Gerhard and Walther

A form of daily praying: Merciful, eternal God, Comforter of the distressed, Healer of the sick: let our prayer come before You with whatever anxieties and needs we cry to You, so that all mankind may rejoice in Your help and thank You. May you also graciously forgive Your Christian people their sins, and rescue them from all error and evil. Keep them in true faith and obedience. Give them faithful teachers. May all authorities lead and rule to Your glory and for the common peace. Protect all heads of households along with their wives, children, and household members. Cleanse the air of all pollution, pestilence, disaster, sickness, fires, and war. Graciously avert all the aforementioned, well-deserved punishments from us—or otherwise sustain us through them with Your mercy. Give us fruits of the field and protect us. Take care of the imprisoned. Help those who have been shipwrecked back to land. Comfort the distressed. Grant the expectant mother a happy view of new fruit from her body. Grant health to the sick. Grant grace to sinners to better their lives. And show mercy to all believers in Christ. Impart Your Holy Spirit and eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.—Johann Gerhard, Schola Pietatis II:132.

Because of the fall, we have come under the cruel tyranny of sin and we willingly obey it. Our desire, by nature, is to serve sin. Each of us serves certain sins that have full power over us.... Nevertheless there is salvation for poor, imprisoned humanity. God created a means to free us from the power of sin. That means is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.—C. F. W. Walther, God Grant It!, p. 353.