The first decade of Dr. House’s service was drawing to a close
without any apparent need for a furlough, as need was then
understood. He had become acclimated, accustomed to conditions
of Siamese life and was apparently contented with his bachelor
state. That the tropics had proved to be more friendly than he had
expected, is implied in his frequent expressions of surprise at
continued good health, even assuring his friends at home that his
physical condition was better than before he left America. But this
was not the common lot of missionaries in the early days. On the
tenth anniversary of his departure from New York he wrote:
“Of the company of the _Grafton_ two already are dead and
three compelled to return home from broken health. Mr.
Mattoon and I alone are left on the field—besides Mrs.
Mattoon, the eighth of the party.”
The enervating conditions of life in Siam are described with good
understanding by Mr. George B. Bacon in his volume on _Siam_:
“It is when we remember the enervating influence of the
drowsy tropics upon character that we learn fitly to honour
the men and women by whom the inauguration of this new era
in Siamese history has been brought about. To live for a
little while among these sensuous influences without any
very serious intellectual work to do or any grave moral
responsibility to bear is one thing; but to live a life among
them with such a constant strain upon the mind and heart as
the laying of the Christian foundations among heathen must
necessitate is quite another thing.
“This is what the missionaries of Siam have to do. The battle
is not with the prejudice of heathenism only, nor with the
vices and ignorance of bad men only; it is a battle with
nature itself.... The fierce sun wilts the vigour of his
mind and scorches up the fresh enthusiasm of his heart....
Therefore I give the greater honour to the earnest men and
to the patient women who are labouring and praying for the
coming of the Christian day to this people.”
When Dr. House parted with his parents in the New York harbour, it
was with the mutual expectation of never seeing each other again.
The separation was intensified in its realism by the slowness of
communication. His message announcing safe arrival in Siam did not
reach his parents until thirteen months after his departure. Their
response to this message was one which stirred his emotions to the
depths and made him oblivious of all around him; it told of his
father and mother and cousins kneeling together upon receipt of the
news and offering thanksgiving for the beginning of his missionary
work. The many friends who wrote letters to him doubtless never
understood what joy they gave him by their messages. After
receiving a consignment of mail he writes: “Their letters do cheer,
do strengthen, do inspire new resolves, and make me ashamed of my
unworthy service.” He records with expressions of esteem the names
of those from whom he receives communications by each mail; and to
one who knows something of the home church these names stand as a
roster of zealous workers, names of families that continue to the
present day.
The affectionate interest of the people was more than individual;
it came to be almost a community interest. The “monthly concert
of missions” saw the old session house filled with people eager
to hear the latest letter from their own foreign missionary. On
his part he kept in mind the day of these church gatherings and,
allowing for the difference of time, he estimated that his Monday
morning hour of devotions corresponded with the Sunday evening at
home, and surmised “in our little session room at Waterford many
a fervent prayer was going up for me and my fellow labourers from
those whose prayers will prevail at the throne of grace.”
It is not surprising that the home church grew mightily in
the grace of giving and developed a generosity which, long
before forward movements, attained a standard of giving more to
beneficence than to their own work and led the Presbytery in their
gifts to the foreign work. Arthur T. Pierson, D.D., who served the
church as pastor 1863-9 and later became one of the most powerful
public advocates of missions, bore this testimony to their zeal, on
the occasion of the church’s centennial in 1904:
“I owe much of my own enthusiasm for missions to my six
years in this church. It was most active and aggressive in
this department of service. It had its own missionary in the
field, and kept in living contact with him by correspondence,
gifts and prayer. This missionary atmosphere I breathed
with immense profit, and I was compelled either to lead my
people in missionary work or to resign my pastorate. My real
missionary education began here in a church far ahead of me
in intelligence and enthusiasm for God’s work.”
No mention of home-going appears in Dr. House’s journal or
correspondence till a letter from his mother, in 1852, shows her
sternly-repressed desire to see her son:
“The Lord has a work for you to do in Siam, and much as I
long to see you I would not call you home from it. But if
health or benefit of mission require it, I would say ‘Come at
once—come home that we may embrace you once more; and then
return with new vigour to help forward that glorious work
which is yet to be accomplished in Siam.’”
More than a year later a joint letter from the parents enlarges
upon the subject. First the father writes:
“When your health should make necessary that you should have
the invigourating influence of a sea voyage and our climate,
you may tax me for the expense, if I should be spared. If
not, I hope to leave sufficient at your disposal to relieve
your mind from any anxiety on the subject. I am anxious only
for you to be wise and to adopt the course most likely to
prolong your life and to serve your Master as a missionary.
Whether we shall be permitted to meet again on earth is a
small matter (although there is nothing here that would offer
me more happiness) when compared with the magnitude of the
work in which you are engaged. Therefore I can say with your
dear mother that I cheerfully submit to the disposal of Him
who has crowned our lives with loving-kindness and who will
order all that concerns our children and ourselves for His
own glory.”
His mother then adds:
“I hope that you will not think because I do not ask you to
come home that we do not desire to see you—we do indeed long
for your return that we may see you in the flesh. But we
cannot, dare not ask you to desert your post which we feel is
one of great honour and responsibility; and we trust you may
be made an instrument in the hand of God for doing much for
the interest of the Redeemer’s kingdom.”
Just at this juncture occurred the beclouding of friendship on the
part of King Mongkut. As the mission work came to a standstill,
the missionaries held a conference to determine their course of
procedure. Dr. House was ready to carry out his long-cherished plan
to transfer his labours to Lao, but the decree forbidding travel
rendered this impossible. The letter of his parents had insinuated
into his mind the alternative of a visit to America. When he
casually mentioned this to his fellow missionaries they gave
cordial and earnest approval. The expectation of the early arrival
of a recruit to their force removed the objection of leaving the
Mattoons alone. Then came the visit of Sir John Bowring, with his
eventual offer of a free passage to Singapore. Availing himself
of this offer, Dr. House left Siam in April, 1855, and sailed for
America _via_ England, reaching home in midsummer.