Rice, Luther

Rice, Luther, a Baptist minister, was born in Northborough, Mass., March 25, 1783, graduated at Williams College in 1810, and immediately entered the Congregational Theological Seminary at Andover. He was ordained as a foreign missionary Feb. 6, 1812, and sailed a few days after for Calcutta; but his views on baptism having, in the meantime, undergone a change, he joined the Baptist Church on his arrival there, and came back to this country for the purpose of waking up the Baptist churches to an effort in behalf of foreign missions. He was the chief motor of the formation of the Baptist General Convention in 1814. He afterwards became agent of the Columbian College, for the establishment of which he had zealously labored, and with which he remained connected until his death, Sept. 25, 1836. See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 6:602.