“Our spiritual prospects at the opening of the year are not as bright as last new year—one or two sad and unexpected fallings away from the faith have greatly tried and pained our hearts.”
But this reaction was transient, for two years later, in telling of the week of prayer in January, he writes:
“Our native Christians are quite interested, sustaining the meetings nobly. Indeed I have thrown the meetings upon them altogether and they take turns in leading them. You do not know what comfort it is to have in my little flock enough able and willing to carry on these meetings.... It would do you good to witness the spirit of faithfulness on their part to the souls of their impenitent friends and neighbours.”
In addition to his duties as pastor of the mission church, Dr. House was appointed superintendent of the mission press in 1870, and for that year also was elected secretary of the mission in charge of the records and correspondence. At the same time he was offered a royal appointment:
“Projects are now on foot in both kings’ palaces for schools for the instruction of the young nobility of Siam in English and the sciences. I have been earnestly solicited by the Second King George to aid in establishing the one he is planning. Happy would I be to lend a helping hand if other duties would allow.”
After two years the doctor was relieved of the charge of the Press and appointed again to the more congenial task of supervising the mission school, a position which he continued to fill until his final withdrawal from the field.
In the midst of these incidents the actual growth of the Mission must not be overlooked. It has to be recorded that in spite of arduous and faithful labours of the increasing corps of workers and in the face of all the encouraging marks of advance in Western civilisation, Siam responded very slowly to the spiritual appeal of the Gospel. While she gladly recognised and sought after the material benefits of Christianity she continued to manifest her characteristic indifference to its more vital message. Mr. McDonald, in his book on Siam, Its Government, Manners and Customs, says that when he arrived in Siam in 1861 there was but one native convert in connection with the mission, whereas ten years later there was a church in Bangkok with only twenty members and another in Petchaburi with a like number. He then adds:
“It is just to state that there is scarcely any other field in which modern missions have been established where the introduction of the gospel has met with so little opposition as in Siam proper.... It is equally just to say that there is scarcely any other field which has been so barren of results. Pure Buddhism seems to yield more slowly to the power of the gospel than any other false system.”
The reason for this unyielding nature of Buddhism seems to lie in its ethical theories which are the result of its philosophy of life. In some measure, too, this indifference of Buddhism to a spiritual interpretation of life accounts for its non-resistance towards the preaching of an antagonistic religion. The primary fallacies of Buddhism from the Christian point of view are:
“1. No Creator and no Creating: Things just happened. This conception leads to indifference to nature and to a belief that the body is vile, to be despised and disregarded.