Chapter VIII: Part 8

“Kwa Kieng is a native of middle age (about forty-five),
good education, was formerly Mr. Johnston’s teacher, of
respectable appearance, amiable character and appears for
five years back to have led a faithful and exemplary life
as a disciple of Christ. He has a wife (a Cambodian woman)
and three children—two sons and a daughter [another son and
daughter were born later]—now living at Rapri, one hundred
miles west of Bangkok. Though he speaks Siamese imperfectly,
we can communicate tolerably well with him, and we feel that
Providence may make him the instrument of great good to many
of his countrymen. He would be well equipped in many respects
for a native assistant, and we have confidence in him.”

In his _Journal_ at this time Dr. House states that Kee-Eng was a Hakien Chinaman from Amoy. The reference to Cambodia in connection with his wife must be taken to indicate only that she came from there. Her name was Maa Hey and, according to her son Kru Tien Soo, she was the daughter of a Chinese, born in Cambodia. Although, according to her son, Maa Hey never made a profession of the Christian faith; yet she did manifest a sympathy with the work of the mission. All the children of the family were baptised at the request of the father.

As early as 1848 Dr. House mentions that Kee-Eng conducted a school for Chinese boys at Ratburi, or Rapri, as he spells it. When the boys’ boarding school was established in Bangkok he was chosen as the teacher of Chinese. For this reason he removed his family to Bangkok and came to live in the compound. Besides teaching he conducted weekly worship for his fellow countrymen, served as interpreter for Dr. House while he taught the Bible class of Chinese, and still later had charge of a mission chapel for the Chinese. Kee-Eng died Nov. 23, 1858, a victim of the cholera.

“AND IN THY MOTHER TUAN”

Maa Tuan was the elder daughter of Kee-Eng. At the time the family moved to Bangkok she was about five years old, according to Dr. House. She early became a member of the girls’ class in the home of Mrs. Stephen Mattoon, and was intimately associated with the girls whom Mrs. Mattoon had adopted. After the father died the family returned to their former home at Bangpa near Ratburi, where they were separated from Christian influences except for an occasional visit of a missionary. Here Maa Tuan married Chin Boon Sooie. To this marriage three children were born, Boon Itt, Boon Yee, and Prasert, a daughter who died in infancy. Concerning Chin Boon Sooie little is to be found recorded, aside from what Dr. House states in the letter quoted below. His nationality is there given as Siamo-Chinese, and this is confirmed by his son, who also is the authority that his father never made a profession of Christian faith. Chin Boon Sooie died in 1873.

Concerning Maa Tuan the first important mention by Dr. House was in a letter to Mrs. House in 1872, who was then in America:

“Among those present [i.e., at the communion service] were
some of your old pupils: one, speaks of you with much
affection, Tuan the eldest daughter of Sinsay and Maa Hey,
her mother. Tuan is now making her first visit to Bangkok
since she left our command. She evidently has made an
efficient and intelligent woman; reads English quite well
yet; has rather a superior husband, a kind of a headman (man
of property at least) at Bangpa—unfortunate in business of
late but credit unimpaired.

“Poor Tuan since her last babe was born has been running
down and is poor and sallow just now—she always was short
in stature.... Had not Tuan married a well-to-do trader her
knowledge of books, arithmetic and sewing might be utilised
to the good of the cause. She might be hired to get up in her
native village a day school.”

In the following year, probably after the death of her husband, we find her moving with her children to Sumray, near Bangkok, where the mission school was located, in order that she might have educational advantages for her children, for at that period the mission school was the only means to a modern education. In November of 1873 she united with the Church upon profession of faith.

When Mrs. House opened the girls’ boarding school at Wang Lang, Maa Tuan was engaged as matron and teacher. Concerning her work in this school Miss M. L. Cort writes in her book on Siam:

“This school has had the advantage of the faithful and
constant services of Maa Tuan who is an exceptional Siamese
woman and was educated and trained for her position by Mrs.
House.... She has been the chief native teacher and matron
for the school ever since it began, and the interpreter
between the new missionaries and the old pupils, as she
understands English very well. It is through her influence
that many of the pupils have been secured and retained. She
is dignified and kind; and each year adds to her wisdom and
usefulness.”

