Dr. Tom Long in his book, Shepherds and Bathrobes, tells a story that appeared years ago in the New York Times.

It was just before Christmas. David Storch, a music teacher, borrowed a copy of the score of Handel’s Messiah from the Brooklyn Public Library. For some reason, through a clerical error, the transaction was not recorded.

Afterward, there were several other requests for the score, and the library staff--unaware that it had been checked out--spent many hours searching in vain for it through the stacks.

On the day that Storch returned it, placing it on the circulation desk, he was astonished to hear the librarian spontaneously, joyously, and loudly shout, “The Messiah is here! The Messiah is back!” Every head in the library turned toward the voice, but, sadly, as the Times report…