I am a Southern Baptist and I will be the first to admit that we, Southern Baptists, are very weak in theology and church history. If someone mentioned Luther Rice, I am sure that many Southern Baptists would wonder whether he was related to Martin Luther or MLK. Some might need to be told that Luther Rice was not the person who invented Rice Krispies. Not really. Few would know what he did and how he impacted Baptist life and modern missions. Here is the Excogitating Engineer’s attempt to tell you a little about Luther Rice.
Luther Rice was one of the great trailblazers of Baptist missions and denominational life. He was an influential figure in conceiving the idea of a Baptist denomination as well as the first appointed Baptist missionary. Rice was an outstanding preacher about whom it has been said, “the Lord saw fit to raise such a one as Luther Rice.” William Broadus once stated, “He doubted whether Rice, as a minister of the gospel, had been equaled in the United States .”
The Rice family had been living in North America since they first landed at Boston Harbor in 1638 and played a part in the formation of the United States . In fact, there were at least 427 people from the Rice family who fought in the American Revolution. Luther’s own father, Amos, was a minuteman from Northborough , Massachusetts , who marched on Lexington on that day which marked the beginning of the Revolutionary War. However, it was not until after the war (March 25, 1783) that Luther Rice was born as the ninth child of Amos and Sara Rice.
Luther grew up in the church singing in the choir with his brothers but it was not until he turned eighteen that he desired to be a Christian. He was very troubled about the issue of becoming a Christian and the fact that he attended worship and that he prayed regularly only caused him to be more disturbed. He spoke to his mother about his feelings and she referred him to the minister at the Northborough Church . The pastor, Mr. Whitney, did not understand how Luther could have such intense feelings of guilt, but he granted Luther membership to the church at the age of nineteen. This still did not satisfy Luther’s inner desire for peace in his life. He struggled inwardly with this issue for three years until he completely surrendered to Jesus as Lord. On September 14, 1805, Luther went to his room and prayed as recounted in his journal, “I did then on my bended knee give of myself to the Eternal Jehovah, soul and body, for time and eternity to be dealt with as He should see fit.” This was no nonchalant dedication to which Luther Rice had surrendered. He was committed to lift the Lord up and do whatever God called him to do.
At this point in his life, Luther Rice determined that he needed to prepare himself for college, so he enrolled in Leicester Academy . Upon graduation from Leicester, he forewent Harvard, which was the college of choice for most men in his area, for the more distant location of Williams College .
In the spring of 1806, about a year and a half before Luther enrolled at Williams College , Samuel J. Mills, Jr., entered Williams College . By the summer of that year there was a group of freshmen led by Mills who were involved in prayer meetings twice weekly. These meetings began to include discussions about the unevangelized around the world and how the East India Company had opened up much of Asia , previously considered a closed continent. One Saturday, during the meeting that was going on in the meadow, thunder and lightning came and the group was forced to find shelter under a haystack. They continued to meet in the meadow until it grew cold and the weather forced them inside.
When Luther Rice entered Williams College in the fall of 1807, Mills was one of the first people he met. Mills noticed Rice’s passion for missions when they met. Thus, Mills sought to enroll him in the prayer meetings. It didn’t take much convincing, however, and Rice threw himself into the group’s activities wholeheartedly. The following fall, in 1808, the members decided to make the group “a more formal organization for the promotion of missions” and, thereby, a society was born. As Rice’s biographer put it, “it was a mustard seed beginning with only five men signing a pledge to effect a mission to the world’s teeming millions in foreign lands.” This society was known later as the Brethren, and its purpose was “to effect in the persons of its members a mission or missions, to the heathen.” Rice recounted that he considered it a great honor to be part of the Brethren when he later wrote, “I esteem it the happiest point in all my life to have been one of the original members.”
The Brethren were unique because instead of seeking only to promote missions, the members prepared to go to the foreign mission field. There were not a large number of students in the Brethren, but the members were marked by their high quality. Before being welcomed into the Brethren, each candidate for membership was “screened by at least two members who weighed the candidate’s character, situation, and ability to bear an assignment.” A member of the Brethren could not have any encumbrance which would inhibit their ability to go overseas. It should be no surprise that only five joined in the beginning: Samuel J. Mills, Ezra Fisk, James Richards, John Steward, and Luther Rice. Only Mills and Richards were from the famous “haystack” prayer meeting. It was during this time that Rice began to feel led toward Asia .
Many of the Brethren, including Luther Rice, entered Andover Seminary after graduating from Williams College . At Andover , Adoniram Judson replaced Mills as the leader of the Brethren. Judson had such a desire to go to Burma that this desire permeated the group causing all of the Brethren to decide to go to Burma . This marked the beginning of Rice’s attempt to go to Burma , and take an active role in starting an organized missions movement in North America .
