Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might…(Ecclesiastes 9:10)
He’d had a variety of jobs, both in his native Europe, and in America before he wrote a hymn about a different kind of boss than he had experienced in his vocational life. Perhaps not very many people would adopt James Rowe’s song words for “He’s My King” if they were thinking of the boss to whom they answered Monday through Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM. ‘Is this the guy I want to serve all my life?’, one might ask himself on a day when the job just doesn’t seem worth the paycheck. When you reach mid-life, that’s when you become fixed in your choices – at least, that’s what it appears must have been James Rowe’s response to his life, and his life’s work, when he decided he wanted to write songs. And, he made a conscious choice to whom those songs would be addressed.
James Rowe was born in England on New Year’s Day, 1865 and worked in Ireland until he emigrated to America when he was 24. He must have heard what it was like to work in copper mines, for that was his father’s livelihood. James worked for the Irish government for a few years, and then decided America was where he wanted to seek other opportunities. Along with thousands, and even millions of his Irish countrymen who came to America in the latter half of the 19th Century, Rowe sought out a new life around 1889-90, choosing Albany, New York and railroad work until near the turn of the 20th Century. He was an inspector for the Humane Society after that, but then turned to music-writing, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say he had chosen to more fully devote himself to music-writing. After all, one doesn’t radically alter vocational direction – from government employee to railroad worker, then Humane Society inspector, to music-writer – without at least first experimenting with it while otherwise employed. Rowe probably had had some success with this avocation before he decided to take a run at it full-time, working for three music publishers in Texas and Tennessee. Were his words in “He’s My King” in 1911-12 an expression of satisfaction by a 46-year old who had found his life’s work, after several false starts? He must have been pleased, to say the least, with his new ‘boss’, the divine royalty whom he lauds in this hymn. Some records of Rowe’s life indicate he may have written up to 1,900 hymn texts (including 45 shown on the Cyber Hymnal website – see below link) in this new career.
Yes, Rowe liked, even adored, his new boss. The words in his hymn “He’s My King”
emphasize how he felt surrounded by Him daily, and how he looked forward to this in eternity too. He makes me wonder, as I think about going to work on Monday, ‘Who’s my boss?’ Am I happy where I am? Can I joyfully serve at what I am called to do Monday through Friday? I serve an excellent God – what an understatement, right? If I work in less than an excellent way, failing to reflect Him toward others about me, what does that say about His impact on me? Is He really my king? Maybe, if my answers to these questions bother my conscience, I should find what I can excel at, hmmm? Maybe that’s what James Rowe asked himself, too.
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