The Evangelistic Motivation of Luther Rice
Though he never fulfilled his dream of engaging in foreign missionary work, Luther Rice was astonishingly influential in Christ’s kingdom. Speaking of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, he said that “I esteem it the happiest point in all my life to have been one of the original members…From this,” he noted, “arose the Baptist General Convention, formed in 1814; and since, more or less distinctly out of the same range of evangelical influence, the American Bible Society, the American Tract Society, the Baptist General Tract Society, the Columbian College, the Newton Theological Institution, and I know not how many other things of more or less importance.” [1] Though Rice was not directly involved in all of these projects, they traced their existence back to his influence. What was the fuel behind such an active life?
For those who are not familiar with Luther Rice, click here for a brief introduction.
To understand Luther’s motivations, it is essential to return to his earliest religious experiences. These experiences were marked by profound turmoil, a heavy conscience, and ultimate peace through resignation to the sovereignty of God. From this experience, Rice believed that he had an overwhelming duty to spread the comfort that he had found to other men throughout the world. In other words, Luther Rice believed that missions was the logical result of experiencing sweet resignation to God’s sovereignty.
‘Save, Lord, or I Perish’
It may be difficult for the modern reader to understand the length and the confusion of Luther’s religious turmoil, yet the man himself vividly remembered them throughout his life. “It was,” he said, “mostly by myself, and day after day for weeks and months, spent much of my time, in literally weeping and wailing! Then it was, that it did seem to me truly astonishing, that unconverted sinners were not all of them in deep and constant anxiety!”[2] The local Congregational minister did little to assuage his conscience, while the minister’s wife recommended only social experiences and avoidance of reflection.[3] Of course, such trite advice did little to comfort Luther.
In page after page of his journals, Luther describes his internal conflict, reciting in detail his experience with sin and his inability to gain peace. In one mundane but typical journal entry he writes, “I fear that I am altogether ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish my own. ‘Save, Lord, or I perish.’”[4] Another entry records, “I have, this day, been to training; but, alas! I have not come home with a good conscience! Why? I stayed too long, became too noisy, and joined too much in the spirit of the world! Oh! When shall I become more wise? Ah me!!”[5] In a later entry, he mourns his hardness in the poetic lines, “‘He offers all his grace, and all his heaven to me; / Offers, but ‘tis to senseless brass which cannot feel nor see’!”[6] Another rhymed line describes with even greater power his struggle: “Too strong to let my passion sway, / Too weak to teach it to obey.”[7]
Such extracts are only a snapshot of page after page of internal reflection and turmoil. It is not that Luther did not know the way of peace – he clearly understood that peace with God comes through Jesus Christ. Hence, even as he struggled inwardly, he often recorded his prayers for mercy and his recognition of that mercy in Jesus Christ. “O blessed Jesus, Save me,”[8] is a frequent sentiment in his reflections. It was not a lack of knowledge, but a lack of submission to God that Luther struggled with. Even so, Luther had an intense recognition of the sovereignty of God. For him, every event that occurred was under the direct control of God. Such events were often designed, he believed, to teach him. When a tree branch fell and nearly struck him on the head, he paid attention to it, and “took notice of [it] as a warning to hasten my conversion!”[9]
‘A Sweet and Blessed Tranquility’
The long quest for peace finally succeeded on September 14, 1805. As he records it, it was not so much any new knowledge of the Gospel, as a submission to the will of God:
Yesterday, in the morning, the thought came into my mind, whether I would be willing to give Deity a blank and let him fill up my future destiny as he sould (sic.) please! The thought was rather unpleasant; and I let it pass off…In the evening the thought returned. And after meditating a while, upon the duty of unconditional submission (sic.) to God, I concluded, that, had I an opportunity I would actually place a blank into God’s hand, to be filled as his pleasure whould (sic.) dictate. Yea, I think, I felt some desire to do it, let it spring from what motive it woul (sic.). Meditating upon this subject seemed to make my mind calm…And now, Oh most merciful Creator, put thy fear in my heart, I beseech thee, that I may never retract the solemn surrender I have this day made of myself to thee![10]
It was a watershed moment in young Luther’s life. As he would later describe it, “…I then found in this disposition of absolute unreserved submission to the will of God, a sweet and blessed tranquility.”[11]
‘Grace to Submit Unreservedly’
Over time, the doubt and terror cleared in Luther’s mind. The concept of submission to the will of God became an overarching theme in his theology. Such submission was not a forced, sullen obedience to what was willed, but a joyful, sweet acceptance of what God determined. It was joyful because God was good, and what He purposed was good. Hence Luther could say, speaking of God’s sovereignty, that it “constitutes the basis of the submission and joyfulness found in my religious experience.” “Why should it not be the very joy of our bosoms,” he asks, “that he ‘has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass’? What can real benevolence desire, but that every thing should ‘come to pass,’ in the wisest and best manner? …Such, too, being the fact, is it not evidently the duty and happiness of every one to give up himself in absolute submission to the will of God; and to be pleased that all things are at the disposal and under the control of this infinitely wise and good Being.”[12]
Luther Rice was certain that God was actively in control, arranging all events for ultimate good. Yet throughout his life he experienced many disappointments – events which appeared to be failures. His lack of marriage was due to multiple rejections. His desire to live on the foreign mission field was never realized. His involvement in the Columbian College resulted in both disappointment and disgrace. Things did not always appear to be good.
