FIVE years ago, a tract entitled "The Illuminated Pathway" was purchased at a market town in southern Hunan, by a Confucianist named Wang—written and translated "King." He took the tract to his mountain home, where he read it carefully; and being impressed with the message it contained, he wrote to our nearest out station, asking for more literature, and also inviting the evangelist in charge to visit him at his home.
Ten Thousand of Them
The evangelist accepted the invitation; and later it was the privilege of Mrs. Cottrell and me, while on one of our itinerating trips, to be entertained by Mr. Wang and his family. We were the first foreigners who had ever crossed that mountain range. On arriving, and being introduced to a number of his friends by the name of Wang, we inquired of our host, "How many people are there here by this name?"
"Oh," was the answer, "there are over six hundred in our family, but in the entire Wang clan there are nearly ten thousand."
They Occupied a Mountain
For a number of hundred years this clan has lived, and occupied a considerable tract of land on the top of this mountain range. They build their own houses of brick made by themselves; they make all their furniture of timber that grows upon their own property; their land produces all the grains and vegetables for their sustenance; and they weave their own cloth from hemp grown by themselves. Thus if shut off from the rest of the world, they could practically provide for all their necessities.
Deliverance Brought to Them
But left to themselves, they were destitute of any power or method of deliverance from sin. We held meetings with them, unfolding to their minds the wonderful plan of salvation. We advised them to prepare a school building for the education of their children and youth, and also to erect a chapel for religious services, promising them that the mission would help them by sending a school-teacher, and occasionally an evangelist. The buildings were provided, largely by their own efforts, and a mission school is now conducted.
It has been our privilege, from time to time, to see a number of these people follow their Lord in baptism; and at the time of Brother Wang's last visit to Hankau, he reported that fully two thirds—or about four hundred—of his large family had forsaken their idols and were groping their way toward the "illuminated pathway." He also said that the good tidings were spreading to other villages and towns in the vicinity of his home, and he earnestly requested that we send them more help.
This is only one of the many calls in central China which are thrust insistently upon us. To a large extent, it rests with the church in the home land to decide how and when these calls shall be answered.
