MAY CHRISTIANS DANCE? 

BY JAS. H . BROOKES, D. D., AUTHOR OF "HOW TO BE SAVED, OR THE SINNER DIRECTED TO THE SAVIOUR."

ST. LOUIS: J. W. McINTYRE, BOOKSELLER AND STATlONER, No. 4 SOUTH FIFTH ST. 

1869. 

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by J. W. McINTYRE, In the Clerk's Office
of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Missouri. PREFATORY
NOTE. 

At the beginning of the present year, I was constrained by a conviction of duty to preach to my
people on the subject of dancing. As the community at large had little to do, owing to the prostration
of business and the absence of excitements, the sermon caused an amazing and amusing flurry,
and for a while it was "the town-talk." All the devil's servants flew at me like wasps from a disturbed
nest, and lies fell thicker than soot from the smoky atmosphere of our city. I was fiercely assailed
in the public journals by anonymous scribblers whose villany I had exposed, and in private
circles by debased libertines whose crimes I had denounced. 

Among other absurd rumours which were circulated, it was currently reported that the discourse
had rent my congregation in twain, and that scores had withdrawn from my church. Even if this
had been true, not one word that I uttered about dancing would have been retracted, because
retraction would have dishonoured my Master; but the facts are, that up to the present time
two persons who asked for their letters have returned to their customary place of worship,
and one family has forsaken my ministry, while during the same period about fifty souls have
been added to our communion. 

After the sermon was delivered, I followed up the attack on dancing in a series of letters to
a young friend, written very hurriedly, at intervals snatched from the incessant demands
of pulpit and pastoral work. My consent to their publication in the present permanent form
has been gained, first, by the request of many of God's people whose wishes deserve my respect;
second, by my desire to bear permanent testimony against an appalling and growing sin in the
Church; and, third, by the hope that, notwithstanding the crudeness of the entire performance,
the Lord Jesus will be pleased to bless what is here said in vindication of his outraged cause.

It has seemed to me proper to make the foregoing statements, that the reader may account for
the personal style of address found throughout the book, and understand certain expressions
which have reference to local events. The young Christian whom I had in view while hastily preparing
these letters for publication has renounced dancing forever; and my prayer is that every Christian
may soon be led to exclaim, in a spirit of enthusiastic consecration to the Redeemer, "God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified
unto me, and I unto the world!" J. H. B. 

St. Louis , May 1, 1869. TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

The Question Stated 7 

CHAPTER II. 

Arguments in its Defence . 

15 

CHAPTER III. 

Character of Witnesses for the Defence 25 

CHAPTER IV. 

Arguments Against it . 

35 

CHAPTER V. 

Arguments Against it Continued . 

48 

CHAPTER VI. 

Arguments Against it Continued . 

Page 63 

CHAPTER VII. 

Testimony Against it . 

83 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Testimony Against it Continued . 

97 

CHAPTER IX. 

Testimony Against it Continued . 

112 

CHAPTER X. 

Concluding Reflections 129 MAY CHRISTIANS DANCE? I. THE QUESTION STATED. 

My dear Friend :- 

You desire an expression of my views upon the subject of dancing, adding that you can see no wrong
whatever in this fascinating and popular amusement. It is a subject which is very wearisome
and distasteful to me, simply because the wish to dance on the part of a professed disciple of
the Lord Jesus indicates a state of heart of which I can think only with the deepest sadness.

I sometimes feel like saying to those who take the position you assumed in our interview, "Well,
if you do not see the wrong in dancing, dance on as much as you please; for it is not worth while
to argue the matter with one who is unable to perceive at a glance the gross impropriety and inconsistency
of indulgence in this fashionable custom by any sincere follower of the Saviour." 

Still, I must repress my impatience, and endeavour to comply with your request in writing,
as I have complied with similar requests in private conversation, very, very often in the course
of my ministry. You are a young man, a member of the church, giving promise of a decided influence
in future life either for good or evil; and if I can in anywise determine the character of that
influence for the glory of the divine Redeemer, I shall address myself to the task you set before
me, not only under a sense of duty, but with the greatest eagerness. 

And besides my obligation to the Master and my love for you, I am constrained to gratify your
desire by the admonition addressed in the sacred Scriptures to the preacher of the gospel,
when it is said, "The servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach,
patient; in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will
give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; and that they may recover themselves
out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will." 

Let us, then, in the first place, distinctly understand the question that is to be discussed.
It is Locke, I believe, who tells us he once listened to a long and animated debate, that waxed
sharper and fiercer, until it was happily suggested that the heated disputants should clearly
define the sense in which. they used the terms under discussion, when it was discovered, to
the surprise of all parties, that there was no ground for controversy. 

It is important, therefore, that you Should know at the outset what I mean by the term "dancing,"
when I affirm that it is utterly unbecoming a Christian, and that I should know what you mean
when you affirm that it is an innocent amusement. 

Worcester says the word "dance" signifies, "a graceful movement of the figure, accompanied
by measured steps in accord with music;" and "dancing" he defines as "the act of moving with
regulated and graceful steps." Webster says the word "dance" denotes, "a lively, brisk exercise
or amusement, in which the movements of the persons are regulated by art, in figure, and by the
sound of instruments, in measure;" and "dancing" he defines as "leaping and stepping to the
sound of the voice or of an instrument." 

Now, I am far from saying that "the act of moving with regulated and graceful steps" is inherently
and necessarily sinful; for such a position would force us to conclude that David committed
sin when, as an act of worship, he "danced before the Lord with all his might." Nor do I say that
"a graceful movement of the figure, accompanied by measured steps in accord with music," is
essentially sinful; for then it would follow that God frowns upon the gambols of a child that
are in harmony with the sounds of a piano, and abhors the solemn movements of a funeral procession
that are in unison with the strains of a dirge. 

The question, therefore, is not whether the mere act of dancing, in itself considered, is always
and unchangeably sinful. I do not know any, even of the most "straight-laced Presbyterians,"
who are silly enough to take the affirmative at this point. 

But neither is the mere act of swallowing wine or brandy always and unchangeably sinful; for
our Saviour commands us to drink wine in celebrating his dying love, and a physician may, in
some instances, prescribe brandy as a remedy for disease; and yet if so much wine is taken that
drunkenness ensues, or if a weaker brother is led, by our indulgence in the occasional use of
spirituous liquors, into hopeless degradation, the act, harmless in itself, becomes a heinous
offence. 

The same act, as you are well aware, assumes very different aspects, according to the motive
or disposition which prompted it. Take, for example, the act of killing a man which may have
no moral character whatever, as when it is entirely unintentional; or it may be commendable,
as when an officer of the law, in obedience to an order of the court, executes a convicted murderer;
or it may be highly criminal, as when the stealthy assassin destroys the life of his victim for
money. 

So the act of dancing may have no moral character whatever, as when a merry and thoughtless child
dances in its play; or it may be commendable, as when David danced before the Lord in solemn religious
worship; or it may be utterly wrong, as I propose to prove with regard to the fashionable amusement
of which I am now writing. 

Nor is the question to be discussed concerning dancing as it might be , but concerning it as it
is. The sexes might dance separately, or the amusement might be strictly limited to the old-fashioned
cotillon or stately minuet; or it might be confined to an hour or two of exercise in a private
parlour, and then it would be less objectionable, to say the least. But I am speaking of dancing
as now almost universally practised with its unavoidable adjuncts of large assemblies, indelicate
dressing, unwarrantable freedom of intercourse between the sexes, levity, revelry, excitement,
forgetfulness of God, thorough worldliness; and it is this modern, common dancing which I
shall undertake to prove is directly contrary to the obligations of a Christian. 

Nor is the question concerning ecclesiastical rules and regulations. Every church, of course,
has the right to protect itself against the introduction into its bosom of elements of discord
and dissolution, and no 2 one should unite with a body of professing Christians without a willingness
and a purpose to conform to their usages and laws. But, after all a church has no right to bind
the conscience in virtue of its own authority, and unless I can show that dancing violates the
rules laid down in God's word, I do not ask you to renounce it. 

The plain, simple question, therefore, which I wish you to consider is this: Can a Christian
engage in dancing as it is without sinning against God; and, hence, is it the duty of the Christian
to abstain entirely from any dancing known in this day, and from giving it the slightest countenance?

In the subsequent discussion of this subject, I shall endeavour to prove that the only way by
which we can avoid sin, is to take no part whatever in "dancing," but, on the other hand, to discourage
and oppose it with all earnestness. II. ARGUMENTS IN ITS DEFENCE. 

It is hardly proper to dignify what is usually said in favour of dancing by the name of arguments,
for the greatest length to which Christians of my acquaintance venture in its advocacy is to
present apologies or excuses for the practice. 

For example, they frequently urge that it is no worse than many other things which are done by
members of the Church, and not so bad as tattling, and slander, and hypocrisy, and bigotry.
I am willing to grant this, without a moment's hesitation; but does it follow that dancing is
innocent, or that it is proper for a follower of Jesus Christ to engage in it? Can two wrongs make
a right? Will the adulterer plead, in extenuation of his crime, that he has not been guilty of
falsehood, and theft, and murder? Such an excuse may avail at the bar of public opinion, but
it cannot at the bar of a holy God, who never weighs one sin against another in order to pronounce
the lighter one a virtue. 

