Lina Sandell Berg

Lina Sandell (full name: Karolina Wilhelmina Sandell-Berg) (October 3, 1832 – July 27, 1903) was a Swedish writer of Gospel hymns.

Born Karolina Wilhelmina Sandell in a rectory at Fröderyd, Småland, Sweden. At the age of 26, she went with her father Jonas Sandell, a Lutheran pastor of the Lutheran church in Fröderyd on a boat trip across Lake Vättern to Göteborg, during which he fell overboard and drowned before her eyes. The tragedy affected Lina, inspiring her to write hymns. She wrote hymns and poured out her broken heart in an endless stream of beautiful songs.

The popularity of Lina Sandell’s hymns was due to the music written by Oskar Ahnfelt. Oskar Ahnfelt played his guitar and sang Lina's hymns throughout Scandinavia. She once said that Ahnfelt sang her songs "Into the hearts of the people". Even Jenny Lind, the world famous concert vocalist, visited factories and sang Lina's beautiful hymns.
“It was in the midst of the Rosenius movement that Lina Sandell became known to her countrymen as a great song-writer. …Rosenius and Ahnfelt encountered much persecution in their evangelical efforts. King Karl XV was petitioned to forbid Ahnfelt’s preaching and singing. The monarch refused until he had had an opportunity to hear the “spiritual troubadour.” Ahnfelt was commanded to appear at the 180 royal palace. Being considerably perturbed in mind as to what he should sing to the king, he besought Lina Sandell to write a hymn for the occasion. She was equal to the task and within a few days the song was ready. With his guitar under his arm and the hymn in his pocket, Ahnfelt repaired to the palace and sang:

Who is it that knocketh upon your heart’s door
In peaceful eve?
Who is it that brings to the wounded and sore
The balm that can heal and relieve?
Your heart is still restless, it findeth no peace
In earth’s pleasures;
Your soul is still yearning, it seeketh release
To rise to the heavenly treasures.

The king listened with tears in his eyes. When Ahnfelt had finished, the monarch gripped him by the hand and exclaimed: “You may sing as much as you like in both of my kingdoms!”

Mention has already been made of the hymns of Rosenius. These, like the songs of Lina Sandell, were likewise a powerful factor in the spread of the evangelical movement in Sweden.

Just as England had its Charlotte Elliott and Frances Havergal, and America had its Fanny Crosby, so Sweden had its Lina Sandell. Sandell is regarded as the Fanny Crosby of Sweden. Among her best known hymns are "Children of the Heavenly Father" and "Day by Day."

In 1867 Lina married C.O. Berg, a Stockholm Merchant, and thus became Lina Sandell-Berg. She continued to initial her hymns "L.S"..

Sandell wrote 650 hymns. She died July 27, 1903 in Stockholm, Sweden and is buried in Solna Kyrkogård (Solna Cemetery), Solna, Stockholmn Län, Sweden.

--www.wikipedia.org