ed to spend her hours in her father's study
rather than join her comrades in play. When she was twenty-six years old,
she accompanied him on a journey to Gothenburg, but they never reached
their destination. At Hastholmen the vessel on which they sailed gave a
sudden lurch and the father fell overboard, drowning before the eyes of
his devoted daughter.

This tragedy proved a turning point in Lina Sandell's life. In the midst
of her grief she sought comfort in writing hymns. Her songs seemed to
pour forth in a steady stream from the depths of a broken heart. Fourteen
of her hymns were published anonymously the same year (1858) in a
Christian periodical, _Budbararen_. Although she lived to write 650 hymns
in all, these fourteen from the pen of the grief-stricken 26-year-old
girl have retained a stronger hold on the hearts of her countrymen than
most of her later productions. Among these "first-fruits" born in sorrow
are such hymns as: "Saviour, O hide not Thy loving face from me," "Others
He hath succored," and

Children of the heavenly Father
Safely in His bosom gather;
Nestling bird nor star in heaven
Such a refuge e'er was given.

The remarkable popularity which Lina Sandell's hymns attained within a
comparatively short time was due to a large extent to the music written
for them by Oskar Ahnfelt, a "spiritual troubadour" of his day. Ahnfelt
not only possessed the gift of composing pleasing melodies that caught
the fancy of the Swedish people, but he traveled from place to place
throughout the Scandinavian countries and sang them to the accompaniment
of a guitar. Miss Sandell once said: "Ahnfelt has sung my songs into the
hearts of the people."

The inspiration for her songs came to Miss Sandell at sundry times and
places. Sometimes in the midst of the noise and confusion of the city's
streets, she would hear the words of a new song. Sometimes she would
awake in the still hours of the night with the verses of a hymn ringing
in her ears. By her bedside she always kept a slate on which she might
instantly record these heaven-born thoughts.

In 1867 Miss Sandell was married to a Stockholm merchant, C. O. Berg, but
she continued to sign her hymns with the initials, "L. S." by which she
was familiarly known throughout Sweden. She died on July 27, 1903.

Not only Ahnfelt, but also Jenny Lind helped to make Lina Sandell's hymns
known. The "Swedish nightingale" was herself a Pietist and found great
deli