AN APPRECIATION
The death of Boon Itt caused inexpressible sorrow and dismay among all who knew him, both in Siam and America. It brought forth universal testimonies of esteem for the man; friends seemed to vie with each other in veneration of his memory. Almost spontaneously there arose the suggestion to erect as a memorial to him a building that would provide facilities for the social work among young men which he had inaugurated. Committees both in Siam and in the United States met with cordial response to the proposal. The Crown Prince esteemed it a pleasure to make the first contribution for Siam towards the proposed building, while members of the government gladly participated in the fund. The king of Siam, who was absent at the time, expressed his intention to assist when he learned of the project after his return.
Prince Damrong, Minister of the Interior, when invited to contribute to the fund, replied: “I am glad to help in a memorial to that splendid man. You may not know that I offered him a position which would have led to high titles of nobility from the king of Siam, to the governorship of a large province and to a large increase of income. Yet he declined these high honours and financial benefits that he might continue in the service of Jesus Christ. Boon Itt was a true Christian.” As a result of the movement, the “Boon Itt Memorial Building” now stands as a visible testimonial to all Bangkok in behalf of the noble character of this Christian Siamese, and perpetuates the heart’s desire of this servant of Christ for the young men of Siam.
Boon Itt gave only ten rapid but full years to the Gospel ministry for his countrymen, but he set in motion spiritual influences that will persist many times that brief decade. The marvel is that he laid the foundations so deep in the hearts of the people and built so lofty in their aspirations in so short a time. Yet the higher achievement was not what he did but rather the Christian character which, by the grace of Jesus Christ, he developed in beautiful symmetry and completeness. In his life the Spirit manifestly bore its full fruition of “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” But the unique significance of his life lies neither in what he did nor what he was; rather it lies in the notable demonstration that the religion of Jesus Christ can take a man of any race or religion, completely transform his mind and heart, engraft in him the Christian culture, and yet leave him true to his own people. His life is a testimony that the Christian religion is a universal religion, for all races, for all lands and for all ages.
The End
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources.
Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text, and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.
Some hyphens in words have been silently removed, some added, when a predominant preference was found in the original book.
‘A.M., a.m., P.M., p.m.’ replaced by ‘A. M., a. m., P. M., p. m.’.
Pg [22]: ‘His Excellancy again’ replaced by ‘His Excellency again’.
Pg [32]: ‘Φ Β.Κ.’ replaced by ‘Φ.Β.Κ.’.
Pg [45]: ‘and Mr. Hemmingway’ replaced by ‘and Mr. Hemmenway’.
Pg [59]: ‘fi fi’ replaced by ‘fi fah’.
Pg [72]: ‘McGilvray visited the’ replaced by ‘McGilvary visited the’.
Pg [136]: ‘Ministed assured him’ replaced by ‘Minister assured him’.
Pg [141]: ‘inteligence and enthusiasm’ replaced by ‘intelligence and enthusiasm’.
Pg [142]: ‘lovingkindness and who’ replaced by ‘loving-kindness and who’.
Pg [143]: ‘first hand knowldge’ replaced by ‘first hand knowledge’.
Pg [210]: ‘upon a blesssing’ replaced by ‘upon a blessing’.
Pg [213]: ‘by a happy inpiration’ replaced by ‘by a happy inspiration’.