(Continued) Send forth into Your harvest faithful workers [Mat. 9:38], so that they may gather a great harvest of saints. Open the hearts of the hearers, so that they may receive the seed of the Word with the holy obedience of faith [Act 16:14]. Grant to them Your grace, so that they may guard the holy deposit of the Word with a pure heart, and with patience bring forth abundant fruit [Luke 8:15]. May they hear attentively, may they hear carefully, may they hear fruitfully! Otherwise the Word which is preached to them, not having been mixed with faith, will judge them on the last day [John 12:48]. Show forth the express promise of Your grace, that Your Word will not return to You void [Isa. 55:11]. I am mindful of this Your promise, grant that the labor of the one who plants and the one who waters may be blessed [1 Cor. 3:7]. Grant Your protection, I ask, that the infernal raven may not dig up the holy seed of Your Word from the field of the hearts of men, nor the thorn of worldly pleasures and riches constrain it, nor the hardness of stone prevent it from bearing fruit [Mat. 13:4 ff., Luke 8:12 ff.]. Water that seed with the heavenly dew of Your grace, poured out from above, so that then the most abundant harvest of good works may spring forth. Bind together the hearts of pastors and hearers alike in the closest bond of love, so that they contend at the same time for one another in prayers, and encourage each other by their care for one another, Amen. (The Daily Exercise of Piety by Johann Gerhard, Repristination Press, p.81-83)