TvICE
12
RICE
of the people and their destitution of Gospel privileges. Althou<;h sick, he must preacli ; and he (/('/ preach until he had utterly exhausted his remaining strength. He was at length seized with a high congestive fever, and died at (^linc^•, Fla., Sept. 10. 1«40. He was a bright and shilling light. His abilities were extraordinary. His pulpit gifts were highly attractive. His sjiirit was Christ-like, ten<ler. loving, full of zeal. IMr. Kice mar- ried, May 5. 18J!t. Miss Emily Craig Welsh, of Lincoln, Ky., and at his death left only one child, a little daugh- ter, who still survives (1878). Had he lived to a good old age, Mr. Uice would untpiestionably have been one of the must ])romineut and illustrious ornaments of the American [lulpit. {\\. 1'. S.)
Rice, Luther, a Ba|)tist minister, was born in Nortldidrougli. .Mass., !March "io, 1783, grathiated at Will- iams College in 1810, and immediately entered the Congregational Theological Seminary at Andovcr. He was ordained as a foreign missionary Feb. G, 1812, and sailed a few days after for Calcutta; but liis views on baptism having, in the meantime, undergone a change, he joined the liaptist Cliurcli on his arrival there, and came b.ick 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 tlie Baptist General Convention in 1814. He after- wards 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, 183G. — Sprague, Aiiiuils o/ the Amtr. Pulpit, vi, (;02.
Rice, Nathan, a ^Methodist minister, was born June 10, 17!>2, in Coventry, K. I. His mother was a member of the Freewill-Baptist Cluircli, and the first sermon he heard by a Methodist minister was from Kev. William .Jewett. He united with the Methodist Epis- copal Church in Lee, Mass., at the age of seventeen years. In 18I'J he joined the New York Conference, and continued in active service until 1854. when, worn down with labor, he took a superannuated relation. Mr. Rice was a true patriot, an example of simplicity, unmurmuring, of a kind and sympathetic nature which delighted in the welfare of others. His death, which occurred at Washingtonville, N. Y., Feb. 21, 1864, was very happy, a tit closing of such a life. — Minutes of An- nual Cmifinures. .1/. K. Church, 18G4.
Rice, Nathan Lew^is, D.I)., a Presbyterian min- ister, was born in (iarrard Comity, Ky., Dec. '19, 1807; died .luiie 11, 1877. To procure funds to enalile him to obtain an education preparatory to the study of law, he taught a .school at the early age of sixteen. At the age of eighteen he united with the Presbyterian Church. He entered Centre College, Danville, Ky., in the fall of 1H2(). and during a ])art of his cf>urse was a te.icher of Latin in the preparatory department. After remaining boine years, without graduating he entered ii|)on the study of theology, and at the close of the year was licensed to preach by tlie Transylvania Presbytery. F'eeling the need of a more thorough fireparation for the work of the ministry, he entered Princetfin Theological Sem- inary, where, during his course, he became known for his large attaiimients and extraordinary al)ility. He accepted a call to the Presbyterian Church at Bards- town, Ky., and was ordained and installed in 1X3:5. The more eft'ectually to counteract the efforts at prose- lyting by the Roman Catliolic college at that place, he established an academy for girls, and subse(pu'ntly one for boys, and also foimded a newspaper cnllcci the IIV.</- eni J'ni/iniiiiil, which was afterwards merged in the Prenhi/lfriini Ihntld of Louisville. He continued in this pastoral relation for eiglit years, and became, in 1841, slated supply for the Church at Paris, Ky. While here he entered into a discussion with .\lexander Camp- 1*11, llif pri-sidcnl of Px-thany College. Va., on the sub- ject of baplisin. The debate was lield in Lexington. Kv. The moderators consisted of some of the most
eminent lawyers of the state, among whom was Henry Clay. This discussion created a wide and intense in- terest throughout the country, and brought out tlie full power of Dr. Rice as a disputant, and gained for him the reputation of being the greatest polemic of the age. The debate was written out by the disputants and pub- lished in a large octavo volume, which was extensively circulated. Soon after. Dr. Rice received a call to the Central Presbyterian Church. Cincinnati, O., and enter- ed upon his duties as its pastor iii 1844. He was in- stalled June 12, 1845. He was in labors more abun- dant, and in connection with his work as pastor he wrote several volumes, taught classes of candidates for the ministry, held a debate with the now archbishop Pur- cell of Cincinnati, which was published in a volume, also a debate with the Rev. Mr. Pingree of the Univer- salist Church of that city. Calls came to him from every quarter, so extensive had become his fame. In 1853, on the death of Dr. Potts, he accepted a call to the Second Presbyterian Church of St. Louis, Mo., and was installed Oct. 9 of the same year. He edited, besides his other labors, the St. Laui^ Preshyterian, and pub- lished several books. At the meeting of the General Assembly in Nashville, Tenn., in 1855, he was elected moderator. In 1858 he accepted a call to the North Presbyterian Church, Chicago, 111. The Church was small and weak, but under his laliors it grew strong and flourishing. While there he edited the Pnshijterian Expositor. In May, 1859, he was elected by the Gen- eral Assembly to the professorship of didactic and po- lemic theology in the North-west Theological Semina- ry at Chicago, which duties he jierformed in addition to pastoral work. In 18(11 he was called to the Fifth Avenue Church in the city of New York, to succeed Dr. J. W. Alexander, deceased. Here bis labors proved too great for his strength, and he sought release in 1867, and retired to a farm near New Brunswick, N. J. Af- ter resting a year, he was called to the presidency of Westminster College, Mo., where he remained until 1874, when he was elected to the chair of didactic and polemic theology in the theological seminary at Dan- ville, Ky. Here he performed his last earthly labors; and at the close of the session in 1877, having become greatly impaired in health, he sought retirement and rest at the residence of his brother-in-law in Bracken County, Ky., where within the brief space of one month, with a mind full of jieace and holy joy, he left earth for heaven. (W. P. S.)