Lowry at­tend­ed the Un­i­ver­si­ty at Lew­is­burg (now Buck­nell Un­i­ver­si­ty), where he be­came a pro­fess­or of lit­er­a­ture. He was or­dained as a Bap­tist min­is­ter and pas­tored 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, and helped found the Sixth Av­e­nue Bap­tist Church in New York Ci­ty. He wrote about 500 Gos­pel tunes, and join­tly ed­ited:

• Happy Voic­es, 1865
• Gospel Mel­o­dies, 1868
• Bright Jew­els (New York: Big­low & Main, 1869)
• Pure Gold for the Sun­day School, with How­ard Doane (New York: Big­low & Main, 1871)
• Royal Di­a­dem, 1873
• Temple An­thems, 1873
• Hymn Ser­vice, 1871, 1872 & 1873
• Royal Di­a­dem for the Sun­day School, with How­ard Doane (New York: Big­low & Main: 1873)
• Tidal Wave, 1874
• Brightest and Best, with How­ard Doane (New York: Big­low & Main: 1875)
• Gospel Mu­sic (New York: Big­low & Main Com­pa­ny, 1877)
• Welcome Tid­ings: A New Col­lect­ion of Sac­red Songs for the Sun­day School, with How­ard Doane & Ira Sank­ey (New York: Big­low & Main, 1877)
• Chautauqua Car­ols, 1878
• Gospel Hymn and Tune Book, with How­ard Doane (Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: 1879)
• Hymn Ser­vice for the Sun­day School, with How­ard Doane, D. A. Whe­don & John H. Vin­cent (New York: Big­low & Main: 1879)
• Good as Gold, with How­ard Doane (New York: Big­low & Main: 1880)
• Our Glad Ho­san­nas, 1882
• Joyful Lays, with How­ard Doane (New York: Big­low & Main,1884)
• The Glad Re­frain, with How­ard Doane (New York: Big­low & Main, 1886)
• Select Gems, with How­ard Doane (Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: Amer­i­can Bap­tist Pub­li­ca­tion So­ci­et­y, 1889)
• The Bright Ar­ray, with How­ard Doane (New York: Big­low & Main Com­pa­ny, 1889)
• Royal Hym­nal, with Ira Sank­ey (New York: Big­low & Main Com­pa­ny, 1898)

• Hall, pp. 71-75
• Hughes, pp. 476-77
• Hustad, p. 276
• Nutter, p. 460
• Randel, pp. 520-21

1. Angel’s Song, The
2. Awake, Ye Sol­diers
3. Chorus of Fire
4. Happy Songs
5. How Can I Keep from Sing­ing?
6. Lead Them to Thee
7. Let the Child­ren Praise Him
8. Low in the Grave He Lay
9. My Soul Shall Rest in Hope
10. My Soul Will Over­come
11. Nothing but the Blood
12. O Wor­ship the Lord
13. Only One Name
14. Praise Ye the Lord
15. Resting in the Lord
16. Shall We Ga­ther at the Ri­ver?
17. We Are Pil­grims of a Day
18. We’ll Meet Each Other There
19. Where Is My Boy To­night?

1. All the Way
2. Angel of the Lord, The
3. At the Cross There’s Room
4. Burr
5. Entreat Me Not to Leave Thee
6. Follow On
7. Glad Tid­ings
8. Heavenly Fa­ther
9. Here Is Love
10. Hide Thou Me
11. Home at Last
12. It Is I
13. Keep the Ban­ner Fly­ing
14. Marching to Zi­on
15. Mistakes of My Life, The
16. Need
17. Never Shone a Light So Fair!
18. No Hope in Je­sus
19. Oh, How Sweet When We Min­gle
20. One More Day’s Work
21. Paxtang
22. Port Har­court
23. Resting By and By
24. River of Life
25. Room for the Pen­i­tent
26. So Near to the King­dom
27. Something for Je­sus
28. Stevenson
29. Take the Wings of the Morn­ing
30. Taylor
31. Wake Ev­ery Tune­ful String
32. When the Com­fort­er Came
33. Who’ll Be the Next?
34. Wholly Thine