Again, many affect to sneer at the discussion of the subject as of trifling importance, and
declare that, after all, it is a little thing, unworthy the dignity of the pulpit. and undeserving
the serious notice of a preacher of the Gospel. In the language of the late venerable Episcopal
Bishop of Virginia, when speaking of dancing, "Such was not St. Paul's opinion and practice;
he preached to the heart as much as ever minister did, and yet he preached against 'revellings,
banquetings,' and such like things, warning against every inconsistency to which Christians
are tempted." But suppose I again grant that it, is only a little thing,-I then ask, why do not
its advocates abandon it? They will scarcely insist that it is a Christian duty to dance, and,
as they are obliged to confess that it is condemned by a vast majority of all earnest, working,
praying disciples of our Lord, and that it brings sorrow to many a pious heart, and that it is
the cause of much anxiety and trouble to the Church, surely they should be willing to forsake
a custom which, after all, is but a little thing, of trifling importance. 

Again, it is insisted, with some plausibility, that the young must have amusements, and if
they are denied the privilege and pleasure of dancing, religion will be presented to them in
gloomy and repulsive colourings that will lead them to hate the very name. To this I reply, that
if the pursuit of amusement is the end for which they are created; ff they are under no obligation
to remember their Creator in the days of their youth; if it is right for them to put off all serious
thoughts about God, and eternity, and salvation, until they are old, or until death lays a sudden
arrest upon their career of gayety and frivolity, there is some force in the apology. But if,
2* on the other hand, it is wise and Christian to train them even in early life to habits of self-denial;
if it is their duty to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; if they should give
all diligence to make their calling and election sure; if they are required to glorify the Saviour
in their bodies and spirits; if it is incumbent upon them to be prepared for the eternal world
through belief of the truth and sanctification of the Spirit, the reasoning is utterly worthless.

Again, you intimated, in our conversation, that my strict views and severe denunciations
of this amusement keep many of the young people out of my church, and drive many of them to other
churches that are more lax in their discipline, more genial in their religion, and more adapted
to the tastes of fashionable society. To this I answer, in view of my responsibility to God,
if dancing keeps the young out of the Church, they ought to be kept out, and if it drives them from
the Church, they ought to be driven from it . I hope I am not entirely indifferent to the sympathies
and pleasures of the youthful; and I know I love the Church, in whose service I am willing to labour
and suffer, and yet I deliberately say it would be better, in my judgment, if none should enter
its sacred portals than to enter them to dance; and it would be better if the Church should be
blotted from the face of the earth than to surrender its principles at the demand of worldly-minded
professors of religion. Oh, if admittance into the Church could save the soul, I would not utter
one word upon this subject; but when the Bible tells us that without holiness no man shall see
the Lord,-when it tells us that "she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth,"-when
it tells us that many-yes, many-of the professing disciples of Christ will awaken at his second
coming to the frightful realization that they are undone forever,-I am obliged to sound an
alarm in the ears of those who cannot deny themselves and take up the cross to follow him here.

Again, it is often said that the few who still oppose dancing in the Church cannot succeed in
putting it down, and therefore they might as well retire at once from the field of conflict.
For one, I do not expect to succeed. I expect, according to the plain predictions of the Scriptures,
that "evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived;" being
"lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;" "having a form of godliness, but denying the
power thereof,"-"until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness,
and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts." In the series of letters which I propose
to address to you and to other dancing disciples of the meek and lowly Jesus connected with my
church, I shall not struggle to achieve mere success in the argument, but I shall strive "to
declare unto you all the counsel of God;" I shall strive to warn you that "after my departing
shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock;" I shall strive so to bear witness
for the truth, that at the appearing of the Judge I may be able to say, "I am pure from the blood
of all men." 

Again, it is urged that dancing is a healthful exercise, and necessary to promote ease and elegance
on the part of the young. As to the former assertion, I might easily summon the highest medical
testimony to prove its absurdity; but it is such sheer unmitigated nonsense, I shall not insult
your understanding by supposing for a moment that you believe it. If heated rooms, and sumptuous
feasting, and whirling round and round, and jumping up and down until two or three o'clock in
the morning, and then sudden exposure to the cold air, followed by a day of slumber or ennui,
tend to promote health, the physicians are all in the dark with regard to hygienic laws, and
my own observation has greatly deceived me. As to the superior carriage of those who are given
to dancing, this, too, is bold assumption and utterly untrue. Compare, if you choose, the manly
walk of an ingenuous youth, who has caught his steps from the promptings of a conscious rectitude
and high purpose, with the mincing tread of a brainless fop, whose grandest achievements are
wrought in the ball-room. Compare the natural grace of a pure girl, taught by a pure mother,
and by a native sense of delicacy, with the disgusting affectation and brazen effrontery of
a pert miss, who is trained by a foreign dancing-master not to blush, and you can judge for yourself
whether there is any force in the oft-repeated plea that children should be sent to the dancing-school
to learn manners. 

Once more, it is sometimes feebly suggested that the Bible itself furnishes authority for
modern dancing; but a glance at the Scriptures will expose the fallacy of the position. I have
not time at present to go into an extended examination of this subject, but must content myself
with quoting the closing part of Dr. Lyman Beecher's celebrated tract on Dancing, issued by
the American Tract Society. I will only say that the views presented in the following quotation
are substantially set forth in Kitto's "Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature," in the works
issued by the Presbyterian Board of Publication and the Presbyterian Publication Committee,
and in the published sermons of many eminent ministers of the gospel who have carefully examined
every text of Scripture that refers to dancing. After giving the various passages in the Bible
which allude to the subject, Dr. Beecher adds,- 

"From the preceding quotations, it will sufficiently appear, 1. That dancing was a religious
act, both of the true and also of idol worship. 2. That it was practised exclusively on joyful
occasions, such as national festivals or great victories. 3. That it was performed by maidens
only. 4. That it was performed usually in the day-time, in the open air, in highways, fields,
or groves. 5. That men who perverted dancing from a sacred use to purposes of amusement were
deemed infamous. 6. That no instances of dancing are found upon record in the Bible in which
the two sexes united in the exercise, either as an act of worship or amusement. 7. That there
is no instance upon record of social dancing for amusement, except that of the 'vain fellows,'
devoid of shame; of the irreligious families described by Job, which produced increased impiety
and ended in destruction; and of Herodias, which terminated in the rash vow of Herod and the
murder of John the Baptist." 

In my next, if the Lord permit, I shall show the character of the witnesses who are ready to defend
this perilous pleasure. III. CHARACTER OF WITNESSES FOR THE DEFENCE. 

It is a significant fact that the devil exhibits signs of great distress whenever a minister
of the gospel inflicts upon dancing a well-directed and vigorous blow. Straightway he stirs
up his followers to rush to the defence of his favourite stronghold in the Church, and they obey
his summons with a zeal worthy of a better cause. Their envenomed darts begin to fly thick and
fast at the head of the man who has assailed their cherished pastime, and every slander which
malice can suggest or ingenuity devise is unsparingly hurled against him. The well-known
words of the heathen Cicero, that "no one dances unless he is either drunk or mad," seem to be
entirely forgotten, and in place of them many professing Christians are ready to say no 3 one
will denounce dancing unless he is either drunk or mad. 

Surely it is a very weak or a very bad cause which is compelled to use such weapons for its protection;
and every sensible person must at once see that nothing is gained for dancing, even admitting
the coarse calumnies of its advocates to be true. Suppose it can be proved that those who oppose
the introduction of this amusement into the Church are guilty of murder, theft, adultery,
and every other offence in the catalogue of crimes, the question still remains to be answered,
Is it right for Christians to dance? There may be others who do things far worse; but does their
sin make dancing innocent? This is the inquiry to which I wish to direct your mind; nor do I intend
to have your attention diverted by any side issues that are always thrown with satanic cunning
into a controversy about dancing, when those who uphold it feel that they cannot maintain their
ground. 

I ask you, then, to look at the character of the witnesses appearing in its defence, from the
ranks of those who claim to be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Among the members of every
Christian congregation with which I am acquainted, there are two very distinct classes. The
one is composed of those who may be called, under God, the life of the Church, and who seem to be
necessary, not only to its progress, but to its very existence. They are always found in their
places in the sanctuary, they teach in the Sabbath-school, they keep up the prayer-meetings,
they visit the sick and the sorrowing, they endure hardness as good soldiers, they are actively
and constantly engaged in the work to which their Master has called them. The other class is
composed of those who have made a profession of religion, and this is the most that can be said
of them and said for them. If the prosperity of the Church depended upon their interest in its
welfare, it would soon perish from the face of the earth. You no more expect to see them in the
Sabbath-school, or in the prayer-meeting, or employed in any personal efforts for the advancement
of the cause of Christ, than you expect to see the common herd of unbelievers labouring for Jesus.
They have a name to live, and if we are permitted to judge a tree by its fruits, or a man by his works,
this is all they have 

Now, I affirm, without fear of successful contradiction, that, as a rule , the members of the
Church who defend and practise dancing belong to the latter class, and the members of the Church
who oppose it and are grieved by it belong to the former class I still further declare that I have
never known a member of the Church to engage in it without the manifest loss of spirituality,
of delight in the services of the sanctuary, and of concern for the divine glory. If you are in
doubt concerning the truth of these statements, consult any experienced pastor or faithful
session, and you will soon learn that they are fully confirmed by the observation of others.

