The Christian Advocate was only the second religious newspaper published in South Australia. The newspaper was established by Henry Hussey. Hussey was initially apprenticed to the well-known early Adelaide printer George Dehane. As a young man, Hussey experienced a religious conversion and joined the Church of Christ, becoming a preacher. In his reminiscences Hussey describes the history of the Christian Advocate. His intention in establishing the small religious newspaper was, as stated in the first issue, for the "advocacy and promulgation of pure Christianity."

The Rev. William Nicholls, Pastor Thomas Playford and Samuel Reynell were Hussey's main co-writers. Reynell and others wrote poetry for the paper. John Howard Clark, who was later editor of the Register, wrote under the pen name 'Laicus'. Together with the Rev. JC Woods, Clark put the views of the Unitarian Church, while EG Day and others wrote about Swedenborgian (New Church) beliefs. Hussey saw these two groups as outside of his definition of "pure Christianity" and he introduced some lively debates into the columns of his paper. The local Swedenborgians were particularly annoyed when Hussey re-printed extracts from Emanuel Swedenborg's original texts, which were not intended for circulation outside of the church.

The Christian Advocate was published monthly, printed by David Gall. At the end of its first year Hussey was able to increase the size of the newspaper from eight pages to twelve and then sixteen. However, after almost two years the Christian Advocate was not making a profit and Hussey decided to close the newspaper, and he went to work for the Government Printer.