Book of Private Devotion, Being a New Edition of Simple Prayers for Schoolboys, With Prayers and Instructions for the Holy Communion, Abridged from "The Bread of Life," By the same Author. By the Rev. A. D. CRAKE, B.A., Sometime Chaplain of All Saints' School, Bloxham, Joint Author Oxford and London: A. R. MOWBRAY & CO. M.DCCC.LXXXV. 1402. £. 13. PREFACE. HIS book was first published in the year 1868, under the title of Simple Prayers for Schoolboys, and was the earliest of the Author's publications, which have since been numerous and varied. It was written for the boys of All Saints' School, Bloxham, of which school he was the first Chaplain. In the year 1870, it was amplified by the addition of the Meditations, and a section upon Confirmation, now relegated to a separate manual; at the same time, the other sections were enlarged, and thus enriched, it became the devotional book of many large schools. But no provision was made for Holy Communion, as it was treated in a companion volume called the Bread of Life, supposed to accompany Simple Prayers. And thus the books have remained unaltered for fourteen years. Meanwhile other manuals with like objects have arisen, combining both in one book; this obvious advantage has led to the request that the like method may be pursued with these manuals, which is accordingly done in this volume, the essential portions of both books being incorporated, and the title of The Schoolboy's Book of Private Devotion given to the combined volume. Other alterations have been made to bring this book more nearly up to the greatly improved standard of the day. The various sections have been amplified, a few redundancies sacrificed, and the section on self-examination enlarged from the corresponding one in the Bread of Life, and forms for public preparation and thanksgivings before and after the Holy Communion added, at special request, from ancient sources, as in the latter volume. But the Bread of Life is still recommended in preference to the abridgment in this volume. for those leaving, or who have left, school (and indeed it may be preferred by older boys, even in statu pupillari, as it treats the subject with greater fulness and variety than the space in this volume allows). And in the next edition of the Bread of Life, it is the Author's intention to accommodate it more fully to the use of those of mature age, as the motive for the introduction of special prayers and instructions for the very young no longer exists. The whole work has been a labour of love to the Author. No work was ever dearer to him than that of the Chaplain of All Saints' School, Bloxham. And each of these prayers and instructions is full of reminiscences, and recalls hours which are "to memory dear," hours when the words, which may look cold and formal as written, became lighted up with light from above, when in preparation for Confirmation, in hours of blest communion, and on the sickbed, its forms became vivified with spiritual life. Not long since the writer opened an old letter telling of the death of a former All Saints' boy, who was taken ill in the holidays following his confirmation, and died of lingering decline. "The little books" (says the bereaved father, who has himself been since called to his rest, speaking of Simple Prayers and the Bread of Life) were daily in his hands while he had power to use them, and I have reason to think that by the frequent study of them, there was produced that perfect calmness which charac 66 |