Order of Evening Prayer". MEDITATION. The day is gone, and I give Thee thanks, O Lord. make it bright unto us. make it bright unto us. Cast me not away in the time of age; forsake me not when my strength faileth me. Even to my old age be Thou He, and even to hoar hairs carry me; do Thou make, do Thou bear, do Thou carry and deliver me. a Page 196, edit. 1675. Abide with me, Lord, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent of this fretful life. Let Thy strength be made perfect Day is fled and gone, This lifeless life. Night cometh,` and cometh death, the deathless death. Near as is the end of day, so too the end of life. beseech of Thee for the close of our Life, that Thou wouldest direct it in peace, Christian, acceptable, sinless, shameless, and, if it please Thee, painless, gathering us together under the feet of Thine elect, when Thou wilt, and as Thou wilt, lest we be cast into outer darkness. Near is judgment; a good and acceptable answer of Jesus Christ vouchsafe to us, O Lord. By night I lift up my hands in the sanctuary, The Lord hath granted His loving-kindness and in the night season did I sing of Him, and made my prayer unto the God of my life. As long as I live will I magnify Thee on this manner, and lift up my hands in Thy Name. Let my prayer be set forth in Thy sight and let the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, our God, the God of our fathers, who hast created the changes of days and nights, who givest songs in the night, who hast delivered us from the evil of this day, who hast not cut off like a weaver my life, nor from day even to night made an end of me. CONFESSION. Lord, as we add day to day, so sin to sin. The just falleth seven times a day; a wonderful, a horrible thing, O Lord. from my evil ways, and I return into my heart, and with all my heart I turn to Thee, O God of penitents and Saviour of sinners and evening by evening I will return in the innermost marrow of my soul; and my soul out of the deep crieth unto Thee. I have sinned, O Lord, against Thee, |