know that poor Miss Clara Maltby is gone from home to-day very ill,
so ill that it mayn't be the Lord's will she should ever come back to us
again. Now she has asked me to give you all and each a message from
her--perhaps it may be a dying message. She sends it to every one as
belonged to her class when she taught it. I'm going to tell you what
she said, not quite in her own words, but just what I took to be her
meaning.

"You know as she's not taken her class for a good long time. We was all
very sorry when she gave over, but it seemed as it couldn't be helped,
for she was getting weak and worn, and felt that coming to church twice
on the Lord's-day was as much as her poor mind and body would bear. But
she wants me to tell you how she feels now she's been letting earthly
learning get too much hold of her thoughts. Not as there's any harm in
getting any sort of good learning, so long as you don't get it in the
wrong way. But it seems as this earthly learning had been getting too
big a share of Miss Clara's heart. I daresay you all know as she's
wonderful clever at her books. Eh, what a sight of prizes she's got!
Well, but she'd come to be too fond of her studies; they was becoming a
snare to her; she'd made a regular idol of them, and could scarce think
of anything else. She'd given them all the time she could spare, and
more. And so it kept creeping on. These studies of hers, they'd scarce
let her eat or drink, or take any exercise, or read her Bible and pray
as she used to do. Ah, how crafty the evil one is in leading us astray!
He don't make us jump down into the dark valley at one or two big
leaps, but it's just down an incline, like the path as leads from Bill
Western's house to the smithy: when you've got to the bottom and look
back, you can hardly believe at first as you've come down so low.

"Now, you're not to run away with the idea that Miss Clara has forsaken
her Saviour, and given up her Bible and prayer. Nothing of the sort!
She's a dear child of God, and always has been since I've knowed her;
only this learning and these studies have so blocked up her heart, that
they've scarce left room for her gracious Saviour. But yet he'd never
let her go, and she hadn't altogether forsaken him; only she's been on a
wrong course of late, and she sees it now.

"Friends have flattered her, and told her what grand things she might do
with such a head-piece as hers, and she's been willing to listen to them