Here, then, we have as Christian witnesses in favour of dancing, those who seldom take any personal
part in carrying forward the various enterprises of the Church; those who seem to be contented
with a form of godliness; those who come as near as possible to the impossible attainment of
serving God and mammon; those who seek first the recognition and admiration of fashionable
society; those who, it appears, would rather win the smile of the rich than the approval of Christ;
those who are determined that their children shall enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
those who have occasional spasms of religious fervour, especially about the time of Lent;
and those whose lives are made up of a series of sharp tricks to hold on to the world and at the same
time to keep out of hell. 

But other witnesses rush to the assistance of these followers of the Lamb, and 3* raise their
voices in defence of the graceful and harmless practice of dancing. Look at them carefully,
for they are a motley crew. They come from the clubs of infidels; they come from the circles of
spiritualists and free-lovers; they come from the "dance-houses" of our cities; they come
from the chambers of the "strange woman" whose "feet go down to death;" they come from midnight
revelries in dens of infamy; they come from the darkness of heathenism. These all agree in defending
the dance as proper and essential to their enjoyment of life, while they almost universally
unite in condemning it if practised by a Christian. Do not suppose for one moment that I design
to degrade all who uphold dancing to a common level; for I could not be so unkind and ungenerous
to thousands of respectable people who dance, but who also shrink with horror from any approach
of impurity and from any association with the vile. My design is to show you that those in the
Church who stand up as witnesses for the innocency of dancing, must have their testimony corroborated,
not by the earnest disciples of Jesus, but by a crowd with whom they would not be willing to appear
in the advocacy of any other cause. 

A writer in the "New American Encyclopaedia," who certainly cannot be accused of prudery,
after speaking of "the voluptuous movement of the waltz," and after noticing the fact that
the Mohammedan religion forbids dancing, even within the harem, goes on to say, "Dancing exists
among all savage peoples which travellers have visited; and negroes on the African coast have
been said to throw themselves at the feet of a European playing on a fiddle, and to beg him to desist
unless he would tire them to death; for while he played they could not cease dancing. Dancing,
was one of the principal amusements of the American aborigines, being more common among them
than in any civilized society." 

Bear in mind, then, that those who, in Bible times, perverted the exercise from a sacred use
to purposes of amusement, were pronounced profane and infamous; that among the ancient Romans,
according to Kitto, "it was considered beneath the dignity of a person of rank and character
to practise it;" that "dancing is not one of the pleasures of paradise promised by the Koran;"
that those in the Christian Church who engage in it, as a rule, are never known to be "steadfast,
unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord;" that it is the chosen and cherished amusement
of the fallen and the outcast; that it is the favourite pastime of savage tribes and untutored
negroes; and then you may judge aright of the character of the witnesses for the defence. 

To these I add, most reluctantly, the testimony of poor Byron, so gifted, so dissolute, so wretched.
Nothing could induce me to quote his shameful language except my intense anxiety to save you,
my friend, and others like you, from the infernal fascinations of a recognized custom, which
I believe to be fraught with the greatest peril to the soul, to the virtue of the young, and to
the very foundations of society. I wish you to see how such a master, and such a slave, by turns,
of the human passions, as Byron, looked upon fashionable dances, and how other men look upon
them, if they would honestly express the real ground of their admiration for the waltz. 

"Muse of the many-twinkling feet! whose charms Are now extended up from legs to arms; Terpsichore!-too
long misdeemed a maid- Reproachful term-bestowed but to upbraid- Henceforth in all the bronze
of brightness shine, The least a vestal of the virgin Nine. Far be from thee and thine the name
of prude: Mocked, yet triumphant; sneered at, unsubdued; Thy legs must move to conquer as they
fly, If but thy coats are reasonably high; Thy breast-if bare enough-requires no shield; Dance
forth,- sans armour thou shalt take the field, And own-impregnable to most assaults, Thy not
too lawfully begotten waltz. 

* * * * * * 

Endearing waltz!-to thy more melting tune Bow Irish jig and ancient rigadoon. Scotch reels,
avaunt! and country dance, forego Your future claims to each fantastic toe! Waltz-waltz alone-both
legs and arms demands, Liberal of feet, and lavish of her hands; Hands which may freely range
in public sight Where ne'er before-but-pray 'put out the light.' Methinks the glare of yonder
chandelier Shines much too far-or I am much too near; And true, though strange,-waltz whispers
this remark, 'My slippery paths are safest in the dark.' But here the Muse with due decorum halts,
And lends her longest petticoat to waltz. 

* * * * * * 

Seductive waltz!-though on thy native shore Even Werter's self proclaimed thee half a whore;
Werter-to decent vice though much inclined, Yet warm, not wanton; dazzled, but not blind-
Though gentle Genlis, in her strife with Stael, Would even proscribe thee from a Paris ball."

It is a sad sign of the times that a practice about which such words could be written has, through
the mere force of habit, come to be enthroned in established supremacy over the circles of fashionable
society, and admitted even into the bosom of the loved and blood-bought Church of Christ, purchased
at such a cost and redeemed for purposes so high and holy. 

In my next, I propose to present a few arguments against conformity to this evil practice on
the part of Christians. IV. ARGUMENTS AGAINST IT. 

I presume you are prepared to admit that dancing, as at present conducted, has, to say the least,
an appearance of evil. It would be difficult to find any respectable person bold and brazen
enough to deny the truth of this statement. Those who defend the amusement most earnestly,
and engage in it most eagerly, insist that the evil of which so many complain is in appearance
only, and not in reality; but still they are forced to concede that it has the appearance of evil
, for it calls forth the admonitions of the wisest and best men in the various denominations
of Christians; grieves the hearts of thousands of the Saviour's most faithful followers,
and it excites the grave apprehension even of irreligious parents, who prize the virtue and
purity of their children, lest it should run into excesses that are evil in fact. 

Granting this, as I think you are willing to do, I beg you to remember, in the first place, that
the word of God explicitly enjoins upon us to " abstain from all appearance of evil ." Now, I ask
you whether we are not bound to obey this positive rule, as well as every other precept plainly
revealed in the sacred Scriptures? "Ye are my friends," says our Lord, "if ye do whatsoever
I command you;" "and hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep his commandments." One of his
commandments requires us to abstain from all appearance of evil. It is conceded by every one
who is worthy of notice, that dancing has the appearance of evil; and, therefore, I argue that
the sincere Christian will gladly abandon the practice. 

Barnes, commenting on the text I have quoted, says:-"A great variety of subjects, such as those
pertaining to dress, amusements, the opera, the ball-room, games of chance and hazard, and
various practices in the transaction of business, come under this general class; which, though
on the supposition that they cannot be proved to be in themselves positively wrong or forbidden,
have much the appearance of evil, and will be so interpreted by others. In these instances it
may be certain that there will be no sin committed by abstaining; there may be by indulgence."

Matthew Henry says:-"We should abstain from evil, and all appearance of evil. He who, shy of
the appearance, shuns not the occasions of sin, and who avoids not the temptations and approaches
to sin, will not long abstain from the actual commission of sin." A true child of God, anxious
to make his calling and election sure, will 4 strive to keep on the safe side of every question
that involves his duty to Jesus Christ and to his fellow-men; and although he may ignorantly
allow himself to indulge in habits that have the appearance of evil, yet convince him that they
really have this appearance, and he will conquer them or die. If, therefore, you acknowledge
that dancing has the appearance of evil, you are bound, at the peril of your soul, to abstain
from it. 

In the second place, you are doubtless ready to admit that dancing is a worldly amusement, in
the sense in which the term world is so often used in the Bible, as denoting that part of mankind
who are not Christians. Certainly it does not spring from faith in Christ; it is not suggested
by faith, it does not strengthen our faith, it is not connected with faith in the slightest extent;
and yet the word of God says, "without faith it is impossible to please Him," and "whatsoever
is not of faith is sin." Upon this latter passage Dr. Hodge remarks:-"Whatever we do which we
are not certain is right, to us is wrong. There is evidently a sinful disregard of the divine
authority on the part of a man who does anything which he supposes God has forbidden, or which
he is not certain He has allowed." 

Now, you cannot be certain that God has allowed dancing as an amusement, for no communion of
his professed followers on the earth so interprets his word as to require its members to dance
for enjoyment; and the most that can be said for it in relation to any Christian Church is, that
it is merely tolerated. It is, therefore, confessedly worldly in its origin, worldly in its
character, worldly in its associations, worldly in its tendencies; and surely the disciples
of Jesus, who discover in their hearts such a relish for this pleasure that they cannot cheerfully
forsake it, ought to ponder carefully the following solemn admonitions and declarations
of the sacred Scriptures:- 

"Be not conformed to this world." "Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with
God? Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world, is the enemy of God." "Love not the
world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father
is not in him." "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world." "Pure religion, and undefiled
before God and the Father, is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction,
and to keep himself unspotted from the world." Our Lord Jesus Christ "gave himself for our sins,
that he might deliver us from this present evil world," "teaching us that, denying ungodliness
and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; looking
for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ; who
gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar
people, zealous of good works." "If ye were of the world," He says, "the world would love his
own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the
world hateth you." The great principle underlying such statements is manifestly applicable
to all ages and all lands; and as Dr. Chalmers, in commenting on the first text I have here quoted,
well says, "The enormities of the heathen world of which we read in the descriptions both of
the New Testament and of profane authors were as little scandalous, then, as the gayeties and
amusements, and those various companionships from which all sense of God and all the conversations
of godliness are excluded, of the festive, and fashionable, and general society of our modern
world can possibly be now." 

