Lillenas em­i­grat­ed to Amer­i­ca as a child; his fam­i­ly set­tled first in South Da­ko­ta, then moved to Or­e­gon in 1889. He at­tend­ed Deets Pa­ci­fic Bi­ble Coll­ege in Los An­ge­les, Cal­i­for­nia (later re­named to Pa­sa­de­na Coll­ege); stu­died mu­sic at the Sie­gel-My­ers School of Mu­sic in Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois; and re­ceived an hon­or­ary Doc­tor of Mu­sic de­gree from Ol­i­vet Na­za­rene Coll­ege. His first pas­tor­ate was in Lom­poc, Cal­i­for­nia, in 1910; he lat­er pas­tored in Redlands, Cal­i­for­nia, and Indianapolis, Indiana. In 1924, he found­ed the Lil­le­nas Mu­sic Com­pa­ny (bought by the Na­za­rene Pub­lish­ing Com­pa­ny in 1930), and worked as an ed­it­or there un­til his re­tire­ment in 1950.

Haldor mar­ried Ber­tha Mae Wil­son, a song­writ­er like him­self. He and Ber­tha were el­ders in the Church of the Na­za­rene. Hal­dor tra­veled as an evan­gel­ist, then pas­tored sev­er­al church­es, 1914-1924. In his life­time, he wrote some 4,000 hymns, and sup­plied songs for ma­ny evan­gel­ists. His works in­clude:

• Special Sac­red Songs, 1919
• New Sac­red Songs
• Strains of Love
• Special Sac­red Songs No. 2

Sources

Hymns

1. And Yet There Is Room (© 1928)
2. Beautiful Gates of Gold, The
3. Bible Stands, The
4. Church of God, Awaken
5. Climbing Up the Hills of God (© 1957)
6. Come Just as You Are (© 1928)
7. Don’t Turn Him Away (© 1925)
8. Dear Old Bible, The
9. Dusky Hands
10. Garden of My Heart, The
11. Glorious Freedom
12. He Has Called Me by My Name (© 1927)
13. He Is Mine (© 1929)
14. He Set Me Free
15. Higher Than the Mountain (© 1957)
16. Ho­ly Spirit, God Most Ho­ly (© 1957)
17. I Have Found a Precious Resting Place
18. I Know a Name (© 1928)
19. I Have Settled the Question
20. I Lost the World (© 1924)
21. Jesus Will Walk With Me (© 1922)
22. Leave Your Burden at the Place of Prayer (© 1934)
23. Lord, I Am Pleading (© 1924)
24. Loyal and True (© 1930)
25. More Than a Friend (© 1928)
26. My Burden Is Gone (© 1923)
27. My Mother’s Old Bi­ble Is True (© 1929)
28. My Wonderful Lord (© 1938)
29. My Wonderful Friend
30. No Compromise
31. O My Heart Sings Today (© 1924)
32. Once I Was Bound by Sin’s Galling Fetters
33. Peace That Jesus Gives, The (© 1931)
34. One Day I Traveled a Toilsome Road
35. Pull Up Stream
36. Savior Have I, More Precious to Me, A (© 1931)
37. Soldiers of Im­man­u­el (1919)
38. Soul That Sinneth Shall Die, The (1914)
39. Standing on the Word (© 1927)
40. Storm the Forts of Sin (© 1923)
41. Surrender to Jesus (© 1953)
42. Sweeping This Way
43. Tell the Blessèd Story
44. There’s a Blessed and Triumphant Song
45. Under the Atoning Blood (© 1918)
46. When Jesus Whispers, “Peace”
47. When the Ho­ly Ghost Abides (© 1929)
48. Why Carry Your Load? (© 1931)
49. Where They Need No Sun
50. Wonderful Grace of Jesus
51. Wonderful Peace
52. Word of God, The

Music

1. Church in the Village, The
2. Count Me
3. Glory Just to Walk
4. I’m Abiding in Canaan Land
5. Jesus Has Lifted Me
6. Jesus Intercedes for Me (© 1933)
7. Steady, Brother, Steady
8. Years Can Not Take Him Away, The