Inspiration and Revelation 1

Handel composed the Messiah in 24 days without once leaving his house. During this time, his servant brought him food, and when he returned, the meal was often left uneaten. While writing the "Hallelujah Chorus", his servant discovered him with tears in his eyes. He exclaimed, "I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself!!" As Newman Flower observes, "Considering the immensity of the work, and the short time involved in putting it to paper, it will remain, perhaps forever, the greatest feat in the whole history of musical composition." At a Messiah performance in 1759, honouring his seventy-fourth birthday, Handel responded to enthusiastic applause with these words: "Not from me - but from Heaven- comes all." In his last years he worshipped twice every day at St. George’s Church, Hanover Square, near his home.
Later, as Handel groped for words to describe what he had experienced, he quoted St. Paul, saying “whether I was in the body or out of my body when I wrote it I know not”