Biographical Sketch on Luther Rice, Research Paper Example

Luther Rice: His Contributions to Missionary Work and Legacy

According to John M. Fritzius, June of 1810 was a very important month in the life of Luther Rice who at the age of twenty-seven attended the annual associational meeting of the Baptist Congregationalists at Bradford, Massachusetts, where his fellow Brethren and several professors at Andover College “decided to petition the association to commission them as missionaries to the Far East,” particularly to the nation of India which at the time in 1810 was under the control of the British Empire. In response, the association, due to being “somewhat concerned about the enormity of expense in sending this many missionaries at one time,” refused to commit itself to missionaries to Asia. ¹ However, in February of 1812, Rice and his fellow Brethren found themselves boarding a ship in the city of Philadelphia that was to take them to Calcutta, India, where Rice was to officially begin his career as an American Baptist missionary. As Rice himself wrote in his journal, this first missionary trek to India was an event “most sacred in its nature,” and probably will determine “my future lot in life.” ²

The contributions made by Luther Rice to the history of Baptist missionary work are perhaps unparalleled, due to the fact that he helped to open the missionary door to British India in the early 1800’s and to other nations in Asia. Professor Mark Terry of the ____________

1. “Luther Rice (1783-1836),” last modified March 2005, accessed January 15, 2014, http://www.tlogical.net/biorice.htm.
2. “Luther Rice: Baptist Missionary and Founder of Columbian University,” The GW and Foggy Bottom Historical Encyclopedia, last modified July 2007, accessed January 15, 2014, http://encyclopedia.gwu.edu/index.php?title=Luther_Rice:_Baptist_

Missionary_and_Founder_of_Columbian_College.

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary stated in 2000 that although Luther Rice’s contributions to Baptist missionary work are often “overshadowed by those of other

pioneers, including Adoniram Judson,” he nonetheless “played a significant role in the history of Baptists in America” and in the history of worldwide missionary programs and institutions. ³

One of the important of these contributions is Rice’s transformation of the Baptist church into a true American religious denomination with some rather lofty goals, such as creating overseas and domestic missionary programs and educational programs designed to help spread the beliefs of the Baptist church. Historically then, although documentation shows that “Baptists were interested in missions before Rice returned from India,” he served as “a kind of catalyst for Baptists” related to developing and funding missionary programs to all corners of the world so as to disseminate the Word of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. ⁴

Another important day in the young life of Luther Rice occurred on November 1, 1812 when he was baptized into the Baptist faith in the Indian city of Calcutta. Several months later, after coming to the realization that the Congregationalists in Massachusetts were unable to financially support him and his fellow Baptist missionaries in India, Rice “returned to the United States in 1813 to seek the help of Baptist churches” spread out across the Eastern Seaboard and beyond. Within less than one year, Rice had managed to ____________

3. Michael Foust, “Today’s Missionaries Owe Much to Baptist Pioneer Luther Rice’s Work,” Baptist Press, last modified 2000, accessed January 15, 2014, http://www. bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=6927.
4. Ibid.

obtain the support of Baptists all over America, thus planting “the seeds that led to the formation of denominations and missions-sending agencies.” ⁵

From a financial standpoint, Rice experienced outstanding success, due to American Baptists donating more than $3000 to help support Rice in India and over $20,000 for foreign missions. Also, because of Rice’s success in seeking financial help, American Baptists became “electrified” and experienced an epiphany–that Providence or God has called “upon us to extend out views and missionary efforts to that quarter of the globe,” being India and Eastern Asia, an epiphany that still rings true today in 2014 with Baptist missionaries bringing the Gospel to practically every nation on earth. ⁶

Between 1814 and the early 1820’s, Luther Rice, now fully dedicated to spreading Christian ideals all over the world, “traveled constantly, promoting the cause of Baptist missions.” As Michael Foust points out, Baptist missionary work became Rice’s main pursuit, almost as if God had called upon him to help those less fortunate and in dire need of spiritual guidance. So great was Rice’s influence that it inspired the creation of many Baptist and other denominational societies dedicated sending missionaries across the world. One of these was the Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) which “contributed to foreign and home missions as well as innumerable benevolent causes” and which still exists today as one of Rice’s most important legacies. ⁷ ____________

5. Ibid.
6. John Mark Terry, “Luther Rice: Dreamer and Doer,” Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, last modified 2002, accessed January 16, 2014, http://www.sbts. edu/resources/files/2010/07/sbjt-064_win02-terry.pdf.

7. “Today’s Missionaries Owe Much to Baptist Pioneer Luther Rice’s Work.”

In essence then, the contributions of Luther Rice to Baptist missionary work

cannot be too highly praised nor recognized. Perhaps Rice’s greatest legacy which has

vastly outlived him was fully supporting the idea that “the most effective means of promoting religion at home is to encourage foreign missions.” ⁸ As Foust sees it, one of the most direct results of this encouragement led to what historians call the “age of benevolence in American Christianity” which came after the death of Luther Rice in 1836 when Baptist churches all over America established foreign religious societies and missionaries, many of which continue to thrive today. Foust also notes that Rice “literally gave his life riding the rugged trails of rural America” as a traveling promoter in order to spread his “passion for world missions, ” ⁹ a passion that could be viewed as Rice’s greatest impact on the history of the American Baptist church.

Bibliography

Foust, Michael. “Today’s Missionaries Owe Much to Baptist Pioneer Luther Rice’s Work.” Baptist Press. Last modified 2000. Accessed January 15, 2014. http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=6927.

Fritzius, John M. “Luther Rice (1783-1836).” Last modified March 2005. Accessed January 15, 2014. http://www.tlogical.net/biorice.htm.

“Luther Rice: Baptist Missionary and Founder of Columbian University.” The GW and Foggy Bottom Historical Encyclopedia. Last modified July 2007. Accessed January 15, 2014. http://encyclopedia.gwu.edu/index.php?title=Luther_Rice:_Baptist_Missionary_and_Founder_of_Columbian_College.

Terry, John Mark. “Luther Rice: Dreamer and Doer.” Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Last modified 2002. Accessed January 16, 2014. http://www.sbts.edu/resources/files/2010/07/sbjt-064_win02-terry.pdf.