Maa Tuan spent the summer of 1880 teaching women in the royal palace by request. For some years she conducted a private school at Wang Lang, and so far as records show she was the first Siamese woman to conduct such a school.

While her son was in America, Maa Tuan wrote to Mrs. House that she often rose at midnight to pray that Boon might become a good Christian and become a preacher to his own people. When the news came to her that her son had been converted and had united with the church in far away America, her cup was overrunning with joy. She died in 1899.

THE BOY BOON ITT

Boon Tuan Boon Itt was born February 15, 1865, in the village of Bangpa, which was a Chinese settlement near Ratburi. After his mother removed to Bangkok with her children, Boon Itt and his younger brother Boon Yee entered the mission school and there began their primary education. Only three years after that, Dr. and Mrs. House resigned. When they were about to return home they arranged to take Boon with them and undertook to have him educated in America. At the same time the retiring missionaries agreed to supervise the education of another Siamese boy, Nai Kawn, at the request of his father.

Rev. J. A. Eakin, D.D., in his sketch of Boon Itt, gives this touching picture of the night before his departure:

“The warm clothing, so different from anything that he had
been accustomed to wear, was all made and packed in his
little box. He had taken leave of his teacher and the school.
On the morrow he was to leave his native land. On that last
night his mother visited him, and sitting together in their
favorite place by the riverside, they talked long of the
future. Years afterward, when he was a student of Theology,
in a letter to his mother he referred to that night, and said
that her farewell words of counsel had always remained in his
mind, and had been a great help to him.”

The home of Dr. and Mrs. House was to be in Waterford, New York, and thither they brought their young charges. Boon early became imbued with the American idea of self-dependence. He sought to learn to do as American boys do. In vacation time he looked for jobs to earn money towards his own support. When Dr. and Mrs. House assumed the responsibility for his education, they supposed that their income would be sufficient to bear the expense; but with the failure of their investments a serious problem confronted them. Fortunately, Boon won his way into the hearts of the people, so that the Presbyterian Sunday school of Waterford undertook to make an annual contribution of seventy-five dollars, and continued this amount until his full course was finished. Individuals also assisted privately.

EDUCATION

The barrier of language of course had first to be removed. For this reason his studies were begun with private teaching. In the course of her visits to missionary societies, Mrs. House made an address at North Granville, New York, and there told of the boys they had brought to America to educate. This address, as will be observed in a letter of Boon’s that follows later, prompted a generous offer on the part of Mr. Wallace C. Willcox, principal of the military academy at that place, to give free tuition to Boon Itt, provided friends would care for his needs. This offer was gladly accepted, and in January, 1880, Boon and Kawn entered the academy.

In the fall, Mr. Willcox transferred his relations to the military school at Mohegan Lake, New York, and his personal interest in the two boys carried them with him, so that for that academic year Boon was at Mohegan. In the fall of 1881, he was sent to Williston Seminary, Northampton, Massachusetts, to prepare for college. There he distinguished himself for brightness of mind and fondness of athletics, particularly swimming—in which art every normal boy of Bangkok is an adept from childhood. Graduating at Williston, in the fall of 1885 he matriculated at Williams College. There he spent four years, pursuing the classical course, and graduated with the degree A.B. in 1889.

The college course finished, there came to him one of those severe tests of his consecration and high sense of duty that marked his life at intervals. Between medicine and the ministry he hesitated, but only to weigh in his mind which of the two professions would be the one in which he could render the greatest good to his native land. Of the need of medicine there could be no doubt; even a young man could perceive the advantage of modern medical science for a land where ignorance of the body and superstition were the allies to cause suffering, contagion and pestilence. He could well appreciate also the value of the gentle art of healing as a means of winning the people’s attention while others might preach the Gospel to them. It was no small tribute to the greater power of the ministry in his judgment, therefore, that he resolved to prepare himself for that profession because he deemed the Gospel itself the greatest need for his countrymen.