In the light of these passages, it seems to me perfectly obvious that professors of religion
who have been in the habit of dancing must either abandon the practice, or abandon the delusive
hope that they are born of God, and are on their triumphant 4* march to heaven. Keep in mind, I
pray you, that we are discussing a fashionable amusement, which by universal consent is shown
to be altogether worldly, and then that the Holy Ghost explicitly informs us if we are Christians
we will not love the world, we will not be conformed to the world, we will overcome the world,
we will be separate from the world, as a peculiar people, zealous of good works. If, therefore,
a member of the Church finds that he cannot forsake this amusement, which certainly associates
him distinctly and intimately with the world, there is too much reason to fear that he has only
a name to live while in fact he is dead. Weigh well, my friend, the words of Jesus, that are as true
to-day as they were when they fell from his lips. "If any man come to me, and hate not his father,
and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he
cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my
disciple. And whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple."

In the third place, not only does fondness for the dance indicate a relish for the world in itself
considered exceedingly alarming, but it increases this dangerous relish, and inevitably
leads on to greater and still greater excesses, until the love of Christ totally dies out of
the heart. I solemnly declare to you I have never known a member of the Church who indulged in
this evil practice without a shocking declension of religious life, without ceasing sooner
or later to attend the prayer-meeting, without exhibiting less and less interest in the ordinances
of God's house, without sinking into a state of indifference to the claims of the Redeemer,
and without being betrayed into the commission of other sins, which seem to grow naturally
out of dancing. 

I remember an occurrence which illustrates the statement just made, and, as it may serve to
give force to my argument, I shall relate it just as it took place. If necessary, I can give you
the names of reliable witnesses, who will confirm the correctness of the narrative. A few years
ago, a young man was arraigned before the session of the church to which I was ministering, on
the four charges of dancing, attendance upon the theatre, intoxication, and profanity. In
the evening appointed for his trial he entered the session-room with an angry and defiant air,
that plainly betokened his purpose to break another solemn vow, by which he had pledged himself
to submit to the discipline administered in God's house. After hearing the charges read, he
promptly confessed his guilt, adding that he was willing to acknowledge the wrong he had done
in going to the theatre, in becoming intoxicated, and in using profane language, but very emphatically
declaring that he did not see any harm in dancing, and was fully determined not to forsake it.

One of the elders remarked that there was no need of further testimony, and moved that he be suspended
from the privileges of the church until he gave satisfactory evidence of repentance. At this
I interposed, and begged, as a personal favor, that definite action might be postponed until
our next meeting. Meanwhile, I had a long, friendly interview with the young man, and when he
appeared before the session the second time; he stated that if there was any difference between
the offences which he had committed, he was convinced that dancing was the worst of all, because
it was so insidious, and had led him on step by step; steadily and surely, to the other sins of
which he had been guilty. 

In explaining what he meant by this remarkable statement, he said that for some months he had
been a member of a social club which met regularly for the purpose of dancing. His participation
in the amusement gave him an increasing distaste for the services of the sanctuary, and even
for private devotion, and drove him to the society of the worldly for companionship. A friend,
who belonged to the dancing club, asked him to accompany the other members to the theatre, as
an actor of some celebrity was advertised to play, and he found that he could not with the slightest
consistency refuse to go on the plea of conscientious scruples. He did go, and, while witnessing
the performance, he discovered that when the curtain was dropped for any considerable time,
it was the fashion among the young men to adjourn to a drinking saloon, which, of course, was
most convenient to the theatre. Still feeling obliged to imitate their example as he had done
in other respects, he accepted their invitation to drink, and the intoxicating beverage powerfully
exciting his brain, he was quickly led to utter profane language. 

Thus, upon serious reflection, he could see that dancing prepared the way for an easy descent
to degradation, and conducted him almost like a chained captive to do the bidding of Satan.
He acknowledged his error, deplored his folly, thanked the session for their faithfulness
in warning him of his danger, and promised to abandon dancing forever. Of course I do not mean
to intimate that the practice is really worse than the other offences for which he was arraigned,
or that it will always result in the same kind of iniquity; but I do mean to say, most emphatically,
that, constituted as many of us are, it is not only evil itself, but it will open a flood-gate
for other evils which may drown the soul in destruction and perdition. The only safeguard,
therefore, is in a stout and steadfast resistance of every temptation to dance, and thus in
refusing to make the first fatal start in a downward course. My arguments against the custom
are by no means exhausted; but I reserve them for another letter. V. ARGUMENTS AGAINST IT-CONTINUED.

The fourth argument which I urge against indulgence in dancing by those who profess to be Christians,
is derived from the fact that the amusement is in direct conflict with the nature of the Church,
and, therefore, with the fundamental principles of church membership. The word translated
"church" in the New Testament comes from a Greek verb, which signifies "to call out," and, of
course, it refers to those who are called out, and separated from the world. 

Now, we are told that "Christ also loved the Church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify
and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that he might present it to himself a glorious
Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without
blemish." Again, we are taught that God created all things by Jesus Christ "to the intent that
now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church -by those
called out from the world-the manifold wisdom of God," and "unto him be glory in the Church by
Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end." 

If you desire to know what sort of calling the Christian has received, the apostle informs us
that God "hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling;" that we are "partakers of the heavenly
calling;" that we must "press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus," and that we are "called to be saints;" that is, holy, and separated, and devoted to God.
The word "calling" in these passages comes from the same Greek verb from which the word "church"
is derived, and hence any true church is summoned 5 to a "high" and "holy" and "heavenly" separation
from the world, or from that portion of mankind who are not Christians. 

In what respect, I ask, are members of the Church separated from the world by a high and holy and
heavenly calling, when they are found in the dance and in the companionships and associations
with which dancing is unavoidably connected? In what way do they show that they answer the design
for which the Saviour died, when he gave himself for them to redeem them from all iniquity, and
purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works? In what particular do they differ
in character and conduct from the respectable part of the community who are without God and
without hope in the world? 

Alas! I know too well the ready answer to all this on the part of many members of the Church, and
even on the part of some who appear to be ambassadors for Christ. It is a sneer, and the flippant
words "cant" and "fanaticism." It is just this method of treating the solemn truth I have announced
which has brought the Church at large to its present low and lamentable condition, from which
I see no way of escape except in the personal coming of the Lord, or in a wonderful baptism of the
Holy Ghost that shall consecrate the people of God anew to the great end for which they have been
redeemed. Unless the Bible is a fable, there must be the difference I have indicated between
the Church and the world,-a difference which, you are compelled to admit, dancing directly
tends to obliterate. Unless, therefore, the Bible is a fable, the members of the Church who
refuse to make this difference, and are unwilling to be known as "peculiar people," distinct
and distinguished from those who are called the enemies of God, are cherishing a hope of salvation
which will prove to them the mockery of an idle dream in the terrible awakening of the last day.

Fifth. Dancing is utterly inconsistent with the duties, privileges, and tastes of true Christians,
as these are set forth in the sacred Scriptures. Who are Christians? They are believers in Jesus
Christ who confess him before men and are consecrated to his service. Through faith in his precious
name, they are "passed from death unto life," they are "justified from all things," they are
"complete in Him who is the Head of all principality and power," they are "accepted in the Beloved."

It is not enough to say that they shall be saved, but they are saved already; not only partially
saved, but fully saved from the condemnation of God's broken law; not only freely saved, but
saved solely on the ground of Christ's accomplished sacrifice in their behalf; not only saved
from the punishment of sin, but from the power of sin. They were crucified in Christ, they died
in Christ, they arose in Christ unto newness of life, they are members of Christ's body, their
bodies are the temples of Christ's Spirit, their calling is of God "unto the fellowship of his
Son Jesus Christ our Lord;" and hence they confess that they are strangers and pilgrims on the
earth, "waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 

He has left them here a little while among those who despised and rejected and slew him; but in
due time he will come for them, as a bridegroom cometh for his bride, and receive them into the
royal mansions of his Father's house, and put beautiful crowns on their heads, and clothe them
in white raiment, and invite them to sit with him upon his throne. And now what would you think
of a waiting and expectant bride who should hear that her betrothed had been cruelly murdered,
and then should amuse herself by conforming to the practices of his murderers, by going eagerly
into their company for pleasure, and by doing that which she has every reason to believe dishonours
his memory? 

Do you tell me that no impropriety of 5* conduct is exhibited and that no wrong is done the Saviour
when those whom he has so tenderly loved, and for whom he has so cruelly suffered, prefer to be
found among the people of the world, participating with "vain fellows" in all the hilarities
and revelries of the dance? Out, out, upon the base, ungenerous thought! I tell you, in reply,
that the real Christian who has not turned like the dog to his own vomit again, and like the sow
that was washed to her wallowing in the mire, will never feel at home amid such scenes; and he
will wonder that any who know God, or, rather, are known of him, can resort for happiness to such
weak and beggarly elements, that furnish neither improvement to his mind nor gratification
to his heart. 

