In Sorrow I Wandered -- James Rowe

 

James Rowe got a lot of inspiration from where, or what, or whom? To say he was productive while living in New York state, including in the Albany area in 1913 when was 48, would be too modest. With thousands of hymns to his credit, including “In Sorrow I Wandered” (also commonly titled “I Walk with the King”), James evidently had plenty to say that just never seemed to be exhausted. Was it the variety of experiences that motivated his spirit, including the multiple spots on either side of the Atlantic Ocean that he’d lived? And, from what he poetically composed in 1913, were there emotional valleys in which he found himself occasionally, and a resolution to those episodes that he had found? We could also guess that he must have been surrounded by others who appreciated his musical expressions, or he would not have continued filling the hymnals of his era with songs. We’ll have to quiz James and get our answers to the many clues that he’s left us someday in the future.

 

By his 48^th year when he wrote ‘In Sorrow…’, the Englishman James Rowe had lived in many places and worked in a variety of jobs, perhaps partially helping to explain his musical output. Indeed, perhaps someone had suggested and he’d admitted that he’d been a bit of a wanderer – ‘I wandered…’ (v.1). Born in England, he worked in Ireland as a government surveyor for a brief period before emigrating to America in 1890 and working for the railroad in New York for 10 years. Subsequently, he was an inspector for the Mohawk and Hudson River Humane Society for another 12 years. He apparently began writing hymns only by age 31, and ‘In Sorrow…’ came along some 15-20 years later. Was James reflecting back on his life by 1913, when he penned the words of his three verses? ‘For years…in sin..’ (v.2), he mused, and called out to others ‘near despair…in the lowlands of strife’ (v.3), offering that the answer to this gloom was the refrain ‘I walk with the King’. His hope must have been part of the urge he felt to write, and not just as a hobby. Could it be said that James was reaching back to all the people in the various avenues in which he’d travelled, perchance some who James knew had been afflicted with melancholy, and that the way out was through the God he knew? Perhaps James’ hymns were a kind of therapy for himself and his workmates. James worked with three music publishers in Texas and Tennessee by mid-life, and to produce some 9,000 hymns and other works after a relatively late start in life shows he had become not just a peaceful fount, but a surging river of music and poetry that continued for the remaining years of his life. He evidently had discovered something that drove him to write, and this ingredient in his life endured for decades.

 

James Rowe was connected to a tireless power source. That’s the bottom line for this fellow who wrote thousands of prescriptions, at least sometimes probably for occasional bouts with dejection. One of James’ predecessors warned his followers that God’s opponent is a roaring lion, seeking to devour us (1 Peter 5:8), signaling that this hungry beast is also rarely fatigued. So, someone might say it’s a contest that I play with my enemy, to see who wins. But, the prospect of being eaten alive hardly sounds like a game, and it doesn’t seem that James thought so either. He chose to keep in touch with the King as much as he did, through songwriting, maybe because he discovered it was a tried and true method for keeping out of the doldrums. Stay outta those blues, and you’ll avoid that beast who’s after you, James would probably say, especially when you’re walking arm-in-arm with the One who made us musical creatures.      

 

See all three verses and the refrain here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/i/w/w/k/iww_king.htm

 

Some biography of composer here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/r/o/w/e/rowe_j.htm

 

See more biography on author here: https://hymnary.org/person/Rowe_James

God Holds the Future in His Hands -- James Rowe

What would a transplanted Englishman-Irishman ponder after fifty-some decades of living and seeing a few twists and turns in his path? That would have been a sensible question to ask James Rowe in 1922, but maybe he already answered that query with the words he penned in “God Holds the Future in His Hands”. Perhaps while he was in Colonie, New York (where James may have lived, or maybe nearby, see its seal here), James might have responded when asked that there’s lots of valleys, but also some peaks. And what of the years to come – are you anxious? What James Rowe would have said about the oncoming years should be pretty apparent, given how he titled this song. ‘Don’t fret, He’s got this!’ That would be James’ short riposte or contemporary rewording of his song title. If your future is looming, rather than materializing like a beautiful sunrise, what might make you see things differently, the way James did?  