Having decided for the ministry he entered the Theological Seminary at Auburn, New York. There his grace of meekness, coupled with sterling worth, won for him a high place in the esteem of both his fellow students and the faculty. He had no ambition to be a popular leader, and yet in spite of his retiring disposition he was the center of a warm fellowship because of his high ideals. During the summer vacation of 1890 he served a parish at Bad Axe, Michigan, and in the next summer was the acting pastor at Bergen, New York. He graduated from the seminary in May, 1892, and on the eleventh of the same month was ordained to the Gospel ministry by the Presbytery of Rochester. In that year also he acquired American citizenship. While awaiting the matter of appointment to the field, he took a post-graduate course at Auburn, at the same time supplying the Presbyterian Church at Manlius, N. Y.

HIS SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT

The spiritual development of Boon Itt, including both the obstacles surmounted and the high attainments, will not be rightly appreciated until one considers the environment of his early childhood. Maa Tuan left the mission compound at Bangkok upon the death of her father, and returned to Bangpa with the family. She was then about fifteen years old and had not yet taken a public stand for Christianity, although there is every evidence that the period of her Christian training at the mission more than counterbalanced the pagan influence of the years that immediately followed. None of the family were Christians, and the constraint of custom would involve them in religious practises in common with the neighbourhood. Then marrying an unbelieving husband, the young woman could not effectually exclude those influences from the life of her own children, even though her husband might have been tolerant of the Christian faith. Like children the world over, hers were susceptible to the subtle influences of the religion that prevailed in the village. So it happened that during the first eight years of his life, the most impressionable period of childhood, Boon observed the religious customs of Buddhism, the festivals, the parades, the birthday celebrations, the funerals, and at the same time would unconsciously absorb the ideas of this religious environment. It will not be surprising, therefore, if we find later that some of these ideas had taken deep root in his mind.

Upon entering the mission school he came under a more exclusively Christian atmosphere. Concerning his reaction to this condition, Dr. Eakin writes:

“The religious side of his nature developed slowly. The seed
sown by his mother’s teaching had not yet taken root in his
heart.... He was regular in attendance in Sunday school and
church. He went to the midweek meeting as the boys of the
school were expected to do. His lessons were well learned
because he delighted in study and he would not disappoint his
mother; but his soul was still in the dark.”

At once upon reaching Waterford, Boon enrolled in the Sunday school and continued faithful in attendance until he left for boarding school. On his return home during vacations he resumed his accustomed place in the village church with Dr. and Mrs. House. During this earlier period he united with the Presbyterian Church Dec. 7, 1879, under the pastorate of Rev. A. B. Riggs, D.D. The following letter, written by Boon to his mother at that time, has recently come to light:

“WATERFORD, Jan. 5, 1880.

“DEAR MOTHER:

“It is a long time before we get letters from each other. I
hope you are getting along nicely in the school. I am well
and happy.

“I have something to tell you. I think God has answered your
prayers for my conversion. I have given my heart to Christ,
and own Him to be my God and Redeemer forevermore. I have
joined the Presbyterian Church. Pray for me to be obedient
and faithful to what I have promised. At first I dreaded to
join before so many people, but when I had done it I felt
a great deal happier. When church was out some folks shook
hands with me and said they were very glad to have me join.
I hope I will see grandmother, uncles, aunts, my brother and
all the folks become Christians; then if we do not meet each
other here on earth we would meet in the other world....

“A gentleman by the name of Willcox has a military school
at Granville, about sixty miles north of Waterford, and the
board and schooling is four hundred dollars a year. He made
a great offer to Mrs. House to take me free, if she would
provide my clothes and books and expenses in vacation from
June to September. And now in about two days more Kawn and I
are going up there.

“The folks in Dr. House’s family say that they will miss us
very much, and we are sorry to leave them. Is this not a
wonderful thing that the Lord brought about for us to go to
this school? It all came about in this way. Mrs. House went
and talked to the ladies of Granville and told them about
Siam, and told them about us. No other boys ever had such an
offer as this. Then a few kind ladies of Waterford gave us
sheets, pillowcases, towels and other things that we will
need.

“It all came of the Lord, so blessed be His name forever.
Give my love to all.

“Your affectionate son,
“BOON ITT.”

In spite of the devout expressions in this youthful letter, Boon privately intimated to friends that he had not altogether given up the religion of his native land. One who knew him well recalls that Boon said he still believed Buddhism in his heart and that he would return to it when he went back to Siam. Upon being asked why he then had made a profession of Christianity he said it was because Dr. Houses’ life was “so terrible”—by which he explained that the godly character of Dr. House overcame all his arguments against Christianity. He could not contemplate all that Dr. House was doing for him in the name of Christ and at the same time deny the Christian religion. His love for the doctor impelled him to declare for Christ.

