By Request, ‘Up From the Grave He Arose’

Well, I said we’d post Easter and Christmas hymns here all year round, and Phoebe has taken us up on it, so here we go–requested by Phoebe, Up From the Grave He Arose, sung by the Voice of Eden.

Voice of Eden sings this wonderful hymn so well.

I am always interested in the history of the hymns we sing. I found the following, on “Lyrics, Videos and Stories Behind Hymns”

Up From the Grave He Arose Hymn History

Up from the grave he arose is a hymn that was composed by Robert Lowry in 1874. It was first published in Brightest and Best in 1875.

His other hymns include, “Shall We Gather at the river?”, “We’re Marching to Zion”, “All the Way My Savior Leads Me” and many more.

At one time a reporter wanted to find out from him his method of composing music. Whether he started with the tune and fitted the words or if he started with the words and then the tune?

His response 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. 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.”

While Robert Lowry is well known for his music, we should not forget that he was also a pastor. He actually studied theology before he became a pastor.

Given a choice between a sermon and a song, he said he would prefer preaching a sermon to writing a song.

But like most Christians I have never come across any of the sermons that Lowry preached but I know his songs. He continues to preach to us through his music rather than through his sermons.

Reverend Robert Lowry passed away on 25th November 1899.