"I therefore say to ye, Forsake your idols, return to God; for He is ever enduring in goodness; repenting of the evil. He turneth our sorrow to gladness, and He comforteth us in affliction."
[37] Bartholomew originally had these words: "Ah! could I find Him; and at His footstool bow before His presence."
[38] Mendelssohn greatly altered the "Widow" scene before the oratorio was published.
[39] The music of this chorus ("Blessed are the men") was afterwards much altered.
[40] See the [letter] to Bartholomew, July 3, 1846, [p. 55].
[41] Mr. Bartholomew doubtless quoted this and the following example from memory.
[42] Afterwards Mrs. Mounsey Bartholomew.
[43] The German words which Mendelssohn originally selected for "O rest in the Lord" were: "Sei stille dem Herrn, und warte auf ihn; der wird dich wohl zum Guten führen. Befiehl dem Herrn deine Wege, und hoffe auf ihn; der wird dich erretten von allem Übel." He subsequently changed the second and fourth clauses to the more familiar Luther version. (Psalm xxxvii., 7, 4, 5, 8.)
[44] The original autograph of this letter, together with a MS. copy of "O rest in the Lord," also in Mendelssohn's own hand, were personally presented by the late Mrs. Mounsey Bartholomew to the Guildhall Library, in May, 1880. But both MSS. suddenly and mysteriously disappeared at the time, and have not since been found. See The Times, May 15, 1880, p. 13.
[45] Amongst the MSS. which Miss Mounsey kindly gave me in view of this "History," is the identical copy from which "O rest in the Lord" was first sung in public—by Miss M.B. Hawes, at the Birmingham Festival of 1846. The copy, written by Bartholomew, has pencilled alterations in Mendelssohn's own hand.