The unsold copies of the first edition, about 20,000 in number, were confiscated and stored away. From time to time quantities of these books were sent to the Swedish colonists in America, for whose “preservation in the true faith,” as the hymnologist Söderberg ironically remarks, “the Swedish authorities seemed less concerned.”
Swedberg felt the slight keenly and often made significant references in his diary regarding those who had been instrumental in rejecting his work. One of these notations tells how the Cathedral of Upsala was destroyed by fire in 1702, and how the body of Archbishop O. Svebilius, although encased in a copper and stone sarcophagus, was reduced to ashes. “But my hymn-books,” he adds, “which were only of paper, unbound and unprotected, were not even scorched by the flames.”
The final form in which his hymn-book was published nevertheless still retained so many of his own hymns, and the entire book was so impregnated with his own spirit, that it has always been known as “Swedberg’s Psalm-book.” A noted critic has called it “the most precious heritage he left to his native land.” It was Swedberg who wrote the sublime stanza that has become the doxology of the Church of Sweden:
Bless us, Father, and protect us,
Be our souls’ sure hiding-place;
Let Thy wisdom still direct us,
Light our darkness with Thy grace!
Let Thy countenance on us shine,
Fill us all with peace divine.
Praise the Father, Son, and Spirit,