Robert Lowry (hymn writer) religion or worldview Baptists
Robert Lowry (March 12, 1826 – 25 November 1899) was an American preacher who became a popular writer of gospel music in the mid- to late-19th century. His best-known hymns include "Shall We Gather at the River", "Christ Arose!", "How Can I Keep from Singing?" and "Nothing But The Blood Of Jesus".
Born in Philadelphia, Lowry studied at the University at Lewisburg and entered the Baptist ministry in 1854. During the following 45 years he held a number of pastorates in New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. 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.
Despite his protestations that preaching was his main vocation and that music was merely a sideline, it is as a hymnwriter that Lowry is chiefly remembered, ranking with such as W. H. Doane and Ira D. Sankey as one of the originators of a musical tradition that has lasted until the modern era of revival.Life
Early life
Robert Lowry was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on March 12, 1826. He was the son of Crozier Lowry,  who had emigrated from Northern Ireland in the early part of the 19th century. In 1843, when he was 17, Robert underwent an experience of religious conversion. 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.
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