When generations have been melted into tears, or raised to
religious fervor--when courses of sermons have been preached,
volumes of criticisms been written, and thousands of afflicted and
poor people supported by the oratorio of "The Messiah"--it becomes
exceedingly difficult to say anything new. Yet no notice of Handel,
however sketchy, should be written without some special tribute of
reverence to this sublime treatment of a sublime subject. Bach,
Graun, Beethoven, Spohr, Rossini and Mendelssohn have all composed
on the same theme. But no one in completeness, in range of effect,
in elevation and variety of conception, has ever approached
Handel's music upon this one subject.
--_Rev. H. R. Haweis_