Lowry at­tend­ed the Un­i­ver­si­ty at Lew­isb­urg (later re­named 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 the fol­low­ing vol­umes:

• Happy Voic­es, 1865
• Gospel Mel­o­dies, 1868
• Bright Jew­els (New York: Big­low & Main, 1869)
• Pure Gold, 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)
• 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)