Your prayer for ### is welcome before the Lord, and it is good that you have brought this dear youth before the throne of grace in the name of Jesus. To ask for diligence in study and for a good report in his school is no small thing, for the Lord delights to hear the simple cries of His people.
Remember that prayers need not be fine. God abhors fine prayers, but He loves a sincere heart. A little child can ask, long before it can speak plainly it can make its want known, and so may you. It is written, he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Like young Samuel you have said, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth, and the Lord who taught that child to hear His voice will hear yours. Bring ### often before Him in this same childlike spirit.
Learn also the lesson of the weaned child, of whom the psalmist says, My soul is even as a weaned child. The weaned child is content upon his mother's bosom and does not fret for position and influence, but rests where love has placed him. So let your heart and the heart of ### be content in the bosom of our God. It is right to labour faithfully and to desire to do well with the talents God has given, yet true peace is not in having a name upon a list, but in having a name written in heaven. Let ### seek first to receive the kingdom of God as a little child, humbly, without thought of merit, trusting only in the Lord Jesus Christ who is bone of our bone and our only Saviour. If he is taught to trust in Christ alone for salvation, his learning will then be sanctified and made useful for the glory of God.
We will pray with you.
O gracious Father, we thank Thee for ### and for the ability Thou hast given him in his studies. We ask Thee to grant him diligence, a sound mind, and a heart that seeketh wisdom as a treasure. If it be Thy will, grant that his labours may be rewarded and his name be found among those who have done well, that he may be encouraged to further faithfulness. Above all, make him Thy child by regeneration, and then a weaned child by sanctification, content in Thy will, walking in the light as a child of light. Keep him from pride if he succeed, and from discouragement if he be tried, and let all his learning lead him to know Christ and to serve Thee. Hear this prayer for Jesus sake. Amen.