During his final year of seminary, Luther fell in love with Rebecca Hasseltine, the sister of Adoniram Judson’s fiancée Ann Hasseltine. They courted and seemed to be a perfect fit for one another. Even their friends thought highly of their relationship. They seemed to be so perfectly matched that in 1810, they became engaged. However, during his final months in seminary, Luther Rice came to the realization that Rebecca was not willing to commit herself to working on the mission field with him. Rice encountered a dilemma: he had committed himself to missions and he had also committed himself to Rebecca who clearly would not commit herself to missions.
Around the same time, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions met and voted to appoint Adoniram Judson, Samuel Nott, Samuel Newell, and Gordon Hall “as missionaries to work in Asia, either in Burma or Surat, or possibly Prince of Wales Island or elsewhere, as in the view of the Prudential Committee anywhere Providence might open the door.” Luther Rice was not among those appointed because of the predicament he was in regarding his engagement to Rebecca. It was a difficult and heart-wrenching decision for Luther Rice, but later that year both Luther and Rebecca agreed to break off the engagement. As the departure of the four appointed missionaries drew closer, Luther came to the decision that he desired to go and that he desired to go with the four appointed missionaries. Rice went before a committee and presented his case, but the committee could not make a decision to support him without the support of the entire Board. Therefore, they told Rice that he would have to raise his own support until he could be appointed officially by the Board.
On February 24, 1812, Gordon Hall and Luther Rice departed from Philadelphia aboard the ship, The Harmony, towards the Far East . Due to the resistance to Christianity by the East India Company and their ban on allowing missionaries to travel directly to India , many European missionaries had to travel to America before going to India . Therefore, there were many missionaries from Europe aboard The Harmony including missionaries John Lawsons and William Johns of the English Baptist Society. It was during this Trans-Atlantic voyage that Rice, a Congregationalist, entered into serious discussion with the Baptists, particularly William Johns, about the issue of believer’s baptism. Although there were no Baptist churches in Northborough during the days of Luther Rice, there was a growing movement of Separatists in Massachusetts , many of whom were friends of Rice. Therefore, Rice had a favorable disposition towards Baptists, but he was not convinced of the Baptist position on believer’s baptism by immersion. The discussions aboard the ship between Rice and Johns were often heated and Johns did not convince Rice of the Baptist position on this voyage, but he did persuade him to reexamine certain points of his position. On August 8, Rice and Hall arrived in Calcutta , India , and were reunited with fellow America missionaries Judson, Nott, and Newell.
After arriving in Calcutta , the group was joined with William Carey and later with Carey’s partners at Serampore, William Ward and Joshua Marshman. It was on August 28 that Rice learned of Adoniram Judson’s intention to be baptized. Adoniram’s wife, Ann, was adamantly against believer’s baptism, but after the study of the issue they both became convinced of the Baptist position. Ann Hasseltine Judson later wrote, “I have been examining the subject of baptism for sometime past, and contrary to my prejudices and my wishes, am compelled to believe that believers’ baptism alone is found in Scripture…if I ever gave up myself to the inspired word, I have done so during this investigation.” Therefore, the Judsons informed the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions that Adoniram could not abide by their directives to baptize “credible believers and their households.” The following month, Judson preached a powerful sermon on the issue of believer’s baptism entitled “Christian Baptism” which Carey commented was “the best I ever heard on the subject.” This had a tremendous influence on Rice because of his great respect for Judson formed during their meetings of the Brethren at Andover Seminary.
Not long after this time, Rice suffered from hepatitis and his doctor ordered him to stay indoors during the daylight hours. This allowed Rice time to study the issue of believer’s baptism from the Greek New Testament. Rice sincerely sought the Lord and studied the biblical evidence on this issue. After he concluded his comprehensive study on baptism, he wrote the Board and said that he had a “conviction, that those persons only, who give credible evidence of piety, are proper subjects; and that immersion is the only proper mode of baptism.” He then sent a letter of request for baptism to the Serampore Trio and was baptized on November 1, 1812, in Calcutta by William Ward.
Since the Judsons and Rice were no longer Congregationalists, they could no longer seek support from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Consequently, Judson wrote a letter to an American Baptist named Lucius Bolles as appeal to Baptists in America to form a missions society to support the newly baptized missionaries. William Ward and William Carey also wrote the Baptists in America to accept Rice and the Judsons.
The Baptists in North America did establish some small societies to support the missionaries but the funds were inadequate. Therefore, Luther Rice eventually had to return to the United States to raise funds. Rice embarked on his journey on March 15 and arrived in New York on September 7, 1813. Before establishing any relationship with Baptists, Rice spoke before the Board who had sent him and the Judsons to India regarding their doctrinal change to a Baptist position. It was a difficult speech and friendships were strained. The Board even requested Rice to reimburse the funds disbursed for him to make the trip to India . Rice didn’t see the need since they required him to raise his own money when he was appointed.