Sixth. You will not deny that indulgence in dancing by members of the Church is a cause of grief
and an offence to very many faithful disciples of Christ. I am willing to admit, if you insist
upon it, that they are weak brethren who are grieved, and still I claim that; unless you feel
under obligation as a matter of conscience and of duty to dance, the word of God plainly requires
you to abandon the practice for the sake of these weak brethren. In the kingdom of Christ "no
man liveth unto himself and no man dieth unto himself." In that kingdom every man is bound to
look not only on his own things, but also on the things of others. "All things are lawful for me,"
says the apostle, "but all things are not expedient; all things are lawful for me, but all things
edify not. Let no man seek his own, but every man another's welfare." 

Such, then, is the unity of the body of Christ that the conduct of each member, however obscure,
must produce an effect for good or for evil upon the Church at large. "By one Spirit we are all
baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have all
been made to drink into one Spirit." If, therefore, a Christian grows weak in faith and worldly
in life, he inflicts an injury upon the whole body of which Christ is the exalted Head; but, on
the other hand, if he walks worthy of the vocation wherewith he is called, he is a blessing and
a comfort, and a source of strength to all the people of God. 

Let us see, then, what duty springs out of the relation we sustain to other Christians, who,
with ourselves, constitute the glorious body of the ascended Redeemer. 

Let us look at an important principle, which is plainly stated in the word of God, which manifestly
applies to the subject of dancing, and which clearly condemns the practice, even on the supposition
that there is no wrong in it, in itself considered. 

In the Corinthian Church, during the life of the apostle Paul, a question arose touching the
propriety of eating meat, a portion of which had been offered to the idol gods in heathen worship.
When a victim was brought to the temple to be presented as a sacrifice, one part was laid upon
the altar, another part was given to the priest, and still another part was retained by the worshipper
who owned the animal. If the priest and the offerer did not need the allotted portion, it was
sold in the public market, and hence Christians might buy it for their own use, or be invited
to partake of it in the houses of their unconverted friends. 

Some of the members of the Church held that there was no harm in eating such meat; others thought
that it was wrong to encourage or support idolatry even that far; and hence the case was referred
to the decision of the inspired apostle. He replies by promptly admitting that, "as concerning
the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing
in the world;" and hence, "neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we
the worse." Eating or not eating, therefore, was in itself considered a matter of indifference,
and, apart from any other consideration, was certainly not blameworthy. In their circumstances,
however, it not only might be wrong, but it was positively sinful, because it was a grief, and
an offence, or an occasion of sin to their weaker brethren. Encouraged by their example, those
who had conscientious scruples about eating such meat would be led to do what the inward monitor
condemned, and hence they would contract guilt; for "he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because
he eateth not of faith; for whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Whoever, therefore, was uncertain
whether he ought to abstain from meat offered in idol sacrifice, and yet indulged in eating,
owing to the influence of other Christians, evidently sinned, and brought himself under condemnation.

"But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him
with thy meat, for whom Christ died." "It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor
any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak." It is not enough,
consequently, that an act should be in its own nature harmless to justify us in doing it. If our
performance of it is the cause of grief or offence to our brethren, it at once changes its character,
and becomes plainly sinful, so far as we are concerned. "When ye sin so against the brethren,
and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ. Wherefore, if meat make my brother
to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend." 

Such was the generous and unselfish principle which governed the apostle, and the same principle
will control every sincere and magnanimous Christian now. Even if I admit, therefore, that
the fashionable amusement against which I am pleading is entirely harmless as you indulge
in it, and that it is harmless when confined to decent dances and proper hours, still, if it may
be the occasion of sin to less stable souls, by leading them to neglect their duty to God, or by
carrying them, under the spell of its fascinations, to dangerous excesses, surely, my friend,
you cannot, you will not, hesitate to abandon it forever. 

Seventh. If dancing is proper for one member of the Church it is certainly proper for another;
and if it is really innocent; as you insisted in our interview, you would raise no objection,
I am convinced, although your minister, ruling-elders, deacons, and all other Christians,
should catch the proper steps in a dancing-school, and then crowd your gay assemblies to exhibit
their proficiency in the high and ennobling art. See where your position will lead you. I know
you will not claim the privilege of doing wrong; and if dancing is not wrong, then it cannot be
wrong for any Christian to engage in it. Suppose a minister of the gospel should become a member
of a social club organized for the purpose of dancing, and faithfully attend its meetings,
even at times appointed for prayer in the house of God, and participate in all its customary
revelries; how long would it be before the votaries of pleasure themselves would turn from
him with unconcealed contempt and open ridicule? 

But, why lose confidence in him for doing what so many stoutly affirm is harmless and entirely
proper for other Christians? He is under no stronger obligation to abstain from dancing than
any member of his church. He was no greater sinner; his soul was in no greater danger; its redemption
cost no greater price, and the Saviour has no greater claim upon his love, his services, and
his self-denying consecration than he has upon every child of God who has been bought with precious
blood. And yet I venture to say that you, and other Christian advocates of dancing, yea, and
irreligious. advocates of dancing, would be shocked to hear that a preacher or any prominent
and active member of the Church had indulged, even once, in this graceful and innocent amusement,
as you call it. 6 

I ask you, then, in all candour and kindness, whether you are not in danger of dishonouring the
name of your Master, and of bringing sorrow to your own soul, by joining, yourself with the profane
and unbelieving, and making common cause with them in the controversy about the world's favourite
pleasure? When Jehoshaphat, the pious king of Judah, was foolishly beguiled into an alliance
with Ahab, the wicked king of Israel, and, as a consequence, almost lost his life in the disastrous
battle of Ramoth-gilead, on his return to Jerusalem, a faithful prophet said to him, "Shouldest
thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord? Therefore is wrath upon thee from before
the Lord." 

My concluding arguments I must reserve for another letter. VI. ARGUMENTS AGAINST IT CONTINUED.

The eighth argument which I desire to press upon your attention as a dancing Christian is the
gross inconsistency of this fashionable amusement with such texts of Scripture as the following:-"What!
know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God,
and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and
in your spirit, which are God's." "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do,
do all to the glory of God." "For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that
if one died for all, then were all dead: and that he died for all, that they which live should not
henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again." 

What solemn and tender considerations are here presented to the sincere believer to wean him
from the world, and to win him to the service of his Lord! He was once "dead in trespasses and sins,"
and dead in the eye of the divine law which condemned him to suffer the pangs of everlasting death,
because he had broken its holy and unchangeable precepts. From this dreadful condition and
condemnation he was redeemed, not by the power of the faultless example or the sublime doctrines
of Christ, "but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot."
The death of Christ, then, is accepted as paying the penalty of the violated law, and as satisfying
the claims of infinite justice in place of his death; and now he lives, lives in peace with his
own conscience, lives in fellowship with the Father, lives in hope of the heavenly inheritance,
lives forever in spite of the powers of darkness, only because the gracious Redeemer died in
his stead. 

From the moment he simply believes that the Saviour "put away sin by the sacrifice of himself,"
and, so believing, trusts in him alone for salvation, he "is passed from death unto life," and,
under the constraining influence of the love of Christ, he now does all things with a view to
the glory of God. He cannot henceforth live for the gratification of his natural desires, for
the promotion of his personal interests, or for the admiration of the world, but he is bound
to render all of his own plans and pleasures not only subordinate, but subservient to the great
end of glorifying God. His body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and you know that a temple is hallowed,
because it is the dwelling-place of God, and because it is devoted solely to the service of God.
He has been bought with a price, and therefore belongs, not figuratively, but literally and
really, to Jesus, being, in the expressive language of the Bible, the slave 6* of Christ. In
all that he does, consequently, he is under the strongest conceivable obligation to consult
the will and consider the honour of his Master, and if he fails to do this, either in his pursuits
or recreations, he is guilty of cruel ingratitude and positive sin. 

You are no doubt ready to acknowledge the truth and force of these statements in their bearing
upon the conduct of every Christian, and, if so, I ask, how can you dance? Do you engage in this
diversion out of regard for the glory of God? If you do not, you are certainly violating one of
his plainest commandments, and "he that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments,
is a liar, and the truth is not in him." Can you earnestly implore the blessing of God to rest upon
you, and lead you to please Him, while making preparation to assist the poor votaries of pleasure
in their studied attempts to exclude from their minds all thought of eternity? 

Can you pray?-I do not ask can you say your prayers, which a senseless parrot may be taught to
do, but I mean, can you fervently and joyfully hold communion with your Lord when you return
from the house of revelry, in which the earnest Christian would be at once compelled to exclaim,
"Surely the fear of God is not in this place?" Is the ball-room, public or private, a proper place
for the temple of the Holy Ghost? Would you be willing to have Christ reveal himself to you while
whirling in the dance, and fix upon you the sad and searching glance which pierced the heart
of Peter when he denied his Lord? 