Recalling now the influences of his early childhood, it will be evident that his private expression did not signify duplicity but rather indicated the presence of vague but unsolved problems. When a child who has been reared in a wholly Christian environment becomes converted, that process is chiefly a spiritual change. But for one brought up in the midst of pagan influences to change his religion means to change his entire character, ethical principles and even his theory of existence. Somewhere between these two extremes was the condition of Boon at the time of his joining the Church. His conviction concerning the Christian religion, encouraged by the influence of his dearest friends, enabled him to make a confession of faith. But his heart outran his head. In his mind there were still unexpressed but perplexing questions.

The nature of one of these questions is shown by an incident quoted by Dr. Eakins:

“At one time, in his sophomore year, if my memory serves me
correctly, he went to call upon the minister who served as
pastor to the students, and the minister asked him to tell
of any special difficulties he found in the way of becoming a
professor of religion. After a thoughtful pause Mr. Boon Itt
said that his chief difficulty was that he could not see that
there was a personal God. The minister thought that he was
caviling, and he reproved him for trifling with the truth.
From that time on the minister had lost his opportunity to
do the young student any good in a spiritual way. Sometime
afterward, through the gracious operation of the Holy Spirit
in his heart, he was brought to see that truth, to recognise
the love of God in Christ, and to accept salvation through
the Cross. It had been a long slow process, as it is usually
with the Siamese, but it was complete. He was convinced
beyond the possibility of a doubt, and he made a full
surrender of himself to do his Master’s will.”

Perhaps the incident referred to occurred during the period of religious awakening among the students of Williams College, which took place while Boon was there. The common spiritual invigoration reacted with unusual power upon the individual whose mind was seeking light. That revival served to quicken his spiritual life and enabled him to make safely the transition from the youthful stage of habit and training, across the frail bridge of doubt that spanned the chasm of unbelief. By it he entered into a conscious experience of grace and assumed a volitioned course of life directed by personal devotion to Jesus Christ. The seed of the Gospel planted by maternal teaching and nurtured by the affectionate training of foster parents now, under the warmth of the Spirit and the dew of holy emotions, flowered into a full-blown religious character of rare beauty and fragrance. How real that conversion was is indicated by the reply which Boon gave to a fellow-student in the seminary who, interested to know what might be the sense of sin for a man while still in paganism, inquired of him what his experience had been; to which he replied, “I did not know that I had sin until I became a Christian.”

APPOINTMENT TO THE FIELD

Having made ready for return to Siam, Boon Itt met another severe test of his consecration in the question of appointment by the Foreign Board. Unfortunately the problem was made more difficult for him by the very kindly intentions of his friends in America who apparently did not recognise the fundamental principle involved. As the work in foreign lands had developed it had become the policy of mission Boards to magnify the native church, and to place upon it as rapidly as possible the increasing responsibility for managing its own affairs, as distinguished from the affairs of the missions. The development of a strong native church in each country necessitated that ordained natives should share, not the supposed advantages of foreign missionaries, but the actual conditions of their fellow native Christians. For this reason, along with others of a kindred nature, the Board had arrived at the policy not to commission as a missionary any native, however well qualified. Provision was made that the mission in the field might employ such workers according to their judgment.

While, therefore, the Board declined to issue a “commission” to Boon Itt they heartily recommended him to the mission in Siam for appointment on equality with his fellow Siamese Christian workers. That the principle involved is wise finds testimony in the words of Boon Itt himself who, when he reached a position of leadership, said: “To make Siam completely Christian must be ultimately the work of the Siamese Christian Church, self-supporting, self-directing and responsible to God—not dependent always on foreign missions.”

RETURN TO SIAM

The matter of appointment having been adjusted, Boon Itt returned to his native land in the summer of 1893. Upon return it was necessary for him first to qualify himself in his native language. Not only had it been seventeen years—the major part of his life—since he had withdrawn from the daily use of his mother tongue, but his training in that language had been arrested when he was a lad of eleven. His higher education had been in a foreign language so that his religious conceptions were framed in words that must find an equivalent in the Siamese. During this period of language study he was occupied in many ways in the work of the mission, assisting with the literary work of the mission press, accompanying others on mission tours, and temporarily having charge of stations while missionaries were on vacations. On September 20, 1897, he married his cousin, Maa Kim Hock, a graduate of the Harriet House School.

