Let us consider the oratorio for a moment as represented by Handel's Messiah. The most famous part perhaps is the "Hallelujah Chorus." Hear this sung by thousands: do you not thrill with joy and praise? As the music swells on, with its bursts of melodious exultation, we feel ourselves lifted away from everything common and base. Then take the sweeter and softer airs: "Behold the Lamb of God," "With His stripes we are healed," and then the great chorus, "For unto us a Child is born," with the rush and sweep of the "Wonderful." Where do we seem to be? With the shepherds watching on that star-lit plain; with Mary at the cradle of her Divine Child; with the Wise Men offering up their gifts of frankincense and myrrh in that illumined stable. The light of God's glory dazzles us as we listen, and we can only echo in our humble hearts, with our heads bowed, that repeated joyous "Wonderful!"
Now do you not think a musician who could make any Christian heart full of such reverence and love ought always to be honored? I like to think of Handel revered as he is now. His life was not happy in many ways. Many things troubled him. He used to sit hours playing on his organ, and I have no doubt trying to reconcile himself to the blindness which fast came upon him. He had many friends, but no family ties of his own. He wrote on unceasingly, and some other time I may tell you more of his work. Just now I have had space only to speak of his greatest oratorio.
It was on April 6 that The Messiah was given at Covent Garden, and Handel attended the performance. He came home to his house in Brook Street very weary, and there, eight days later, he died, April 14, 1759. His grave is in Westminster Abbey.
MR. STUBBS'S BROTHER.[1]
BY JAMES OTIS,
Author or "Toby Tyler," "Tim and Tip," etc.