Oh, my friend, I am sure you will not persist in affirming that a child of God, redeemed by the
agonies of Gethsemane and Calvary, does no wrong when he allows himself to indulge in a practice
which, to say the least, cannot glorify his Saviour. That practice in which we dare not seek
God's protection must be wrong; that enjoyment for which we dare not render God thanks must
be criminal. Nor will it avail to reply that dancing is not more inconsistent with the purpose
which led the Lord of glory to lay down his life for sinners than many other things done by Christians;
for, admitting this to be true, still the amusement against which I am pleading stands condemned
by the passages which we have just noticed. A faithful disciple of Christ will constantly aim,
whether he eats or drinks, or takes needful recreation, or whatsoever he does, to glorify God
in his body and spirit, which are God's, remembering that he has been bought with a price. 

Ninth. Indulgence in dancing by professed Christians invariably destroys their influence
for good. You may reply, that this is assertion rather than argument; but if you are willing
to accept the testimony of hundreds of ministers of the gospel, belonging to various denominations,
the assertion will be armed with all the strength of overwhelming demonstration. I expect,
in due time, to present the views of some of the most prominent among these ministers; but for
the present will appeal to your own observation and candour. I ask you, then, whether it is not
the fact that people of the world, as a rule, disapprove of dancing by members of the Church,
and speak slightingly of them when they refuse to abandon an amusement which is, at least, of
questionable propriety? 

Again and again, since these letters were commenced, have unbelievers said, directly to myself
or to my friends, that I am right in the position I have taken in relation to this subject, and
that they have little confidence in the piety of those who profess religion but love the world
too much to give up the dance. If I am not greatly mistaken, such is the general sentiment of the
unregenerate, who are quick to mark the inconsistencies of Christians, and who too often make
these inconsistencies an excuse for their personal neglect of the Saviour's claims upon their
faith and obedience. The great obstacle in the way of the conversion of men is not found in the
hardness of the sinner's heart, but in the low state of piety in the Church, that "grieves the
Holy Spirit of God, whereby we are sealed unto the day of redemption." 

More than once, during a busy ministry of fifteen years, I have known the believing wife yield
to the solicitations of an unbelieving husband, and accompany him to the theatre, or participate
with him in the hilarities of the dance, on the specious plea that by relaxing a little her high-toned
Christian principle she would render her religion more genial, and gradually win him over
to the cause of Christ. I have never known an instance in which this plan succeeded. On the other
hand, the wife always, I believe, loses whatever influence she might have possessed as a child
of God, while the husband is confirmed in ungodliness by the compromise which she has made at
his entreaty, or perhaps upon his demand. I have seen such women weep bitter tears over their
folly and sin, and lament with unavailing regret the terrible mistake they had committed.

I will only add, touching this point, that I have never heard of a convicted sinner sending for
a dancing Christian to inquire of him the way of salvation, nor of a dying sinner sending for
a dancing Christian to hear from his lips the words of Jesus and the words of prayer. No, no. In
the hour of awakening from the deep insensibility of sin, and in the hour when the trembling
soul hangs on the verge of a neglected and undone eternity, a Christian of very different character
is needed, and the dancing disciple of Christ is left behind with the things of the world which
are forsaken. 

Tenth. I need hardly say, after all that has gone before, that indulgence in this fashionable
amusement is a source of unspeakable injury to those who are not Christians, and greatly increases
their danger of being lost forever. Let the following narrative, out of many similar instances
that might be gleaned from the field of pastoral observation, illustrate the solemn statement
just made:- 

"I was once called," says an aged pastor, "to visit a young lady who was said to be in despair .
She had at some time previous been serious, and had, it was hoped, resolutely set her face Zionward.
In an evil hour some of her former associates called on her to accompany them to a ball. She refused
to go. The occasion, the company, the parade and gayety, were all utterly dissonant from her
present feelings. With characteristic levity and thoughtlessness they employed persuasion
and ridicule, and finally so far prevailed that, with a desperate effort to shake off her convictions
and regain her former security, she exclaimed, ' Well, I will go, if I am damned for it! ' God took
her at her word. The blessed Spirit immediately withdrew his influences, and, instead of the
anxious sigh and longing desire to be freed from the body of sin and death, succeeded, by turns,
the calmness and the horrors of despair. 

"The wretched victim knew that the Spirit had taken his final leave: no compunctions for sin,
no tears of penitence, no inquiries after God, no eager seeking of the 'place where Christians
love to meet,' now occupied the tedious hours. Instead of the bloom and freshness of health,
there came the paleness and haggardness of decay. The wan and sunken cheek, the ghastly, glaring
eye, the emaciated limb,-the sure precursors of approaching dissolution,-were there. The
caresses of friends, the suggestions of affection, were all unheeded. The consolations of
piety-the last resource of the miserable-were to her but the bitterness of death. In this state
of mind I was called to visit her. When I entered the room and beheld her pale and emaciated, and
reflected that the ravages of her form without but faintly shadowed forth the wreck and desolation
within , I was almost overpowered. Never had I conceived so vivid an idea of the woe and misery
of those who have quenched the Spirit. 

"I proposed prayer. The word threw her into an agony. She utterly refused. No entreaties of
friends, no arguments 7 drawn from the love of God, or from the fulness and freeness of atoning
blood, could prevail to shake her resolution. I left her without being able to find a single
avenue to her heart, or to dart one ray of comfort into the dark bosom, which, to all human view,
was soon to be enveloped in the blackness of darkness forever. Never shall I forget the dreadful
expression of that ghastly countenance, the tones of that despairing voice. The impression
is as vivid as though it had been but yesterday. Oh that all the young, gay, thoughtless ones,
who stifle the convictions of conscience and repress the rising sigh, and dance along the brink
of utter reprobation and despair, would read and lay to heart the warning!" 

There are hundreds of ministers who can testify that they have seen revival influences rudely
checked, and awakened sinners suddenly sunk in the fatal slumber of spiritual insensibility,
by an ill-timed dance. If dying confessions mean any thing, its pleasures are often purchased
at the price of the soul; and in the day of judgment the appalling fact will be revealed to the
gaze of an astonished universe that the professed disciple of Jesus who gave to this evil practice
his countenance and support, lived, not to bless, but to curse, his circle of unbelieving acquaintances,
who felt the force of his ruinous example. 

I cannot do better, just here, than to quote a paragraph or two from a sermon by Dr. Chalmers on
the "Amusements and Companies of the World." He, first, most eloquently portrays the peril
in which the theatre and the dance involve the Christian himself, and "how utterly at antipodes
they are with the soul and habit of one who is singly aspiring after immortality." "And what
gives additional soreness as well as subtlety to this oft-recurring mischief," he adds, "is,
that it may not only injure the Christian, but may cause him to reflect the injury back again
on those who are around him. Let him have but the name and authority of religiousness,-let it
be held enough by the many that they reach the standard of his attainments,-let his example
be quoted as the measure of a safe and sufficient imitation,-and then let them witness with
what kindred delight he can give himself up-and that for hours together-to a scene of unmingled
earthliness. 

"Let it be seen how willingly he can disport himself among fellow-men who, if his Christianity
be true, are on the brink of a lake from whose devouring billows there is no other way of escape
than by the living faith and thorough regeneration of the gospel. And after all this, will it
be said that no damage is sustained by human souls from this man's easy connivance at the ungodliness
of the world, or from his complacent toleration of those parties by whom a sacred or scriptural
utterance would be felt as a most unseemly and most unwarranted intrusion, and so put a sudden
arrest on all that hilarity which they had met to indulge in? 

"Think you not that these will serve to reduce still further in the eyes of men the high topics
of immortality? and will they not foster the delusions of that practical infidelity which
so abounds among us? And do they not tend to satisfy that heart which, did it feel as it ought,
would be all awake and in disquietude about its sentence of condemnation? And do they not lend
a most pernicious sanction to the whole habit and history of creatures who have taken up with
the world as their resting-place, and, engrossed with the bustle of its companies and its joys,
never cast one look of earnestness to the eternity beyond it?" Alas! multitudes of these creatures
are held back from Christ by an idolatrous attachment for the pleasures of earth; and the dancing
Christian strengthens this ruinous attachment by going with them into all their revelries,
or by casting, from his conduct, the shadow of a dark and fatal suspicion upon the reality and
value of religion. 

Eleventh. The surrender of this fascinating 7* amusement furnishes nearly the only proof
of willingness that can be given these days, especially by the young, to deny themselves, in
accordance with the Saviour's high example and positive requirement, when he says, "If any
man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me;" "and he that
taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me." If the youthful Christian
cannot deny himself the pleasures of the dance, pray, in what respect can he be said to deny himself
in any thing? And if he denies himself in nothing, what love does he show for his Lord? What change
has been wrought in him? What consecration does he exhibit to the cause of Jesus? And what right
has he to indulge a hope that he is truly born of God through faith in Christ? 

The time has been in the history of the Church when a confession of the Saviour was made with the
rack, the stake, or the den of wild beasts in full view; and surely, my friend, I am not extravagant
nor fanatical when I say that the sincere Christian will cheerfully and gladly give up what
to him should no longer be the fascinating amusement, but the pitiful enjoyment of the childish
and nonsensical dance, for the sake of his Master, who not only bore the cross, but was nailed
to the cross for our sins. 