It was shortly after his engagement that a flattering offer came to him to turn aside from religious work and enter business. Dr. House, writing to a friend under date of Nov. 25, 1896, says: “A letter from Boon tells me of his having declined an engagement of five hundred dollars a month (he now has only five hundred dollars a year from the mission), as he prefers his present work, which he loves and enjoys and has been blessed in.”

The proffer of so large a salary might well have been sufficient inducement to a young man to abandon the less lucrative business of preaching. But upon consulting his fiancée she replied: “I think we would be far happier doing the Lord’s work on a little money than to leave it for so large a sum.” But that was not the only tempting offer that came to him. After Boon’s death the Minister of the Interior disclosed that he himself had offered to Boon Itt “a position which would have led to high titles of nobility from the King of Siam, to the governorship of a province and to a large increase in income.”

Compared with these offers, a salary of five hundred dollars was indeed a pittance for a college graduate, even with the extra allowances. The larger salary of eight hundred and fifty dollars which he was receiving at the time of his death was an economic injustice compared with commercial salaries. But it needs only be observed that all missionaries suffered the same injustice. An American missionary in the same country at the same time was receiving only one thousand one hundred and thirty dollars, although he had a family and had served more than twice as long as Boon Itt. Since then the scale of salaries has been raised, and graduated according to the length of service; but it is still true that a missionary receives barely enough for a living. But the marvel of this comparison is not the disparity of pay but the readiness of Boon Itt to renounce such dazzling offers and to hold himself true to the work of preaching the Gospel to which he had devoted himself.

PITSANULOKE

Shortly after marriage the young couple were assigned with W. B. Toy, M.D., and family to open a new field at Pitsanuloke, some two hundred and fifty miles up the Meinam River. While Dr. Toy was to establish a hospital, funds for which were to be provided by the Board, Boon Itt was to open a school. Through the good offices of public officials he secured the temporary use of some government building.

Concerning this enterprise Dr. Eakin writes vividly:

“He began work in a small way, but he did it thoroughly. In
a few months he had attracted attention of the government
authorities. They began to send their sons to the school....
It was a slow process of growth but it was indigenous from
the start. In this respect it was typical of all Boon
Itt’s work. He tried to work with the Siamese people from
the inside out, instead of following the common method of
applying something foreign largely on the outside.

“It required rare self-sacrifice in Mr. Boon Itt to labour
on, teaching the rudiments of learning in that little school
when he felt that he was capable of doing a work that would
loom larger in the public view.... But there was a subtler
temptation in the opportunity to do a work that would make a
greater show before the world. He had warm friends at home
[America] who were rising in business and professional life.
An appeal to them would have enabled him to make his school a
more immediate and manifest success.... He felt the cost in
his very soul, when he turned his back upon that temptation;
but he decided that the slow indigenous work was the only
way to secure permanence.

“The work has gone forward in Pitsanuloke since those days.
A church has been organised there which promises well; but
the present prosperity owes much to the patient digging and
laying foundations out of sight, which was done by Mr. Boon
Itt.”

After a time the government had use for the building and it became necessary to seek other quarters for the school. Boon Itt leased a new site of about ten acres on the west bank of the river adjacent to the barracks, at a nominal price. As the Board had no funds available for a building he personally secured subscriptions from local merchants and officials amounting to four thousand ticals (two thousand dollars), besides lumber and building materials. A plain but substantial two-story school building of teak wood was erected under his personal supervision and partly by the labour of his own hands.

The enrollment of the first year was forty boys, of whom twenty-six were boarders. The average attendance for that year was ninety-five per cent. In the competitive examinations later the boys of this school gained the highest standing over the boys of the government public school and the Royal Survey school. One of the notable features of his work was the influence he exerted over the young men personally. No doubt that influence in a measure was due to the manner of his religious teaching. He himself has described his method:

“As I have men who study Christianity I have to spend a good
deal of time formulating what are the fundamental doctrines
of Christianity. We can use phrases in the States and be
understood.... Here it is _de novo_. I use no text-book. I
do not know of any. I endeavour to analyse as honestly as I
know how myself and use my experience as a guide—not as an
infallible guide, but only as a working basis.”

