanghai. This was done with the express purpose and expectation that both the church in Shanghai and Brother Nee's ministry would be restored. She was the unique seed for this two-fold purpose. Eventually, after the war, in 1946 the Lord used her with the help of Brother Yu Cheng-hwa to reopen the doors of the church in Shanghai. It was she in the summer of that year who earnestly invited me in writing to visit the restored church there. During my visit the church was greatly healed, and I was very much confirmed and strengthened. After the restoration of the church in Shanghai, she strongly exercised her spiritual function in taking care of the young believers. A number of young saints were raised up and edified through her function and under her care. All of this was a great step in bringing Watchman back to his ministry.
Through her earnest invitation, I was burdened at the end of 1946 to stay in Shanghai and work together with her for the rebuilding of the church and for the restoration of Watchman's ministry. She was an indescribable help to me in the ministry, so much so that a revival was brought in in 1947 and 1948. That was a further step in bringing Watchman Nee back to his ministry. Eventually, he resumed his ministry in Shanghai through that revival. From 1942 to 1948 she played a crucial role under the Lord's leading and anointing to maintain the lifeline of the Lord's recovery.
After he resumed his ministry, Watchman's first burden was to carry out his training on Kuling Mountain. In his second training there, in 1949, Peace Wang was of great assistance to him in caring for the sisters and young trainees.
After the revival reached Hong Kong in 1950, she came from Shanghai with rich blessing to visit the church there and the churches in Amoy and Foochow. Following this trip she returned to Shanghai. This was her last trip in the ministry.
I am deeply indebted to her for my salvation, growth in life, and ministry in the Lord's work. Next to Watchman Nee, she did the most to perfect me. Many among us remember her in the same way with heartfelt gratitude. She was a tremendous asset in the Lord's recovery.
Sister Peace Wang was also imprisoned in 1956 and remained in prison until she went to be with the Lord whom she loved at the age of about seventy. Truly she finished her course in the race.
