Increase of workers meant not diminution but rather increase of work. This is typified in the case of Dr. House himself, who jocularly wrote to his brother that “Satan will not likely find mischief for my hands to do,” and then recounts the duties that devolve upon him. The varied activities that he mentions not only show the versatility required of a missionary but indicate the manifold duties that each missionary has to perform. He writes: “I have recently become a theological professor, four evenings of the week gathering around me in my study the more advanced and promising of the native church members ... and try to pilot them through the leading principles of a system of divinity.” One of these men, Ooan Si Tieng, was ordained in 1872. He had been the first Chinese convert in the mission and now became the first to receive this full authority from the Presbytery. As pastor of the native church Dr. House had a full measure of sorrows as well as joys, for there is a tide in spiritual affairs that has its ebb as well as its flow, and the years of spiritual awaking were followed by periods of depression. Thus at the beginning of 1869 he writes: “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.