Rev, W. H. Hudspeth Lectures to Union Church Club Members of the Union Church Tuesday Evening Club, at the first meeting of the present session on Tuesday evening. listened to a most interesting lecture on "The Miaos of West China" by the Rev. W. H. Hudspeth who as a member of the English Methodist Mission spent some yi among this primitive people.
Mr. Hudspeth pointed out that some 4000 years ago the Miaos were a prosperous people, and for a considerable period occupied a considerable portion of the fertile lands which now form some of the central provinces of China, but gradually yielding to the onward march of the Chinese had been driven into the mountainous parts of the provinces of Yunnan, Kweichow, Kwangsi, and. Yunnan, where a comparatively small number still are found.
Though they have been in contact with the Chinese for 4,000 years the Miaos have never adopted any part of the Chinese religion. They are worshippers of trees and of animals. There is no regular priesthood, each head of the house being the priest of the family, One of the principal objects of their worship is the door because it is through the door that all influences—good and evil—enter.
Children of the hills, the Miaos had no written language until about three decades ago, when two missionaries first brought them the Gospel message. The language being phonetic, the missionaries set to work to translate the Gospel of Mark, which was the first portion of the Scriptures to be printed and distributed. To-day there are 20,000 adherents of the Church, and severa! thousand who are able to read the Bible.
The lecture was illustrated by a number of excellent slides of the people and the districts in which they ide.
It was an interesting coincidence that the Chairman of the evening who introduced the lecturer should have first met Mr. Hudspeth in Japan twenty years ago when he was there supervising the printing of the Scriptures in the Miao dialect The Annual Meeting During the supper which preceded the lecture the members elected their Committee for the ensuing Four of the old Committee—Dr. A. C.
Price, Messrs. H. B. Duff, J. M
McFarlane, and W. M. McLennan— continue in office for another term, while the four new members are the Rev. W. H. Hudspeth, Messrs. G. R. Beynon, G. S. Connor, and F. H. B. Herman.
It was decided to change the meetings from the third to the second Tuesday of each month, and it was announced by the chairman that tentative plans have already been made for some interesting lectures during the coming months
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.