Along with this individual reviving, let there be an earnest praying and striving for a reviving of the whole congregation, a life that may abide. Let every service in God's house be a revival service. Let each worshiper be a mourner over his sins, each pew an anxious seat. To this end let the preaching of the Word be plain and direct. Let it be full of "_repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ_." Where hearts are not wilfully closed against such preaching of "_the truth as it is in Jesus_," they will, through its power, become "_broken and contrite hearts_," from which will arise earnest pleadings for forgiveness and acceptance. Faith will come and grow by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Where the Word is truly preached and rightly heard, there will be a constant and scriptural revival. Each service will be "_a time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord_."
In addition to the regular weekly service, the Church also has her stated communion seasons. These, if rightly improved by pastor and people, can be made still richer seasons of Grace.
In our Lutheran Church, with her deep, significant and inspiring doctrine of this holy Sacrament, with her solemn and searching preparatory service, every such season ought to be a time of refreshing. What an auspicious opportunity is here offered for special sermons to precede the Holy Communion, for recalling the wanderer, awaking the drowsy, stirring up the languid, instructing the inquiring, and establishing the doubting! What pastor, who has a Christ-like interest in the spiritual welfare of his people, and who has used his communion seasons to this end, has not often realized that they are indeed _times of refreshing from the Lord_?
These communion seasons become still more effective and valuable when they come, as they generally do in our Lutheran Church, in connection with our great Church Festivals. Our Church has wisely held on to these great historic feasts. They have from the earliest times been the Church's true revival seasons. Church historians inform us that during the age immediately succeeding the time of the Apostles, when the Church was still comparatively pure and fervently devout, these Festival Seasons were the real high-days, the crowning days of the year. On these occasions the Word was preached with more than ordinary power, and the Sacraments were dispensed with unusual solemnity. Then the churches were filled to overflowing. A solemn stillness reigned over city and country. Worldly cares and pleasures were laid aside, and the great saving facts of the Gospel then commemorated were the all-absorbing theme. At such times, even the worldly and careless felt an almost irresistible impulse to follow the happy Christian to the house of God. Multitudes of sinners were converted and gathered into the Church of Jesus Christ, while saints were strengthened and built up in their holy faith.