The distress of mind which Dr. House felt so keenly over the
perplexities of his profession, coupled with eagerness for work
that would give more direct propagation of the Gospel, caused him
to determine that as soon as another medical man should come out
to Siam he would abandon medical work. When at length Rev. D. B.
Bradley, M.D., returned after a sojourn of three years in America
and brought with him yet another doctor, Rev. L. B. Lane, M.D., Dr.
House supposed that his longed-for time of release had arrived. In
that expectation he wrote:
“After all, now that my looked-for medical helper has come,
I do not find myself so inclined to give up the practise of
medicine and surgery as I expected to. Indeed, I believe I
verily love my profession more, now the time has come which
I so long ago fixed as the time when I should most certainly
renounce it. It is not such a burden to me as it once was....
And yet I must have time granted me for study. My heart is
quite set on fitting myself to preach the gospel from house
to house as a colporteur. Have I not the right to take
time for the study of the language in which I am so sadly
deficient!”
This reaction from his former depression is natural under the
circumstances. Remembering that Dr. House had had no independent
practise before going to Siam, not even having performed a surgical
operation alone, it is no wonder that the large and varied number
of cases which presented themselves to his untested skill should
challenge his small degree of self-confidence. But the instant
other physicians are at hand, that mental burden seems to find a
measure of support in their presence.
In the entry of the journal just quoted, however, there appears in
the open what hitherto he had not even written in privacy—another
and controlling reason for giving up his profession, viz.: the
desire to give his whole time to direct dissemination of the
Gospel. First he would devote himself to gaining proficiency in
the language, for the chief purpose of evangelising. All through
his journal in these early years it appears that his heart was
more occupied with the healing of souls than of bodies. To him the
hospital was a means of gaining intimate contact with people that
he might tell them about Jesus.
Great was his chagrin, therefore, when he found that the arrival
of two physicians was to give no immediate release. Dr. Bradley
had returned with the intention of devoting himself to unattached
practise, the A. B. C. F. M. having withdrawn its mission. Dr.
Lane, who went out under the American Missionary Association, which
for a time became the successor of the A. B. C. F. M., would not
consent to take charge of the dispensary until he could command the
language. There was nothing for Dr. House to do but to meet the
exigency of the situation, and this he did by consenting to hold
fixed hours at the floating dispensary but leaving to Dr. Bradley
all outside calls. This arrangement allowed Dr. House half his time
for the study of the language.
During this period of his connection with the hospital, in 1851,
the smallpox broke out in Bangkok. Dr. House sent to Singapore for
vaccine virus and at once began vaccinating any child whose parents
he could induce to submit. For weeks he roamed about the city in
his free hours soliciting patients for vaccination, explaining,
entreating, warning, and almost hiring parents to permit him to
inoculate their children. As one reads through the daily entries
of the journal at this time, he receives an odd impression of
this foreign doctor going about the city begging permission to
administer an ounce of prevention. Back of this he had two very
earnest desires. The first and immediate purpose, of course, was
to save life and to prevent the dire results of the disease,
evidences of which he saw everywhere. But the deeper motive was,
by the demonstrated advantage of vaccination, to induce confidence
in Western sciences in general and in the good motives of the
missionaries in particular, so that the people would be ready to
give more serious attention to the gospel message.
After eighteen months of this arrangement, Dr. Lane took charge of
the dispensary and Dr. House formally abandoned his profession.
During the four and a half years he had a record of seven thousand
three hundred and two patients. With characteristic unselfishness,
however, he consented for a time to substitute when the other
physicians could not respond to calls; but soon he found that old
patients were taking advantage of this consent by expressing a
preference for him, so that the cases were gradually increasing.
Finally he took a firm stand and declined to do any professional
work, except to assist in surgery.
After Dr. House had altogether retired from his profession there
appears in his journal a soliloquy which indicates that another
motive had been subconsciously urging him to this course which,
only after he had some months’ retrospect, had been permitted to
come to expression:
“April 17, 1853. Is it not my duty to write a full expression
of my feeling of my lost confidence in the healing art to
the executive committee. I fear my parents would be tried
when the faculty cast me off as I do their traditionary
notions. Peace with them is better than war, perhaps. And yet
perhaps I am doing very wrong by standing in the way of some
other medical missionary who would be sent out if I was not
believed to be a regular practitioner.
“But the last consideration does but little trouble my
conscience, believing as I do from the bottom of my heart,
that the more medicine given the worse the patient is off;
and the less, the better.”
When once this idea gained the strength of expression he freely
declared his opinion to his fellow missionaries. Then we find the
curious anomaly of a graduate in medicine arguing against the use
of drugs and his patients contending for them. However this was
only a passing phase of “unbelief” in an extreme degree, and his
seeming trend towards faith cure had its own reaction when, a few
years later, we find him having recourse to physicians and drugs
when unaided nature did not bring relief for a wife’s constantly
aching head.
The change from the medical to the evangelistic and educational
form of mission work had an effect upon Dr. House of which perhaps
he was not quite conscious, but which is quite evident to one
who reviews his life in the foreshortened perspective afforded
by the journal. As manifest in the quotations already given, the
medical profession proved to be depressing to him because the
sense of responsibility in decisions coincided too closely with
his natural diffidence; and there was a slow but constant ebbing
of self-confidence. Continuance in the medical work was liable
to have lessened his general effectiveness for missions for this
reason. But the more direct Gospel work of colportage, touring
and teaching seemed to harmonise better with his mind so that he
was buoyed up with hope and inspired with a courage that knew no
obstacles. He had a greater faith in God than in himself, and the
evangelistic work gave the fullest range to that faith, impelling
him to attempt whatever he believed to be his duty without fear of
failure.