Twelfth. You observe that the arguments which I have urged against dancing in the Church of
Christ rest entirely on religious grounds; but, if time permitted, think a powerful argument
could be constructed against the "round dances," as they are called, on the ground of delicacy
and decency. These "round dances," into which the "square dances" seem certain to run, I here
and hereafter, and on all occasions, denounce as disgraceful and infamous. Fashion, which
is often a fool, and still oftener a fiend, even while wearing smiling face, has succeeded in
enthroning the waltz, and her still more lascivious sisters, as the recognized queens of our
best society, and under their sway it is fast getting to be our worst society. 

At the beck of these base tyrants, there are young ladies, I am sorry to say, who will permit liberties
to be taken with them in public, which, if attempted in private, they would instantly resent
as the most shocking insult. There are fathers and mothers who permit their daughters to attend
the "club" or the "hop;" and after gliding for hours through the "voluptuous movement of the
waltz," they are accompanied home, it may be, by an accomplished libertine, half drunk with
champagne. And shall these shameful practices go unrebuked because, forsooth, some weak-minded
parent, or giddy girl, or debased voluptuary, chooses to grow furious at the man who hurls his
indignant remonstrance against the outrage upon purity and morality which is committed night
after night in a thousand circles throughout the land? 

Would you be willing for your sister, or, in the event of your marriage, would you be willing
for your wife, to engage in these dances that are "all the rage" now? If you would, I pity, and
I was about to add, I despise you. But if you would not be willing, then observe, you have no right
as a gentleman, to say nothing of your character as a Christian, to indulge in familiarities
with another man's sister or wife which you would forbid if offered to those dear to your own
heart. Do not affect astonishment and indignation at these words, as if I suspected your chastity;
for I tell you candidly, I do suspect the chastity of thought and feeling of any young man who
is willing to dance the round dances, but unwilling to have his sisters dance them. 

I close with another extract from Dr. Chalmers. "Should it be found," he says, "that, in these
haunts of assembled elegance, a regardless impiety is sometimes connived at, and sometimes
a sensitive and high-toned delicacy is laughed out of countenance, -should there, in the midst
of all that disguise and decorum which signalizes the present above the former generation,-should
there be the hazard of so much as one sportive effusion by which the most pure or the most pious
ear could possibly be offended,-then the question instantly emerges out, of all its difficulties,
and the Christian, instead of having to grope his way through the ambiguities of a yet unsettled
controversy, will recoil from the poisoned insidiousness, with the promptitude of as quick
an alarm as he would from the most direct and declared abomination." 

In my next, I expect to cite the testimony of a few ecclesiastical bodies and distinguished
witnesses against dancing. VII. TESTIMONY AGAINST IT. 

I have not written one word against dancing when indulged in by unbelievers, "for what have
I to do to judge them also that are without?" Nor have I mentioned all of the reasons that have
occurred to my mind why even believers should abstain from the practice. I might show its injurious
effects upon the health; its frequent termination in death, when carried to excess, to which
the young are so liable; its inevitable tendency to form for the Christian improper associations;
its frightful diversion of the mind from serious thoughts and elevating subjects; its artful
ministering to vanity and love of display; its resistless power to excite the passions and
train the soul in the school of vice; its prodigal and sinful expenditure of time and money that
could be devoted to so much better purpose in the service of our Lord; its inherent childishness
and folly as an amusement, that- 

"Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven As make the angels weep," 

and still other objections that would be presented, if I thought it best to press them upon your
attention. 

I have, however, preferred to lay before you certain principles of Christian conduct clearly
taught in the word of God, and if, after prayerful reflection, you conclude that dancing is
not inconsistent with those principles, I have nothing more to say. I do not wish you to abandon
the custom simply because your pastor and the church to which you belong deem it to be wrong,
but because your own judgment is convinced, and your own conscience demands the decision that
it is improper and dangerous for a disciple of Christ to join with the enemies of God in the dance.

It may aid you to reach this decision if it can be shown that various churches, and the leading
men of various churches, differing widely in many respects, unite in condemning the dance
as it is and must be conducted at the present day. You will hardly say that these various bodies
of professing Christians have conspired without any reason to rob the young of an innocent
pleasure, and certainly you are willing to read with attention and respect the testimony of
men eminent for their learning, piety, and wisdom. 

First of all I ask you to ponder the following statement, found in the Pastoral Letter of the
Archbishops and Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States, assembled in plenary
council in Baltimore, October, 1866:- 

"In this connection, we consider it to be our duty to warn our people against those amusements
which may easily become to them an occasion of sin, and especially against the fashionable
dances, which, as at present carried on, are revolting to every 8 feeling of delicacy and propriety,
and are fraught with the greatest danger to morals ." 

Mark it! This council solemnly declares that fashionable dances "are fraught with the greatest
danger to morals," and through the confessional, which reveals to the priests of the Catholic
Church the very secrets of the heart, it is easy for them to know what practices are dangerous
to morals. Here, then, all of the archbishops and bishops of this vast country deliberately
affirm that fashionable dances "are fraught with the greatest danger to morals." 

The present Pope of Rome has, in a General Letter, expressed similar views; but as I cannot lay
my hand upon it at present, I will only add, in this connection, the testimony of the Catholic
Archbishop of Dublin, as given in a Lenten Pastoral to his people. He says:- 

"Never engage in those improper dances. imported from other countries, and retaining foreign
names, such as polkas and waltzes, which are so repugnant to the notions of strict Christian
morality, are condemned by many of the highest and most respectable members of society, and
are at direct variance with that purity and modesty of the female character for which Ireland
has been ever distinguished." 

I cite, next, the testimony of prominent witnesses in the Episcopal Church, and ask your special
attention to it, because many seem to suppose that this Church is not opposed to dancing. Such
a supposition is a total mistake, for every sincere Christian in that denomination is deeply
grieved when the members of the body to which he belongs violate, by engaging in the dance, their
solemn vows to "renounce the pomps and vanities of this wicked world." I am not aware that any
Episcopal Convention has formally pronounced upon the subject; but I know that the ablest
and most distinguished Episcopal bishops of the land have pronounced upon it in unmistakable
language. Thus we find Bishop Hopkins, of Vermont,-the senior bishop at the time of his death,
and perhaps the strongest intellect in his Church,-writing as follows:- 

"In the period of youthful education, I have shown that dancing is chargeable with waste of
time, the interruption to useful study, the indulgence of personal vanity and display, and
the premature incitement of the passions . At the age of maturity, it adds to these no small danger
to health, by late hours, flimsy dresses, heated rooms, and exposed persons; while its incongruity
with strict Christian sobriety and principle, and its tendency to the love of dissipation,
are so manifest, that no ingenuity can make it consistent with the covenant of baptism . It would
give me sincere pleasure to have expressed a very different opinion, because I am well aware
that few of my readers will relish my unaccommodating sentiments on such a theme. But candor
and honesty forbid, and I may not sacrifice what I believe to be the truth, in the service of worldly
expediency." 

The late venerable and beloved Bishop Meade, of Virginia, speaking of dancing, says,- 

"As an amusement, seeing that it is a perversion of an ancient religious exercise, and has ever
been discouraged by the sober-minded and pious of all nations on account of its evil tendencies
and accompaniments, we ought conscientiously to inquire whether its great liability to abuse,
and its many acknowledged abuses, should not make us frown upon it in all its forms? It has always
been considered so disreputable to excel in this as a public performer, that such persons have
been excluded sometimes from civil, and always from religious privileges, and from respectable
society. Can the practice of it, then, even in a more private way, be suitable or becoming in
a serious Christian? Very few persons can be found who do not answer, no. I shall not dwell on
these two arguments further, for obvious reasons. To my mind they are conclusive to show that
social dancing is not among the neutral things which, within certain limits, we may do at pleasure,
and even that it is not among the things lawful, but not expedient, but that it is, in itself,
wrong, improper, and of bad effect ." 

Bishop McIlvaine, of Ohio, who still lives, thank God, to "Stand up for Jesus," and to stay for
a little while the fall of his suffering and distracted Church, thus writes:- 

"Let me now turn to two subjects, in which there is no difficulty of discrimination,- the theatre
and the dance . The only line I would draw in regard to these is, that of entire exclusion . And
yet, my brethren, I am well aware how easy it is for the imagination to array both these in such
an abstract and elementary simplicity, so divested of all that gives them their universal
character and relish, that no harm could be detected in either. The question is not what we can
imagine them to be; but what they always have been, and will be, and must be, in such a world as
this, to render them pleasurable to those who patronize them. Strip them bare, till they stand
in the simple innocence to which their defenders' arguments would reduce them, and the world
would not have them. 

"If the writer be asked whether, in his view, in the pomps and vanities of this wicked world,
which are renounced in baptism, are included theatrical amusements and dances , he answers,
without hesitation, in the affirmative. If he be asked whether, under the apostle's exhortation,
'Be not conformed to this world,' they are included as matters of worldly conformity to be forsaken,
he answers, 'Certainly.' If he be asked whether these things are consistent with the cultivation
of a spiritual mind and the maintaining of a rightful Christian influence, by example, for
the good of men and the glory of God, he must answer, they are, in his view, very inconsistent
with such duties. He thinks they are renounced in baptism, that their renunciation is ratified
in confirmation, and professed in every participation of the Lord's Supper. He prays that
the time may come when all communicants will unite in rejecting these things." 

