Hymn writer Robert Lowry

One of the most popular hymn writers in America, Robert Lowry graduated from the University of Lewisburg (Bucknell University) where he later taught and became Chancellor. “Shall We Gather at the River,” “Christ Arose” and “Nothing but the Blood of Jesus” are among his best-known hymns, among the more than 500 he is credited with writing.

 Born in Philadelphia on March 12, 1826, he was the son of Crozier Lowry, who had emigrated from Northern Ireland. His fondness for music was exhibited at an early age. As a child he amused himself with the various musical instruments that came into his hands. At the age of 17, Lowry surrendered his life to Christ. As a result, he left the Associate Presbyterian Church of North America, his parents' church, and joined the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia, where he worked enthusiastically as a Sunday School teacher and chorister.

In 1848 Lowry was encouraged by his pastor, The Rev. Geo. B. Ide, D.D., to prepare for a life's work in the Christian ministry. With this end in view, Lowry began studies at the University at Lewisburg (now Bucknell University.) The university was then newly chartered, and its lack of premises meant that classes were held in the basement of the Baptist church. By this time Lowry was building a reputation both as a preacher and hymn-writer, and he displayed his talents by organizing the college choir and teaching music to his fellow-students. In 1854 he graduated with the highest honors, and in the same year was ordained into the Baptist ministry. Also, in that year he married Anna Rhees Loxley.

He served as pastor at West Chester, Pa., 1851-1858; in New York City, 1859-1861; in Brooklyn, 1861-1869; in Lewisburg, Pa., 1869-1875. While pastor at Lewisburg, he was also professor of belles lettres (literature as one of the fine arts; imaginative writings as distinguished from technical and scientific writings) in the University and received the honorary degree of D. D. in 1875.

Between 1869 and 1875 he combined his pastoral work with a professorship in rhetoric at his alma mater and later served as the University's chancellor. From 1868 he acted as hymnals editor to Biglow and Main, the country's leading publisher of gospel and Sunday School music; under his supervision, more than 20 hymnals were produced by the firm, many of wide and enduring popularity.

While Dr. Lowry said, "I would rather preach a gospel sermon to an appreciative, receptive congregation than write a hymn," his hymns have brought great comfort. A reporter once asked him what his method of composition was: "Do you write the words to fit the music, or the music to fit the words?" His reply was, "I have no method. Sometimes the music comes and the words follow, fitted insensibly to the melody. I watch my moods, and when anything good strikes me, whether words or music, and no matter where I am, at home or on the street, I jot it down. Often the margin of a newspaper or the back of an envelope serves as a notebook. My brain is a sort of spinning machine, I think, for there is music running through it all the time.”

The Doctor frequently said that he regarded "Weeping Will Not Save Me" as the best and most evangelistic hymn he ever wrote. "Shall We Gather at the River?" is perhaps, without question, the most popular of all his songs. Of this, Mr. Lowry said: "It is brass band music, has a march movement, and for that reason has become popular, though for myself I do not think much of it." Yet he tells us how, on several occasions, he had been deeply moved by the singing of that hymn, "Going from Harrisburg to Lewisburg once I got into a car filled with half-drunken lumbermen. Suddenly one of them struck up, "Shall We Gather at the River?" and they sang it over and over again, repeating the chorus in a wild, boisterous way. I did not think so much of the music then as I listened to those singers, but I did think that perhaps the spirit of the hymn, the words so flippantly uttered, might somehow survive and be carried forward into the lives of those careless men, and ultimately lift them upward to the realization of the hope expressed in my hymn."

A different appreciation of the hymn was shown during the Robert Raikes' Centennial in 1880. (Raikes was a British journalist, philanthropist, and pioneer of the Sunday-school movement.) Reverend Lowry remarked, “I was in London, and had gone to meeting in the Old Bailey to see some of the most famous Sunday-school workers in the world. They were present from Europe, Asia, and America. I sat in a rear seat alone. After there had been several addresses delivered in various languages, I was preparing to leave, when the chairman of the meeting announced that the author of "Shall We Gather at the River?" was present, and I was requested by name to come forward. Men applauded and women waved their handkerchiefs as I went to the platform. It was a tribute to the hymn; but I felt, when it was over, that, after all, I had perhaps done some little good in the world, and I felt more than ever content to die when God called." On Children's Day in Brooklyn, in 1865, this song was sung by over forty thousand voices.

Rev. Robert Lowry, D. D., died at his residence in Plainfield, K J., November 25, 1899. He is buried in Hillside Cemetery, Scotch Plains, Union County, New Jersey

The eulogist at his funeral summarized Lowry’s life and work with this quote: “His melodies and songs were but the expression of the man’s heart and his character, and they attracted all to him.”

https://hymnary.org/person/Lowry_Robert

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Photo Credit: Hymntime.com