After her return to the United States, Mrs. House became the center
of a strong influence in behalf of Siam among the women of the
Church at home, especially as an advocate for female education. In
1878 she was elected president of the Woman’s Presbyterian Board
of Foreign Missions of the Synod of Albany and served five years
in that capacity. When the several small synods within New York
were united into the present Synod of New York, in 1883, Mrs. House
was a member of the committee that planned for the consolidation
of the several women’s societies into the Woman’s Presbyterian
Foreign Missionary Society of New York Synod, and became the first
president of the consolidated organisation. As a motto for the
united society she proposed the ideal “Every Woman in Every Church
Working for Jesus”—a motto that reads quite fresh to date. To Mrs.
House is due the credit of originating the series of “Questions and
Answers in Mission Fields,” beginning with a catechism on the work
in Siam for children’s mission bands. This method of disseminating
missionary information may possibly be the germ from which has
developed the current system of mission study.
In the church at Waterford Mrs. House was accepted as the natural
leader in the foreign missionary society of the women. She so
developed interest in the work that the society maintained a very
high standard of giving and of activities for many years. She was
particularly interested in cultivating an interest in missions
among the children and it was for her own mission band that the
series of questions and answers were originally devised. Mrs. House
had the joyous satisfaction of seeing Boon Itt ready for work in
Siam. But before the time came for his departure she was called
upon to take leave of him for eternity. On July 12, 1893, she
passed to her rich reward in Heaven.
With return to America, Dr. House continued his activities in
behalf of the Gospel at home and of missions abroad. He embraced
frequent opportunities to preach, and especially responded with
pleasure to invitations for addresses on Siam. He had accumulated
a large collection of curios from Siam, China and Japan, which he
used with good effect to illustrate his talks and interest his
hearers. This collection he left to the people of Waterford, and
it is in custody of the Presbyterian Church. In the home church he
took an active part, serving for many years as trustee, and also as
clerk and treasurer of the board of trustees. He was honoured by
the community with election as President of the village, an office
which he held at the time of his death.
“ALL THINGS RICHLY TO ENJOY”
When the two missionaries returned from their long period of heavy
labours in Siam with impaired health it was with the expectation
that the estate which the doctor had received from his father would
provide sufficient income for a comfortable living. The salary
while on the field had been so small that instead of being able to
save from that income, the doctor had to supplement it from his
private purse. But with economy, he expected that his patrimony
would be ample for the needs of himself and wife. Not long after
his return, however, it developed that the investment of his funds
was unsound, and he suddenly found his reserves swept away. The two
were left largely dependent, though still having their home.
Without a word of complaint they accepted the situation as one of
the inexplicable dispensations of God. The many years of sublime
but real trust in the care of Providence which they had cultivated
in the mission field and which they had often proven to be an
unfailing means of blessing, now stood them in good stead. Those
who knew them intimately relate instances in which what seemed to
be spontaneous gifts of friends and neighbours reached them at the
moment when they knew not whence a supply for immediate needs was
to come. In a letter to a friend telling of the timely provision of
the Lord for his needs, Dr. House wrote that his old friend Kuhn
Mote, having learned of his straitened circumstances, had sent him
a gift of five hundred dollars. If the record of those later years
could be written it would be a continuous testimony to the simple
reliance upon the goodness and mercy of God, and to the marvellous
justification of the faith of this godly couple.