Yet parts of his great works he wrote and rewrote until they were exactly as they should be. It will do is a thought that never comes into the head of a great artist.  How do you imagine such a man was to his friends?  We are told that, “he was in character at once great and simple.”  And again it has been said that, “his smile was like heaven.”

We have seen Handel as the great composer, but he was not so busy in this that his thoughts were not also dwelling upon other things.  If ever you go to London, you should of a Sunday morning hear the service at the Foundling Hospital.  You will see there many hundreds of boys and girls grouped about the organ.  Their singing will seem beautiful to you, from its sweetness and from the simple faith in which it is done.  After the service you may go to the many rooms of this home for so many otherwise homeless ones.

There are for you to visit:  the playroom, the schoolroom, the long halls with the pretty white cots, and the pleasant dining-room.  Here it will please you to see the little ones march into dinner, with their similar dresses, and all looking as happy as possible.  But the picture you will, no doubt, longest keep, is that of the children about the organ.

They will tell you there that it was Handel who gave this organ to the chapel, and who, for the benefit of the children who might come here, gave concerts, playing and conducting, which were so successful that they had to be repeated.  A “fair copy” of the “Messiah” will be shown you as one of the precious possessions.

It will very plainly be present in your mind how the little boy sat alone playing day after day in the garret, wishing no better pastime than to express the feelings of his heart in tones.  Perhaps you will think of his words:  “Learn (of) all there is to learn, then choose your own path.”  He will appeal to you as having possessed an “early completeness of character,” which abided always with him.  It is evident in following the life of Handel, and it would be equally plain with any other composer, that great talent is developed out of a small beginning, and if small, is yet earnest and determined.  From the first days of a great man’s life to the last we find constant effort.  “I consider those live best who study best to become as good as possible."[64] Music helps us to keep the upper windows open; that is why it does so much for us even if we have but one talent.

To develop our one talent is a duty, just as it is a duty to develop two or five talents.  It is given to us to increase.  And no one knows how much joy may come to us and to others from the growing of that talent.  We gain much in power to give pleasure to others, if the talent we have be made stronger by faithful effort.  As we have seen good come forth from the story of the man with many talents, we can see how, similarly, he with one talent has also great power with which he may add unto himself and others.