Born: Oc­to­ber 20, 1842, Sunne, Värm­land, Swe­den (birth name: Nils Lars­son).

Died: March 30, 1911, Min­ne­a­po­lis, Min­ne­so­ta.

Buried: Lake­wood Cem­e­te­ry, Min­ne­a­po­lis, Min­ne­so­ta.

Nils took the name Fryk­man af­ter the re­gion where he grew up, Fryks­dal­en. In 1868, he grad­u­at­ed from teach­ers’ col­lege in Karl­stad, and went on to teach in Grums, Norrkøping, and Sunne. He preached in the church in Sunne, and around that time began to write hymns. Even­tu­al­ly, his texts were print­ed in the mag­a­zine Sanningsvittnet. How­ev­er, Fryk­man’s work was not sanc­tioned by Swe­den’s state church, and al­most led to the loss of his job as a teach­er. Even­tu­al­ly he did re­sign his po­si­tion over a con­tro­ver­sy about his child­ren’s bap­tism by an in­de­pen­dent preach­er. In 1888, he was called to serve as pas­tor in the Ta­ber­na­cle Church in Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois, and later in Sa­lem, Min­ne­so­ta. Af­ter 18 years, he re­tired to Min­ne­a­po­lis. He al­so served in the North­west Mis­sion As­so­ci­a­tion of the Co­ve­nant Church, as de­nom­in­a­tion­al vice-chair­man, Min­is­ter­i­al Board chair­man, the North­west Min­is­ter­i­al As­so­ci­a­tion chair­man, and as chair­man of the com­mit­tee to pub­lish the Swed­ish-Amer­i­can Cov­e­nant church’s first hymn­al, in 1906. His works in­clude:

Sources

Hymns

  1. Det är en härligting
  2. Den Högsta Lycka
  3. Fröjdas Vart Sinne
  4. Gud, Min Gud och Fader Kär
  5. Heavenly Voice, The
  6. Hem det går
  7. Jag har en vän, som älskar mig
  8. Jag skulle ej sörja
  9. Jesus dig kalla
  10. Min framtidsdag är ljus och lång
  11. Uti nödens timma
  12. ’Vår store Gud gör stora un­der
  13. Vem som helst kan bli frälst