This plan which he adopted was essentially the apostolic method. In our emphasis on the inspiration of the letters written by the apostles we are likely to overlook the fact that they are discussing spiritual truths out of their own lives; their epistles are “text books” written out of experience under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Boon Itt was following the same method so far as he could.

In addition to being superintendent of the school, he regularly conducted the Sabbath preaching service, worked in the Sunday school, and made a tour of exploration as far north as the Lao border. His wife had charge of a girls’ school which she had organised. Pitsanuloke was formally organised and recognised as a regular station in 1899.

TRANSFER TO BANGKOK

In 1901, Boon Itt was given a six-months leave of absence for recuperation. He had planned to spend his furlough in Japan; but yielding to family interests he got no farther than his old home in Bangkok. Just before returning to his field, in January, 1902, the Bangkok Christian community presented an earnest petition to have Mr. Boon Itt remain in Bangkok and take charge of a new work which it was proposed to open.

The demand for his services came about as a culmination of circumstances. The work at Sumray had become too large for the plot of land laid out nearly forty years before. A new compound had been procured in the city proper, and the mission Press had already been moved thither. A campus for a boys’ high school had also been secured in that locality and buildings were soon to be erected. On the part of a few there was a desire to establish a church near the school as a center for work among the students. This led to a movement among the Siamese Christians to have this church erected by the Siamese for the Siamese to the honour of Christ. A Christian nobleman of wealth and influence offered to give the major part of the cost, and the remainder was to be raised by the native Christians. This nobleman was Phra Montri, now Phya Sarasin. As he had a high admiration for Boon Itt and wished his help and leadership in the project, a conference was called at which it was unanimously decided to undertake the enterprise and to ask to have Boon Itt transferred from Pitsanuloke to take charge of the work; and a committee consisting of Phra Montri, Kru Yuan, pastor of the First Church of Bangkok, and Boon Itt was appointed to secure a lot near the proposed high school and to plan for the new structure.

Concerning this project and the peculiar fitness of Boon Itt for it, Dr. Arthur J. Brown, Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions, who at that time was making a visit to the Siam mission, gave a very vivid survey in his report to the Board. After describing the respective locations of the three churches in the capital city and the circumstantial limitation of their reach, he says:

“Thus there is neither missionary nor church in Bangkok for
the bulk of the population, for the intelligent, well-to-do
classes who are becoming eagerly interested in foreign ideas,
and for the thousands of bright young men who flock to the
metropolis in Siam, as they do in England and America. In
that main part of the city there are scores of young men and
women who were educated at our boarding schools. Many of them
are Christians. I met a big room full of them at a reception
which they very kindly gave in my honour. They were as fine
a looking company of young people as I have met anywhere on
this tour. Properly led they might be a power for Christ.

“But there is absolutely no place in all Bangkok where they
can attend church unless they divide up by sexes and travel
several miles in a boat to Sumray and Wang Lang. This some
of them do, but their parents and friends do not. Every year
our schools are sending out more of these young people, but
we are not following them up, and they are left to drift....
For this great work a man and a church are needed at once.
No other need in Siam is more urgent. The man should be able
to speak the Siamese like a native. He should be conversant
with the intricacies of Siamese customs and etiquette; and so
understand the native mind that he can enter into sympathy
with it and be able to mould it for God.

“There is one man in Siam who meets all these conditions. I
believe that he has ‘come into the kingdom for such a time
as this.’ That man is Rev. Boon Boon Itt ... one of the most
remarkable men I have met in Asia. His station has been
Pitsanuloke, where he has done a fine work in building up
next to the largest boys’ boarding school in the mission.
Another man can do the work at Pitsanuloke equally well, but
no other man in Siam or out of it can reach the young men in
Bangkok as he can. As the head of his ‘clan’ whose family
home is in Bangkok, he is widely and favourably known in the
capital. Young men like him and resort to him for advice
whenever he visits the city.... We can use this man to better
advantage for the cause of Christ. So I proposed to the
missionaries that Mr. Boon Itt be transferred to Bangkok, and
the proposal was unanimously and enthusiastically agreed to.”