Indeed, one of the most vigorous sources of opposition to Luther was the anti-missions movement, a broad movement against mission boards and societies. This movement flourished in the western States, personified in John Taylor and Daniel Parker. Daniel Parker was described by William Peck (a friend of Luther Rice’s) as “one of those singular and extraordinary beings whom Divine Providence permits to arise as a scourge to his church, and as a stumbling block in the way of religious effort.”[13]
Parker complained against Luther Rice’s Baptist General Convention, “I conceive the baptist board in their principle and practice, have rebelled against the king of Zion, violated the government of the gospel church and forfeited their right to the union and brought distress on the church of Christ.”[14] John Taylor, meanwhile, argued that the missionaries really were influenced by Roman Catholicism, and he hoped, “as they are beholden to the mother of harlots for this handsome phrase, it is to be hoped that our Missionaries will acknowledge their own old mother…”[15]
With such fierce opposition and such seeming failures, how did Luther Rice respond? How could God be sovereign, and how could man be expected to submit, when such difficulties constantly assaulted him?
Rice himself spends little time working through this dilemma – primarily because it does not appear to have been a dilemma in his mind. Throughout his writings, there is little discussion of difficulties, but constant references to the sweetness of submission to God. His letters and journals do not speak of self-pity, only happy trust in God’s will. His approach is summed up well in a letter to his aunt – “…if we may have grace to submit unreservedly to the will of our Heavenly Father, to be always really engaged in his delightful service, we may say with good old Jacob, ‘It is enough.’”[16]
‘Great and Persevering Exertions to Reform Mankind’
For Luther Rice, the recognition of God’s sovereignty led man to live in a state of sweet and peaceful submission. This sweet submission, however, was not sluggish. It was the fuel behind active exertion.
On December 1, 1803, in the middle of his terrible internal struggle, Luther had a horrifying experience. “Last night, just after I laid me down upon my bed; Oh that I could anything near describe it! I was for a few moments awfully sensible of the amazing insupportableness of divine wrath! Oh! That every sinner might be made sensible of it before it is too late!”[17]
Luther later described the experience to a friend;[18] he felt almost as if he was “actually descending into hell.” Such an experience impressed him so deeply that he felt “if ever I should indeed find deliverance and comfort, I would warn the wicked of their danger.”[19] Hence, from this early experience, Luther felt an obligation to bring the remedy of comfort to those who were heading toward the wrath of God.
When Luther finally attained to the ‘blessed tranquility’ of peace with God, he recognized that “the only way to escape that dreadful end, was to give ourselves absolutely to God!”[20] Such a wonderful end had been accomplished, and it was such a delightful duty enjoined upon man, that Luther wished to persuade others to undertake it. Indeed, this was the basis of his future life: “From that day to this, I have been trying in some form or other, thus to persuade men…”[21]
Recognizing that the sovereignty of God was “the very ground-work of the hope of immortality and glory,”[22] Rice could argue from the “precepts of our religion, and the very nature of benevolence,” that “…we are under indispensable obligations to use great and persevering exertions to reform mankind…”[23]
Hence, the sweetness of submission that Luther Rice experienced made him long for others to experience it as well. It was unthinkable that humanity should march toward certain destruction and the fury of God while Christians experienced the peace of submission yet never told others of the cure. Indeed, from the beginning, Luther began to take those ‘great and persevering exertions’ seriously. As a new Christian, he quickly instituted family devotions (which only a part of his family attended)[24] and started a community prayer meeting (which was vigorously opposed by many, including his father).[25] [26]
Rice expressed these sentiments clearly when he said, “…let us have pity on our fellow-creatures; surely we cannot be indifferent to their awfully perilous situation – let us pray for them; and as opportunity offers, warn them of their danger, and plead with them by the pains and mercies of our dying, reigning Saviour, to come unto him that they may have life.”[27]
When Rice was commissioned for the foreign mission field, the ordination message described his own philosophy well. Leonard Woods, who delivered the sermon, noted that:
The Christian has a heart to feel for his fellow creatures. He takes into account their temporal comfort, and endeavors to promote it; – their temporal wants and sufferings, and does what in him lies to relieve them. But, when their spiritual interest is before him; when he contemplates the value of their souls, and the prospect which the gospel opens of immortal happiness in the world to come; his bowels of compassion are moved; his tenderest affections kindled; pure and heavenly love pervades and warms his soul.[28]
Leonard Woods
It was this care for the souls of others that led Luther Rice to make such great exertions. After his initial trip to India with the Judsons, Rice never returned to the foreign mission field. His desires and expectations remained there, but the constant needs of the Baptist Convention kept him from that field until so late in his life that it was pointless. His heart, though, was always on the mission field. “I have, for some time, viewed the missionary interest as being inexpressibly important. Infinitely important, because the salvation of many immortal souls seems to be suspended upon it.”[29]
Even in ‘home territory,’ Luther would do all he could for missions. As a representative of the labors and troubles that he endured, he once wrote that “Since June 19, 1816, [in the space of less than a year] I have traveled 6600 miles—in populous and in dreary portions of the country— through wilderness and over rivers— across mountains and valleys—in heat and cold—by day and by night—in weariness, and painfulness, and fastings, and loneliness…” Yet he reports even these difficulties with contentment, so that not even “inquietude” disturbs his “peace.”[30]
What, then,
was the secret to his extraordinary labors? Luther Rice believed that missions
was the logical result of experiencing sweet resignation to God’s sovereignty.
