Doubtless the greatest joy upon return to Siam was to find that a
great spiritual awakening had taken place in the mission school. If
the fruits of labour seem sparse so far it must be considered that
the most favourable soil had scarcely time to produce its harvest.
The boys and girls who had been under the intimate influence of Dr.
and Mrs. House in the school were just approaching the adolescent
age when, in 1866, a spiritual awakening manifested itself. News
of this work of grace had reached Dr. House at Hong Kong, and upon
arrival at Bangkok he rejoiced to learn that the facts more than
confirmed the report.
“Found all well and the very best of good news awaiting us,
confirming the hopes I have felt all along that a better day
was about to dawn on us in Siam. Two of our oldest and most
promising pupils (Hee, the writer of that interesting letter
to me, published in the _Foreign Missionary_ last year, being
one of them), and a native teacher in our employ (a man of
some education) were baptised a few weeks ago as converts
from heathenism; and another native teacher, Naah (Esther’s
husband), with others of the pupils in the mission school
are desirous of Christian baptism. These new converts with
the older church members sustain semi-weekly prayer-meetings
among themselves with warm interest.”
The convert named in this letter was Tien Hee, who, a few years
later, went to America to seek a higher education. Graduating in
medicine at the New York University in 1871, he returned to Siam,
where he became the first native physician practising the Western
system of medicine. He became eminently successful in his practise,
amassed considerable wealth, received the title of Phra Montri and
lately has been elevated to a higher rank of nobility, as Phya
Sarasin. In grateful recognition of what Christianity has done
for him he has made generous contributions toward the work of the
mission.
Two months later Dr. House reported further confessions:
“It was my privilege and joy last Sabbath to receive to our
little mission church in the ordinance of baptism three
Christian converts, all connected or once connected with our
mission boarding school; and one of these my dear old pupil
Naah (Esther’s husband), the boy especially given me by his
Chinese father on his dying bed. The others were Dik and
Ting.... You do not know how many fold I felt repaid by the
privilege I enjoyed that Sabbath.”
In August of that year (1867) he writes further:
“We are permitted to report the admission by baptism to our
native church at this station at our last communion of five
new members. Two of them girls that have been long under
instruction in the missionary families; two others, elder
pupils in the mission school for boys; and the fifth, one
more advanced in years.
“Among the four young persons who kneeled one after another
to receive the solemn ordinance which made them church
members was our dear Ooey, who has long in her heart been
persuaded of the truth of our religion and the importance of
attendance to it, and who a few weeks before came out bright
and clear and decided, in her determination to serve the
Saviour. Again it fell to my lot to administer the ordinance;
and a privilege unspeakable it was to stand up and in the
name of the Lord to apply the seal of the covenant to the
dusky brow of that child of many prayers, and to others I had
helped teach the way to heaven.
“That Sabbath evening Ooey told me with beaming eyes that her
heart was full of happiness. And yet only the day before the
poor child had been told by her heathen father—who was angry
with her for forsaking the old religion—that she ‘must never
call him father, nor her mother, mother again’....
“The fifth is Ah Keo, for over twenty years a servant in the
different mission families. I recollect talking and praying
with him the first year I was in Siam. But his besetting sin,
intemperance, made all exhortation lost on him till this
spring—a miracle of grace has been wrought.”
This religious interest increased with the days, so that the
semi-weekly meeting for prayer gave way to a daily meeting, in
which the young Christians exhorted their fellow students and
friends to believe on Christ, and their hearts were poured out in
intercession for the conversion of their families and of Siam.
Then, in September, Dr. House records another confession from among
the student group:
“Delia made our hearts very glad the other day by coming to
us and saying her mind was made up to become a Christian,
and wished to be baptised. Her mother and brother would be
very angry with her, but she felt she must take up her cross.
She is a girl of a great deal of decision and energy of
character.”
The fall meeting of the Presbytery of Siam for 1867 was marked by
items of unusual interest. Dr. House was installed pastor of the
church, as a successor to Mr. Mattoon. The formal call for his
pastoral services (signed by thirteen members), the charge to
the pastor and people, the prayers and the sermon were all in the
Siamese language—an index of the development of self-government
in the native church. At the same meeting A. Klai, of Petchaburi,
was licensed as a native local preacher, apparently the first to
be fitted for that rank. Dr. House jocularly refers to him as a
“graduate of the McFarland Theological Seminary of Petchaburi,”
as he had been under the instruction of Mr. McFarland. At the
communion in the Bangkok church this same autumn occurred the
ordination of the first native elder of the local church, the
congregation having elected the young man Naah already mentioned.