So it came about that Boon Itt was unexpectedly but with great reluctance persuaded to accept the call to Bangkok. In a letter to a friend in America he wrote:

“Now there comes a call for me to come down to Bangkok and
take up the work here with young men and for young men. This
now seems to be my work. I am drawn to it now. I was not
before; I looked at it from a sheer sense of duty. I want to
put my best work in down here, for it is extremely important
to build up homes if purity is ever to be indigenous. When
I went up to Pitsanuloke I was in doubt about the school
work, so I said to the Lord if He wanted me to start a school
there, would He give the money wherewith to build it. He owns
all the riches of the world and people’s hearts are in his
hands; so I asked Him to influence the people there to give
the money and the materials—and He did, and the school has
been built.

“Well, I learned one other lesson along with that, viz: that
had I asked the Father to give me money for the work in His
own way I would have been spared much unnecessary toil. I am
certain that the Lord will give me the money to carry on this
new work out here. My plan in general is to hire a building
and start a reading room, play room, prayer meeting room,
where we can have classes for Bible studies.”

As the possibilities unfolded themselves to his mind it was not solely the undertaking to build up a congregation that engaged his interests. He sketched plans for work in connection with the church which would make it a center of social activities for the cultivation of Christian ideals among the young men; and it was this phase of the work which appealed to him. He studied the needs both temporal and spiritual. Through his influence the young men organised an institution known as the Christian United Bank of Siam; this was the first banking house founded by the Siamese. It was organised after the manner of the savings banks and proved to be very helpful to the Christian community of Bangkok. He also persuaded a small group of Christian Siamese to organise a Steam Rice Milling Company on a Christian basis, no work to be done on the Sabbath and a fixed portion of the income to be devoted to Christian work.

Although Boon Itt had made himself felt among the native Christians during the few years he had spent in Bangkok directly after return to Siam, he now came to be recognised and accepted as the leader of the Siamese Christian Church. He did not aim to be a leader; his intention was just to put himself behind the work and help wherever he could. But this very helpfulness caused the people to look up to him with profound respect. They had appreciation of his understanding of their needs, of his sympathy with their aspirations, and of his ability to look at things from their personal point of view. In a few months his house had become the headquarters for Siamese Christians on the east side of the river, and little gatherings of friends were of frequent occurrence. This gave him a personal influence that he alone failed to perceive.

But scarcely had Boon Itt laid his hands to this great task when within a year his labours came to a sudden end. He fell a victim to cholera. After telling of the sudden attack of the disease, Dr. Eakin recounts the most impressive closing scenes:

“We were with him until late in Friday night, and left to
return to the High School, telling them to call us if there
should be any change. The weather had been hot and dry. No
rain had fallen for about two months. All animate nature
seemed to be suffering and longing for relief from the
drought.

“About midnight we were called. As we went to the house,
we noticed that there was a change coming in the weather.
The wind was rising in fitful gusts, and dark clouds were
scudding across the sky.

“We found that he had passed away without returning to
consciousness. Soon after we entered the house, the monsoon
broke in torrents of rain. The house shook under the fierce
attacks of the raging tempest.... The bereaved wife calmly
gathered the friends together in the little sitting room,
passed around the hymn books among them and asked them all
to sing. Through the long hours of that terrible storm, they
sang those hymns of Christian faith and hope and comfort. In
the interval between these songs of the night, they talked
of the future. One expressed concern about the finishing
of the new church. (A part of his ebbing strength Boon had
spent in explaining the details of the drawings he had made
for the roof of the church.) It would be difficult to find a
contractor who would be willing to take up the work that had
fallen from a dead hand, owing to a superstition that the
building would be haunted. Then Kru Thien Pow, head teacher
in the Boys’ High School and a most devoted friend of the
fallen chief, broke down and wept aloud: ‘I am not thinking
of the new church,’ he said, ‘some one will be found to
complete that work. I am thinking of the Kingdom of Christ
in Siam. Who will take the vacant place in this service?’”

The death of Boon Itt occurred May 8, 1903. Besides his widow, he left three children, Samuel Buntoon, Eliza Brante and Phreida.

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=

Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.

Bold text is denoted by =equal signs=.

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’.