It began with his certainty in the sovereignty of God, who ordains all things
for ultimate good. It was experienced through submission to God, resulting in
indescribable peace and rest. It motivated him to endure much, to suffer much,
and to do much, so that others would experience the peace and joy that he
himself rested in. Surveying his life and theology, the reader must agree: “…if
we may have grace to submit unreservedly to the will of our Heavenly Father, to
be always really engaged in his delightful service, we may say with good old
Jacob, ‘It is enough.’”[31]
[1] James B. Taylor, Memoir of Rev. Luther Rice: One of the First American Missionaries to the East, 2 ed. (Baltimore: Armstrong And Berry, 1841), 86.
[2] Taylor, Memoir, 25.
[3] Taylor, Memoir, 24.
[4] Luther Rice, Dispensations of Providence: the Journal and Selected Letters of Luther Rice, ed. William Brackney (Washington and Nashville: George Washington University and the Historical Commission, 1984), 7.
[5] Rice, Dispensations of Providence, 10.
[6] Rice, Dispensations of Providence, 11.
[7] Rice, Dispensations of Providence, 21.
[8] Rice, Dispensations of Providence, 20.
[9] Rice, Dispensations of Providence, 14.
[10] Rice, Dispensations of Providence, 29.
[11] Taylor, Memoir, 31.
[12] Taylor, Memoir, 289.
[13] Quoted from David Benedict, A General History of the Baptist Denomination in America and Other Parts of the World (New York, 1848), 864-65). Quoted in Randy Mills, “The Struggle for the Soul of Frontier Baptists: The Anti-Mission Controversy in the Lower Wabash Valley.” Indiana Magazine of History 94, no. 4 (Dec 1998): 313.
[14] Daniel Parker, A Public Address to the Baptist Society, and Friends of Religion in General, on the Principle and Practice of the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions For the United States of America. (Vincennes: Stout and Osborn, 1820), 49.
[15] John Taylor, Thoughts on Missions (1820), online article.
[16] Taylor, Memoir, 67.
[17] Rice, Dispensations of Providence, 12.
[18] It is difficult to exactly link this experience with the one that he mentions in his journal; however, it is likely that they are the same, as both seem to speak of the same subject. Even if the two incidents are different, they prove exactly the same point: that Rice had horrifying experiences as he contemplated the wrath of God, and he felt an obligation to show others the way to escape it.
[19] Edward Pollard, Luther Rice: Pioneer in Mission and Education (Philadelphia: The Judson Press, 1928), 4.
[20] Taylor, Memoir, 32.
[21] Taylor, Memoir, 32.
[22] Taylor, Memoir, 289.
[23] Taylor, Memoir, 50.
[24] Taylor, Memoir, 36.
[25] Taylor, Memoir, 38
[26] Pollard, Luther Rice: Pioneer, 7.
[27] Taylor, Memoir, 294.
[28] Leonard Woods. A Sermon Delivered at the Tabernacle in Salem, Feb. 6, 1812, on Occasion of the Ordination of the Rev. Messrs. Samuel Newell, A.M., Adoniram Judson, A.M., Samuel Nott, A.M., Gordon Hall, A.M., and Luther Rice, A.B., Missionaries to the Heathen in Asia, (Boston: Samuel T. Armstrong, 1812), 9-10.
[29] Taylor, Memoir, 74.
[30] Quoted in J. Mark Terry, “Luther Rice: Dreamer and Doer,” The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 6 (2002): 48.
[31] Taylor, Memoir, 67.
