THE EVENING OF LIFE.

THE

EVENING OF LIFE;

OR,

Meditations and Devotions for the Aged.

BY THE

REV. W. E. HEYGATE, M.A.,,

AUTHOR OF "THE MANUAL: A BOOK OF DEVOTIONS," ETC.

EVENING IS AT HAND,
MAKE IT BRIGHT UNTO US.
AS DAY HAS ITS EVENING,

SO ALSO HAS LIFE;
THE EVEN OF LIFE IS AGE,

AGE HAS OVERTAKEN ME,
MAKE IT BRIGHT UNTO us.

BP. ANDREWES' Order of Evening Prayer.

Third Edition.

LONDON:

J. MASTERS AND CO., 78, NEW BOND STREET.

MDCCCLXXXIV.

14010.0.3.

PREFACE.

No directions have been inserted before the Devotions, when to sit, stand, or kneel during them; because they have been prepared for the aged and infirm. It is trusted, however, that the reader will do what he can to worship GOD acceptably, according to the strength continued to him, for GOD's glory and his own sanctification.

The Clergy will readily recognise the sources from which the Prayers are taken, and will perceive that they are chiefly drawn from the Manuals of honoured men who, since the Reformation, have witnessed by their writings, prayers, and lives, to the unbroken descent of the English Church, and to her substantial unity in faith and love with the Church of the Fathers.

A slight alteration has been made here and there in the wording of the accounts given of the death-beds of holy men and in those of V. Bede and of S. Demetrius, somewhat has been omitted or changed, to suit an uncontroversial and devotional book, which ought not needlessly to excite prejudices which it cannot pause to

remove.

The scarceness and slightness of such changes manifest that substantial unity of conduct and affection which appears in the last hours of the Sons of the Church, die where they would, and when they would; and seem to prove them children of one family, brethren beloved in the LORD. We cannot but observe how that all are