Hymn Story: Love Lifted Me

James Rowe

James Rowe

Love Lifted Me was a joint effort of James Rowe and Howard E. Smith.  The two friends wrote the hymn together.

James Rowe was born in Horrabridge, Devonshire, England in 1865.  He was the son of a copper miner.  James worked for the Irish government for four years, before immigrating to America.  He was 24 years old when he settled in Albany, NY and went to work on the railroad for the next ten years.  During this time he married and had at least one child.

After working as an inspector at the Hudson River Humane Society, he went to work for music publishers in Texas and Tennessee. James Rowe became a full time writer that composed hymns and edited music journals. Later in life he moved to Vermont to live with his daughter, an artist. Together, father and daughter wrote messages for greeting card publishers.

Rowe claimed to have written more than 19,000 song texts. Rowe and Smith wrote several hymns together, including “I Would Be Like Jesus” and “Sweeter As the Days Go By”.

Howard E. Smith suffered from arthritis so bad that his hands were terribly twisted.  “According to Rowe’s daughter, Mrs. Louise Rowe Mayhew, Smith was a little man whose hands had become knotted with arthritis, but he could still play the piano.”  Peter and Jesus on water

Love Lifted Me was written in 1912 Saugatuck, Connecticut.  James Rowe wrote the lyrics and Howard Smith wrote the melody.

Rowe and Smith wrote the hymn based on the passage Peter walking on the water, becoming afraid, and crying out to the Lord to save him as he was sinking.

Smith would play a few notes and jot them down, matching them with the words Rowe was writing at the time.

According to Rowe’s daughter: “ I can see them now, my father striding up and down humming a bar or two, and Howard E. playing it and jotting it down…The two huddled together, working line by line, bar by bar, composing this hymn in tandem.”

Rowe reminds us of the “redemption from sin by our Saviour” in the first verse of this hymn.  The second verse shows “the change in our walk as we owe Him our song, our service, our whole heart.”  The last verse is a “witness to the loss.”

Love Lifted MeThe duo sold the copyright of the hymn to Charles Tillman.  In 1915, Mr. Tillman transferred the copyright to Robert Coleman for $100.

James Rowe died on November 10, 1933 in Wells, Vermont.

Howard E. Smith was born on July 16, 1863.  Smith was an active musician throughout his life and served many years as an organist in Connecticut.  He died in 1918.

5 comments

  • Mark Madison

    Thank you so much for sharing this song. I am 65 now in the 70s I grew up this was one of our praise and worship songs. I can remember is over 50 kids stood in the youth choir south I was bad at church as we sang the song all of a sudden we started swaying back-and-forth tune to this day I still remember that to this day I love this song and I love Leading the congregation and our small church in Waveland Mississippi. I wish and I hope so much for them to grasp the meeting behind the songs that will always be classics. Praise God you took the time to share this information.

  • Mark Madison

    Thank you so much for sharing this song. I am 65 now in the 70s I grew up this was one of our praise and worship songs. I can remember is over 50 kids stood in the youth choir at South Highlands Baptist church as we sang the song all of a sudden we started swaying back-and-forth tune to this day I still remember that to this day I love this song and I love Leading the congregation and our small church in Waveland Mississippi. I wish and I hope so much for them to grasp the meeting behind the songs that will always be classics. Praise God you took the time to share this information.

  • Rita McSwain

    Thank you so much for the information about the lyricist and composer. When I saw the copyright date was 1912 and while reading the words, it seems like it could have been written by a survivor of the Titanic.

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