Robert Lowry attended the University of
Lewisburg, and later Bucknell University, where he became a
professor of literature. He was ordained as a Baptist minister
and was pastor at West Chester, Pennsylvania; Bloomingdale
Baptist Church, New York City; Hanson Place Baptist Church,
Brooklyn, New York; First Baptist Church, Lewisburg,
Pennsylvania; and Park Avenue Baptist Church, Plainfield, New
Jersey. He also worked as a music editor at the Biglow
Publishing Company.
Lowry gave this account of how he
received the inspiration for "Shall We Gather at the
River"
One afternoon in July, 1864, when I was pastor at Hanson
Place Baptist Church, Brooklyn, the weather was oppressively
hot, and I was lying on a lounge in a state of physical
exhaustion…My imagination began to take itself wings. Visions
of the future passed before me with startling vividness. The
imagery of the apocalypse took the form of a tableau. Brightest
of all were the throne, the heavenly river, and the gathering of
the saints…I began to wonder why the hymn writers had said so
much about the “river of death” and so little about the
“pure water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the
throne of God and the Lamb.” As I mused, the words began to
construct themselves. They came first as a question of Christian
inquiry, “Shall we gather?” Then they broke in chorus,
“Yes, we’ll gather.” On this question and answer the hymn
developed itself. The music came with the hymn.