James Rowe was 57 when ‘God Holds the Future…’ was written in 1922, and had been in plenty of different places and vocational situations, allowing him to voice an opinion with some confidence about what lay ahead. Or, more precisely, James felt assured about who is there in the future. His first verse reflects the sense that he’d seen plenty of adverse times, since he writes of ‘dread’, ‘burdens’, ‘sinking sands’, and ‘thorns’. Had James struggled, before leaving his homeland (Ireland; he was born in England) and later working for the railroad and a humane society in New York state, prior to making song-writing and music-publishing his life’s work? Whatever had transpired in Rowe’s ventures, he had come to terms with his life’s import in 1922. Rowe reportedly did not begin his song-writing career until he was in his early 30s, making his eventual output of some 9,000 published works (hymns, poems, and other expressions of his thoughts) pretty noteworthy. It’d been a quarter-century since he’d begun expressing himself in this way, and ‘God Holds the Future…’ was but one of many forms he was using to articulate what he’d discovered. Verse one might have been the younger fellow who noted all the troubles, but James’ refrain and verses two, three, and four sound more like a seasoned, veteran Christian who wasn’t beaten down, despite some gloomy events. A ’storm’ and ‘sun’, ‘good’ or ‘ill’ (v.2) occupy the same space, as do ‘zephyrs’ and ‘storms that rage’ (v.3). No matter what, He’s the future, as if it’s all just something like malleable clay in his larger-than-life hands.

What explicit circumstance James experienced to prompt this poetry is unknown, or is it? Rowe’s words cover with a broad brush just about anyone’s encounters by the time 50-something rolls around. And, he must have had his share of both ups and downs, as his poem’s words indicate. Were the ‘Roaring 20s’ the same for Rowe as they were for others? Had the recent world war damaged him or members of his family, instead? What do you suppose James would have said about what lay just a few years ahead, in the Great Depression? Perhaps he suspected something cataclysmic could ensue. But, ‘what good’s it do to be anxious’…that’s a James Rowe verse-response to the up or down arrow on the sign that warns me of what’s up ahead on the roadway. Seeing around or beyond that next ditch or speed bump to a blissful existence isn’t Pollyanna. God is real. He is truth (John 14:6). Better check Him out.    

         

 See the following links for brief biography of the author:

https://hymnary.org/person/Rowe_James

http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/r/o/w/e/rowe_j.htm

See the following link for all the song’s original verses: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/g/o/d/h/godholds.htm

Won't It Be Wonderful There -- James Rowe

Was he in sight of the end of the terrestrial road? He’d moved in with one of his offspring in Vermont (see the area of Rutland County, on map here), typically something that an older person, including 65-year olds like James Rowe, might choose to do as they begin to think about what inevitably happens to every mortal. One can guess that James said “Won’t It Be Wonderful There” to himself and probably many others as he thought about that inevitability around 1930. Was there additional motivation for James’ mood when he penned the words of his three verses? Difficult times might befall a person, but perhaps people like James clung to the hope that light always appears after a time of darkness.

After a life of various jobs and several thousand hymns, James Rowe could have looked back upon his life with some satisfaction, with a testimony and a hope that potentially spoke keenly to others at the time. He was a native-born Englishman who had emigrated from the Old World (after working for the Irish government) to the New as a young man, and subsequently held a few jobs (as a railroad worker and Humane Society inspector in New York) before he pursued his true calling as a music publisher with three different Texas and Tennessee companies. By 1930 when he wrote “Won’t It Be…”, he had written the vast majority of the 9,000-plus hymn poems that would be attributed to him at the conclusion of his life. His daughter’s home in the small town of Wells, Vermont provided the background for his calling by that time, one to which he was well-suited – writing verses for greeting cards. Writing was instinctive for this 65-year old, and perhaps one or more of the cards he helped adorn with kind words were similar to the verses of “Won’t It Be…”, conceived in hope and trust. Since it was 1930, with the economic upheaval of the Great Depression invading and upending the lives of vast numbers of people, could James’ words have been intended to provide respite for that reason? While James mentions ‘troubles and cares’ (v.1), a ‘tempest’ (v.3), and ‘burdens’ (chorus), these are overcome by the nature of the home he expected to inhabit. A place he called ‘glory land’ and ‘wonderful’ would be quite a scene, with Christ centrally located and the source of all delight. No darkness inhabits heaven, just light, to which ancient believers like Peter says we are called (1 Peter 2:9), echoing others like the prophets (Isaiah 9:1-2).

The year 1930 passed, as James must have believed would indeed come true. Nevertheless, that year inaugurated a period that was one of the more notably dark eras in history, making light that much more precious. James Rowe died just three years later, at age 68, though he witnessed the mounting tempest in the U.S. as his next life dawned. Will the world be any different when you or I prepare to cross over? Dark corners, or maybe even entire neighborhoods, might try to haunt you and me. Just keep the light in sight, you can hear James recommend.      

Short biography of the composer is here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/r/o/w/rowe_j.htm