We often sing about the
supremacy of Jesus Christ, His vicarious suffering and substitutionary death,
and His cleansing blood given for mankind.
It is a theme that should never grow old. There is no rival to Jesus Christ as the book
of Hebrews so powerfully proves. Nothing But The Blood is a song that speaks
not only to the exclusive person of Christ but also His atoning blood!
Robert Lowry (1826-1899), Lyricist & Composer
Roberty Lowry was born
March 12, 1826 in Philadelphia, PA. He joined
the First Baptist Church at age 17 and was baptized by a George B. Ide in
1843. He studied theology at the
University of Lewisburg (now Bucknell University) in Pennsylvania and graduated
at the top of the class. He became a
Baptist preacher serving in various Baptist churches. He did not seriously pursue music until after
he turned 40, but he wrote the words and music to several songs. As many as 500
songs are credited to him. He also taught
at the University of Lewisburg for about six years. When he retired in 1875, he was appointed Chancellor
and awarded the honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from his Alma Mater, the
University of Lewisburg. He served as President
of the New Jersey Baptist Sunday School Union from 1880-1886. He was married to Anna Rhees Loxley Lowry
(1824 - 1890) and Mary Jane Runyon Lowry (1852 - 1941). He had three sons, all with his first wife
Anna, named: Harry Moore Lowry, Wheaton
Smith Lowry and Robert Hanson Lowry.
He was music editor for
the Biglow & Main Publishing Company.
He published several hymnals: Happy Voices (1865), Gospel Melodies (1868), Bright Jewels (1869), Pure Gold (1871), Royal Diadem (1873), Temple
Anthems (1873), Tidal Wave
(1874), Good as Gold (1880), Our Glad Hosannas (1882), Joyful Lays (1884) and Glad Refrain (1886). There was also Select Gems that was published after his death. Some of these books he co-edited with Howard
Doane.
Robert Lowry completed Nothing But The Blood by 1876. The name of the tune is PLAINFIELD. Additional songs he wrote both the words and
music for are Low in the Grave He Lay and
Shall We Gather At The River? He also contributed musical composition to
Fanny J. Crosby’s All The Way My Savior
Leads Me; music and refrain to Isaac Watts’ Come, We That Love the Lord; music and refrain to Annie Sherwood
Hawks’ I Need Thee Every Hour (Lowry
preached at the Hanson Baptist Church where she attended); and the music for
Sylvanus D. Phelps’ Savior, Thy Dying Love
(sometimes called Something For Jesus).
The holder of the copyright to two of
his songs, Something For Jesus (or Savior, Thy Dying Love) and I Need Thee Every Hour, is Mary Runyon
Lowry (The Methodist Hymnal, 1939,
Nos. 219 and 232) which was his second wife.
The date of the copyright is 1914 which is a renewal. According to Hymnary.org, his three most
popular hymns were, in order, Shall We
Gather at the River, What Can Wash
Away My Sins? and Low in the Grave He
Lay. His most popular tune was the
one to I Need Thee Every Hour.
Interesting reflection on
his experience on writing lyrics or music:
“I have no method. Sometimes the music comes and the words
follow, fitted insensibly to the melody.
I watch my moods, and when anything strikes me, whether words or music,
no matter where I am, at home or on the street, I jot it down. Often in the margin of a newspaper or the
back of an envelope serves as a note book.
My brain is a sort of spinning machine, I think, for there is music
running through it all the time. I do
not pick out my music on the keys of an instrument. The tunes of nearly all the hymns I have
written have been completed on paper before I tried them on the organ. Frequently the words of the hymn and the
music have been written at the same time.” (Our Hymnody, pp. 264-265)
He died in Plainfield, NJ
on November 25, 1899. He is buried in
Hillside Cemetery in Scotch Plans, NJ along with both of his wives and three
sons. His original papers and such can
be found at the First Park Baptist Church and Public Library in Plainfield, New
Jersey.
Nothing But The Blood
Interestingly, the hymn
is often printed with three verses, but the original composition had six
verses. (Great Gospel Songs, 1929, p. 147 on www.hymnary.org/tune/plainfield_lowry
for all six verses.) The other three verses were:
4. This is all my hope and peace, Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
This is all my righteousness, Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
5. Now by this I'll overcome--Nothing but the blood of Jesus,
Now by this I'll reach my home--Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
6. Glory! Glory! This I sing-- Nothing but the blood of Jesus,
All my praise for this I bring--Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
The passage cited with
the hymn is Revelation 7:14, which reads, “And I said to him, ‘Sir, you know.’ So he said to me, ‘These
are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and
made them white in the blood of the Lamb’” (NKJV.)
Interesting concept of washing robes in blood and making them
white!
The blood of animals
cannot take away sin (Hebrews 10:4) because animals are not of the same nature
as man. The issue is not just the blood
itself, but the being to whom the blood belongs. In order to redeem a man, there must be the
blood of a being at least, if not better, than a man. Now, who could be superior to any one
man? Superior enough to cleanse the sins
of all? Jesus Christ was wholly divine
and wholly human. There is no blood as
precious as the blood of God’s Son! It
did not just wash away the sins of one man, but of all who will submit to the
cleansing that begins at the waters of baptism and continues with us all the
days of our life, provided we remain faithful to Him and His word (1 John 1:7). Without the shedding of blood, there is no
remission of sins (Hebrews 9:22).
--------------------------------------------
SOURCES:
https://www.bucknell.edu/Documents/Education/HistoryofBucknell/LowryBio1894_Part_2-2.pdf
Henry Sweetser Burrage, Baptist Hymn Writers and Their Hymns,
Portland, ME: Brown Turston &
Company, 1888, pp. 428-434.
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/l/o/w/lowry_r.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Lowry_(hymn_writer)
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Lowry&GSfn=Robert+&GSby=1826
&GSbyrel=in&GSdy=1899&GSdyrel=in&GSst=33&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=10684837&df=all&
http://www.hymnary.org/person/Lowry_Robert?sort=desc&order=Instances
http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/l/o/w/lowry_r.htm
http://lavistachurchofchrist.org/LVarticles/SongsAndHymnsOfRobertLowery.html
Robert Guy McCutchan, Our Hymnody, Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1937.
Robert Guy McCutchan,
Editor, The Methodist Hymnal,
Nashville, TN: The Methodist Publishing
House, 1939.
Paul Sain, “Low In The
Grave He Lay,” Curtis A. Cates, Editor, Lessons
in Lyrics, Memphis, TN: Memphis
School of Preaching, 1998, pp. 131-149.
John P. Wiegand, Editor, Praise for the Lord, Nashville, TN: Praise Press, 1997.
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