Luther did not waste any time from this point contacting Baptist churches and societies. He met with members of the Philadelphia Association, America ’s oldest Baptist association, who liberally funded the English Baptist work at Serampore. He also met with leaders such as Richard Furman, Jesse Mercer, Lucius Bolles, Judge Matthias Tallmadge, and W. B. Johnson, later an instrumental person in the forming of the Southern Baptist Convention. On May 18, 1814, at a meeting organized by Luther Rice, Baptist leaders from around the country met in Philadelphia . This was the first such meeting of American Baptists and “only one man, Rice, had met each delegate previously and knew something of the society he represented.” This group of leaders, or delegates, voted to form a body which was to be called “The General Missionary Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the United States of America , for Foreign Missions.” This convention, which was to meet every third year, came to be known as “The Triennial Convention.” One of the first actions taken by the convention was to appoint Luther Rice as its first missionary: “Mr. Rice be appointed, under patronage of this board, as their missionary to continue his itinerant services in these United States for a reasonable time, with a view to excite the public and more generally engage in Missionary exertions: and to assist in generating societies, or Institutions, for carrying the Missionary design into execution.”
Luther carried out his duties enlisting men to serve as missionaries and expanding the missionary enterprise. Rice tirelessly traveled up and down the eastern seaboard for the cause of missions. In March of 1817, Rice wrote that he had traveled 7,800 miles in the previous year. Later the same year, he recorded that he had traveled 722 miles during the days of August 20 through August 30 with 560 miles of that being on horseback. One of the results of his indefatigable work was an emphasis on home missions as well as foreign missions. Beginning in 1818, the cause of home missions was publicized through another project of Luther’s, the Latter Day Luminary, which was the first national Baptist publication as an official publication of the Triennial Convention.
Rice began to have a growing conviction in his soul in the early 1820s. This conviction was that “Baptists must think in terms of leadership – educated, competent leadership.” Luther Rice was not alone. Richard Furman, president of the Triennial Convention, believed that more attention should be paid to the education of young men who have been called to the gospel ministry. The constitution of the General Convention was modified to state that the Board should seek to institute a “classical and theological seminary” as soon as assets, aside from missionary funds, became available. The responsibility for raising this money fell upon the shoulders of none other than Luther Rice.
The fund raising went slowly at first but God’s hand was opening doors for this dream of an institution of higher learning. When the opportunity presented itself, Luther Rice purchased the property known as College Hill which “was 46 ½ acres in extent, located immediately north of the limits of Washington City and running from the Boundary north for about a half mile.” The theological institution came to fruition on February 9, 1821, when Congress granted “a charter to Columbian College in the District of Columbia , conferring upon it the traditional rights and privileges of an academic institution.”
In 1826, Luther Rice faced what was probably the greatest disaster in his career. This disaster was the result of Rice’s poor business management skills and abysmal book keeping. A committee set forth by the convention investigated the finances of the college of which Rice was the overseer. The committee after the investigation found no corruption but decided that Rice was “too loose in all his dealing and guilty of abusing the high confidence of the Board whose sanction he felt could be easily acquired.” There was great division and controversy over the future of the college, and reorganization resulted with Luther Rice no longer being the principal figure. Today the institution is no longer under Baptist influence and has taken the name of George Washington University but college of arts and sciences still bears the name Columbian College.
On September 25, 1836, Rice died of appendicitis in Edgefield , South Carolina . His death was lamented by many that he influenced during his life. Several physical monuments have been erected in his memory. South Carolina Baptists raised funds to build a monument over his grave in Washington , South Carolina . A dormitory was named in his honor at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and a plaque was placed in his honor at the Lall Bazar Church in Calcutta where he was baptized.
While Luther Rice definitely had weaknesses as any person, his impact on Baptist life cannot be overstated. He had a vision for an organized national convention of Baptists. He had a vision for a national Baptist missionary society of which he was the first missionary. He had a vision for an educational institution for Baptist ministers. There are many that have dreams but Luther Rice chased those dreams with all of his might. Although he did not get to see all of his dreams come to complete fruition, he planted the seeds and trusted God to carry the work to completion. Evelyn Thompson entitled her biography of Luther Rice appropriately, Luther Rice: Believer in Tomorrow. Baptists must thank God that Luther Rice believed in tomorrow. Rice is remembered by more than physical monuments. Much of Baptist denominational life is the direct result of his work. Just as Luther Rice did in his day, Baptists today must work towards the dreams God plants in people’s hearts for tomorrow’s generation of Baptists.
