The Christian Index at 200: Founder Luther Rice left amazing legacy

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First published in February 1822, in Washington, D.C., The Christian Index is celebrating its 200th Anniversary in 2022. As the oldest continually published religious newspaper in America, it has played a vital role in Baptist life. Many gifted men have served as editor of the Index including Baptist giants William T. Brantley, Jesse Mercer, Adiel Sherwood, H.H. Tucker, and Louie D. Newton among others.

One of those giants was its founder and first editor, Luther Rice. Few individuals in Baptist life have left a legacy comparable to Rice. Strangely enough this man whose legacy continues to enrich millions of people was little more than a pauper at his death. He owned no property, did not leave a wife or children or even have close friends present when he died. His only possessions were a few clothes, some books, a horse, and sulky (a small two-wheel horse drawn cart).

As he lay dying in a South Carolina home, after becoming ill while traveling, he instructed that his few meager possessions be sent to Rev. Adiel Sherwood in Georgia to be sold with the money applied to the debt of the Columbian College.

Luther Rice (1783-1836) was born and raised on a small farm in Northborough, Massachusetts which had been in his family for generations. The Rice family were nominal members of the Northborough Congregational Church. Rice, after struggling with his own spiritual condition for 18 months, experienced a dramatic conversion experience at age 20. Following a public profession of faith, he was met with opposition from his family and the larger community. It would not be the first time in his life that those around him would withdraw their support and affection.

Several years later Rice felt a call to ministry. At age 24 he entered Williams College, at a time when most entering students would have been in their mid-teens. He was able to attend on a work scholarship.

During this era there was much excitement concerning “missions” on campus. William Carey, a British pastor, considered by many to be the first “modern missionary,” had sailed to India in 1787. People in Great Brittan and America were captivated by his life and ministry. Rice and other students organized a missionary society on campus committed to support missions. It was named for the place they agreed to meet and pray, “The Haystack Society.”

After college Rice attended Andover Seminary completing his education in 1811. Rice and another member of the Haystack Society, Adoniram Judson, and his wife Ann, applied and became America’s first modern foreign missionaries the same year. They were appointed by the newly organized American (Congregational) Foreign Mission Society. It was their intent work with the Baptist missionary Carey in India.

Knowing they would have to defend their view of infant baptism with Carey, Rice and Judson who were sailing on separate ships, studied baptism in the New Testament while in route. As a result of their studies both concluded believers’ baptism by immersion was the New Testament model. Deciding to become Baptist necessitated resigning from the Congregational Society and losing their financial support. Therefore, Rice returned to America to seek support of Baptists for their work. Missionary work would be not in India but Burma. Because America was at war with Great Britain the British refused to allow the American missionaries to remain in India.

Upon his return Rice discovered many Baptists in America eager to support their new work in Burma. He was appointed as an “agent” (fundraiser) for the new venture. Rice began traveling the nation promoting missions, speaking about his time in Burma, the need to support Judson and his planned and hopeful return. During this time he was instrumental in the organization of many local “missionary societies” and Baptists’ first national Convention in 1814. The Triennial Convention, as it was known, became the unifying channel through which Baptist missions and education would be supported.

Most of his life from this time forward would be spent as an agent for the denomination and later for Columbian College. It must have been a lonely life traveling from one speaking engagement to another. One biographer stated he was often tired, cold, and hungry. One might image him driving lonely country backcountry roads under a canopy of green humming or singing his favorite hymn, “The Star of Bethlehem” (composed by H.K. White).

Rice was an outgoing gregarious person whose winsomeness opened the doors for the message of missions and education.  An excellent speaker he delighted in challenging Baptists to support missions and education. He was noted for an unquenchable optimism which was not always shared by his colleagues. Rice was adept at seeing the big picture, but it was occasional inattentiveness to details that led to problems in his relationship with others.

It also seems as if there may have been something off-putting about Rice, at least when it came to females. Several women turned down his proposals of marriage, some more than once. Unlike the other early missionaries and denominational leaders of the day, no known portrait was ever sketched or painted. His only remaining likeness is a silhouette which makes one wonder if there was something about his physical appearance that was disconcerting. When Rice died without a wife and children it was not because he did not desire them, it was because no one would accept his proposals.

Rice understood the need for Baptist higher education and a school to train ministers and missionaries. This led him to establish Columbian College in Washington, D.C. in 1821. Prior to this, Rice had established a quarterly magazine “The Latter-Day Luminary” in 1817 to raise awareness and support for missions. With the establishment of the college, he began a national weekly newspaper to support both missions and the college. The first issue of his new paper, “The Columbian Star,” was published in February 1822.

The paper was sold a few years later to W.T. Brantley the founding pastor of FBC Augusta, Georgia who was at the time pastor of FBC Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He changed the name of the paper to “The Columbian Star and Christian Index.” In 1833 the paper and its presses were purchased by Jesse Mercer who renamed it “The Christian Index” relocating it to Penfield, Georgia in 1833.

Rice did not live a charmed life.  His life had triumphs and its share of sorrows. He was never able to return to Burma, which, for a time , strained relations between Rice and his old friend Adoniram Judson. He suffered from reoccurring bouts of illness which can be traced back to his time in Burma. Ever the optimist he led Columbian College into significant debt as it turns out shortly before a major national financial “panic.” Many of his closest friends were trustees of the college. They were liable for the debt, some turned against him firing him from his position as treasurer and agent for the college he had established.

Attempting to atone for this, Rice spent the rest of his life continuing to travel, preach, and raise funds to eliminate the debt at Columbian College. During this season of his life, he spent many of his winters in Georgia which he began referring to as “his winter home.” The homes of two Georgia laymen Dr. Archibald Battle of Powelton and Dr. William Turpin of Augusta were noted places of extended hospitality to Rice.

Rice was traveling in South Carolina in 1836 when his recurring illness struck him down. He lingered for several days in the home of friends before dying and was buried in a nearby church yard in Edgefield, South Carolina. His only worldly possessions at death were a horse, the sulky, a few books . . . and little more than the clothes on his back. 

 Luther Rice died a little more than a pauper but left the legacy of a king. At the time of his death in 1836 this legacy included the Triennial Baptist Convention (national) and 27 Baptist state conventions including Georgia. They were supporting over 70 foreign missionaries and more than 50 home missionaries, a publishing house, a mission magazine, The Christian Index, scores of local missionary societies. Rice had been instrumental in the planting of several churches and the establishment of two colleges. For a man who died with so little he left so much . . . including an unquenchable optimism and vision that Baptists working together can accomplish great things for the kingdom of God.

The vision and legacy of Luther Rice continues. A part of that legacy for the last 200 years is The Christian Index whose had editors and writers have helped shape Baptist thought. Partnering with Baptist Press and other news services it continues to inform and inspire Baptists to work as labors together with God today. Its value today might be best judged not only by what it has contributed, but rather after 200 years where the denomination would be today without it and other papers like it.