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Page 58
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.
Thus these festival communion seasons were true revival seasons.
And why should it not be so still? What can be more inspiring and
impressive than these great facts which our church festivals
commemorate? If the solemn warnings of the Advent season, the glad
tidings of the Christmas season, the touching and searching lessons of
the Lenten season, the holy, inspiring joyousness of the Easter
season, or the instructive admonitions of the Pentecostal season, will
not attract and move and edify the hearts of men, what will?
What has the radical part of the Church gained by setting aside
these seasons, hallowed by the use of Christ, His apostles and
martyrs, the Church Fathers and Reformers? Is the modern revival
system and the Week of Prayer arrangement an improvement? Can any
modern self-appointed committee get up a better and more effective
program than our historic Passion Week services, crowned with its
Easter communion? Assuredly no! There can be no new "program," however
broad or spicy, that can be adapted to bless the saint and sinner,
like our old order, following the dear Saviour, step by step, on his
weary way to the cross and tomb, and thus preaching Christ Crucified
for, at least, one whole week in a year. Though there may be
progressive Greeks to-day to whom this preaching of Christ Crucified
is "_foolishness_," or materialistic Jews to whom it is "_a
stumbling-block_," we know it is still _the power of God and the
wisdom of God to all who believe_. We know that there can be nothing
so truly promotive of genuine piety, so well adapted for the
conversion of sinners and the sanctifying of believers, as this
preaching of the cross. We do not wonder, therefore, that, after a
comparatively short experience in the new way, earnest voices are
raised, in quarters, whence a few years ago came nothing but ridicule
of Lenten services, pleading for the old historic Passion Week,
instead of the new Week of Prayer. Not that we object to a week of
prayer. We only object to the substitution of this modern week, with
its diversified program, for the old week with its Bible Passion
lessons.
Thus then we see that there is abundant provision and opportunity
for special seasons of awakening and refreshing, by following the
regular Church Year.
We would not, however, claim that, in the present state of
affairs, on account of a lack of proper understanding and churchliness
and because of the unconscious influence of popular notions, there is
no need, occasion, and opportunity for still more marked and general
awakenings. The word of God speaks of "_times of visitation_," "_times
of refreshing_," an "_accepted time_," a "_day of salvation_," "_thy
day_," etc. There are times and seasons when the good Lord draws
especially near to sinners to convert and save them; times when His
Spirit manifests Himself more fully in the Church than at other times.
In His own wise Providence He brings about and prepares the Church for
such time. Thus, when, from causes noted above, the Church grows cold
and languid, He sends afflictions of various kinds. People are made to
realize the uncertainty and unsatisfactoriness of the affairs of this
life. By losses, diseases, bereavements, or bitter disappointments,
God seeks to wean them from their worldly idols. He brings them to
reflection. They "_come to themselves_." They are ready to recall and
hear the Father's voice. They are willing to hear the long neglected
Word. They go to the house of God. They listen eagerly. The Word finds
free course. There is no wilful resistance. _It drops as the rain and
distils as the dew. It does not return void._
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