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A flowering of Swedish hymnody came through
the pen of Lina Sandell
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For those who grieve, going through a loved one’s belongings—to sell or giveaway—can be an almost unbearable task. I experienced that at 31 when I had to clean out my parents’ home after both died in 1978. Handling everyday things—their clothes, photos, hobbies, even dishes—brought on waves of crippling sorrow. But I had go on, and often in that house of memories I’d sing an old hymn, “Day by Day,” which affirmed that I would find strength to meet trials here. Not until years later, in researching the life story of its author, did I realize she, too, walked lonely paths of sorrow. In such times, she, too, had to walk “day by day” in the strength of God.
Her name was Lina Sandell Berge, and she’s been called the “Fanny Crosby” of Scandinavia, alluding to her prolific output. Swedish born, she is credited with 650 hymns, of which 150 have been used by the church. Her hymns were a significant part of the Piestist revival in Scandinavia in the late 19th century.
Born into a Lutheran parsonage, she was a frail child who at one time became bedridden with a mysterious paralysis. As a result, while other children played outside, she was a “daddy’s girl” who spent a lot of time in her father’s study One Sunday when she was twelve, her parents left her behind as they went to church. She spent that time in prayer and experienced a healing enabling her to walk again.
Early on, she showed her poetic gifts and was just 13 when her first book of poems was published. At 17 she wrote the lyrics to “Children of our Heavenly Father,” set to a Swedish folk melody. That song was popularized by a man named Oskar Ahnfelt, who adhered to the revival teachings of the Pietists, and who traveled with his ten-string guitar introducing evangelical hymns—many of them by Lina Berg--to the Swedish church.
Lina was 26 years old when she went on a boat trip with her father to the Swedish city of Gothenberg. When the boat lurched after being hit by a large wave, he accidentally fell overboard and drowned as she watched. In losing her beloved earthly father, she learned more intimately the care of her Heavenly Father. From this experience came her hymn, “Day by Day, and With Each Passing Moment.”
That was not her only grief, as she would also lose her sister to tuberculosis and her mother to a prolonged illness. Lina was married at age 32 to a Stockholm merchant, but they experienced the collapse of his business and the stillborn birth of a baby girl, their only child.
Besides Ahnfelt the guitarist, Lina’s hymns were popularized by singer Jenny Lind, known as the “Swedish Nightingale.” Though acclaimed internationally for her formal concerts, Lind would sit with common workmen at their crude benches and sing the simple hymns about Jesus. Lina’s hymns were also used by the Swedish evangelist Carl Rosenius, who helped spread the Pietist revival.
Her hymns were translated to English by a Swedish immigrant to America, Andrew Skoog, who for half a century associated with the well-known Pastor E. August Skogsberg in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Together they were often referred to as the Swedish counterparts of evangelist Dwight Moody and song leader Ira Sankey.
Lina died at age 71, thousands attending her burial in Stockholm. Like many Swedish funerals before and after her death, the choir began singing (in Swedish, of course) her hymn “Children of the Heavenly Father” with its line, “Neither life nor death shall ever from the Lord his children sever.”