Bishop Coxe, of Western New York, recently addressed a "Pastoral" to his people in view of the
season of Lent, in which he uses the following forcible language:- 

"The enormities of theatrical exhibitions, and the lasciviousness of dances, too commonly
tolerated in our times, are so disgraceful to the age and so irreconcilable with the gospel
of Christ, that I feel it my duty to the souls of my flock to warn those who run with the world to
'the same excess of riot' in these things, that they presume not to come to the holy table. Classes
preparing for confirmation are informed that I will not lay hands, knowingly, on any one who
is not prepared to renounce such things, with other abominations of 'the world, the flesh,
and the devil.' Let all such choose deliberately whom they will serve; and if salvation be worth
striving for, let them be persuaded to a sober life, to self-denial, and to the pure and innocent
enjoyments which the gospel not only permits, but which it only can create. It is high time that
the lines should be drawn between worldly and godly living; and I see no use in a Lent that is not
sanctified to such ends." 

The Protestant Episcopal Female Tract Society of Baltimore has uttered its testimony by declaring
that "indecent dances, involving personal Liberties between the sexes which would be unsafe
and indecent anywhere, become fashionable, and finally indispensable at the meetings of
good society;" and that for "parents to have their children taught to dance is nothing else
but leading the little ones into temptation, exposing them to a snare. They may in theory dance
innocently, but practically they will not." 

The Rev. J. T. Brooke, D. D., formerly rector of Christ Church, Cincinnati, exclaims, "What!
discuss the propriety of dancing as an amusement for those who, if they dance at all, must dance
on the thin and uncertain platform of human life, without knowing how soon, or at what hour or
moment, it may give way and drop them into everlasting burnings!" 

I am willing to weigh such testimony against those feeble-minded clergymen who choose to disgrace
the Episcopal pulpit by publicly defending or privately patronizing the dance with the hope
of inducing the wealthy and the fashionable to enter their Church. Verily they have their reward;
but they have it only here. When they come to stand before their indignant Judge, who will require
at their hands the blood of the wicked and the worldly whom they were too timid or too careless
to warn, they will wish they had never been born. 

But I pass on to cite other witnesses, and will now present an extract from a little book written
by a Methodist preacher, and called, "An Appeal to all Christians, especially the Members
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, against the Practice of Social Dancing." The writer says,-

"There is another very important reason why members of the Methodist Episcopal Churches especially
cannot be allowed to dance with impunity. It is a flagrant violation of the 'General Rules'
of those Churches, both North and South, and of the assurance they gave, on being received into
the Church, of a 'willingness to observe and keep the rules;' and all who desire to continue
in the fellowship of those churches are required to abstain from 'all such diversions as cannot
be used in the name of the Lord Jesus;' and this has always been interpreted as prohibiting their
members from attending theatres, circuses, balls, dancing parties, &c. And so frequently
is this rule read, expounded, and enforced upon the membership, that to ignore its existence
is to manifest a degree of ignorance of which any one in fellowship with those churches ought
to be heartily ashamed. And this rule is not a dead letter. Every probationer is required to
'evidence his desire of salvation' by keeping it in connection with the other 'general rules;'
and none can be received into full fellowship until, in addition to other prerequisites, they
give satisfactory assurances of a 'willingness to observe and keep the rules of the Church.'
So that if members of these churches dance, or attend dancing parties, they not only violate
one of the fundamental rules of their Church, but they are also guilty of violating a solemn
pledge, given by themselves in the presence of the Church, to 'observe and keep the rules' of
the Church. 

"It was our good fortune, years ago, to hear one of the General Superintendents of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, deliver a pastoral address to an Annual Conference, in which he referred
to the evident increase of dancing propensities among the membership, and earnestly exhorted
the ministers to enforce the rules of the Church against all such 'disorderly walkers.' In
concluding his remarks upon this point, he averred that if the Church of his choice should ever
connive at this practice in her official capacity, and permit persons to remain in her fellowship
habitually addicted to it, he would feel it his duty to withdraw from her pale and seek Christian
communion elsewhere." 

I will not weary you further at present; but in my next I propose to adduce the testimony of other
witnesses to prove that dancing is not the harmless thing you so confidently asserted it to
be. VIII. TESTIMONY AGAINST IT-CONTINUED. 

The next witness I cite to give testimony against dancing is the "Baptist Quarterly" for October,
1867. My personal knowledge of the amusement is so very limited, I am not prepared to say whether
the serious charge contained in the extract from this able and dignified periodical can be
substantiated; but, judging from remarks which I am reliably informed are constantly made
by young men who are fond of the dance, I am constrained to believe that the terrible accusation
can be sustained so far as the majority of gentlemen are concerned. 

I do not believe it is well founded if the writer had young ladies in view; for, low as is my opinion
of human nature, I doubt whether their depravity takes the direction 9 here indicated. I am
sure there are thousands of girls who retain their purity of heart even when engaged in the "round
dances," and I have always felt that they deserve far lighter censure than their foolish parents
who permit them to form such habits. 

Still, having made this admission in all sincerity, I am bound to add, there can be no doubt that
very many of the vast number of abandoned women who, according to police reports, fill the houses
of ill-fame and flock to the assignation-houses, found in every city, received their first
schooling in vice in the theatre and the dance. If a young girl will so sacredly guard her maidenly
modesty and delicacy of feeling that she will not consent to look at the shameful performances
and profligate performers so generally found in the theatre, and will not permit the unwarrantable
liberties so constantly allowed in the dance, she is not in much danger of falling into the deep
degradation which drags multitudes of her sex into everlasting ruin. 

It is time, however, to present the Baptist testimony against dancing; and I hope you will read
it, although it may call a blush to your cheek. 

"Our accusation is that the dance, instead of affording an opportunity for mutually ennobling
companionship between man and woman, inspired with a chaste and sweet interfused remembrance
of their contrasted relationship to each other,-that the dance, instead of this, consists
substantially of a system of means contrived with more than human ingenuity to incite the instincts
of sex to action, however subtle and disguised at the moment, in its sequel the most bestial
and degrading. We charge that here, and not elsewhere, in the anatomy of that elusive fascination
which belongs so peculiarly to the dance, we lay our scalpel upon the quivering secret of life.
Passion,-passion transformed, if you please, never so much, subsisting in no matter how many
finely contrasted degrees of sensuality,-passion, and nothing else, is the true basis of
the popularity of the dance. 

"For it is no accident that the dance is what it is. It mingles the sexes in such closeness of personal
approach and contact as, outside of the dance, is nowhere tolerated in respectable society.
It does this under a complexity of circumstances that conspire to heighten the impropriety
of it. It is evening, and the hour is late; there is the delicious and unconscious intoxication
of music and motion in the blood; there is the strange, confusing sense of being individually
unobserved among so many, while yet the natural 'noble shame' which guards the purity of man
and woman alone together is absent,-such is the occasion, and still, hour after hour, it whirls
its giddy kaleidoscope around, bringing hearts so near that they almost beat against each
other, mixing the warm mutual breaths, darting the fine personal electricity across between
the meeting fingers, flushing the face and lighting the eyes with a quick language, subject
often to gross interpretations on the part of the vile-hearted,-why, this fashionable institution
seems to us to have been invented in an unfriendly quarter, usually conceived of as situated
under us, to give our human passions leave to disport themselves, unreproved by conscience,
by reason, or by shame, almost at their will." 

After this long sentence we will pause a moment to take breath; and, meanwhile, I will say that
the writer uses language which seems to indicate a record of his personal experience, previous
to his conversion to God, of the dangerous tendencies and effects of the dance. He writes like
one who had felt the evils of which he complains, and, if so, I ask you to make allowance for his
apparent indelicacy and real zeal in denouncing a practice which, with the Catholic archbishops
and bishops, he believes to be "fraught with the greatest danger to morals." 

But let us listen to his testimony a little further:- 

"We say that the dance is not fortuitously such. It is such essentially. Its real nature is shown
by what it constantly tends to become in new figures introduced 9* stealthily from time to time
(under silent protest from any who suffer their modesty to be overborne by the fear of being
charged with prudery), a little more doubtful than the old, and in wanton whirls, like the waltz
and the polka. Always the dance inclines to multiply opportunities of physical proximity
and contact between the sexes,-always to make them prolonged and more daring. But if what has
already been said and suggested fails to convince any that our analysis of the pleasure of the
dance is true, we have a little problem to propose for their solution: why is it that the dance
alone, of all the favourite diversions of gay society, requires the association of the two
sexes in it? And then consider, ye Christian fathers, and brothers, and husbands, to what horrible
hazards of contact the opportunities of the dance expose your daughters, and sisters, and
wives. For who that has gained any experience of the world is ignorant of the fact that hardly
once does a considerable party assemble, even in the most respectable society, without including
some man whom his associates know to be a libertine at heart, if not in life? To think of pure women
being pastured on, with palms of pollution, and with imminent eyes of adultery, by such a human
ball of Bashan the evening long in the promiscuous corral of the dance! What better facilities
could be imagined for an accomplished voluptuary to compass capture of his prey? Oh, Fashion!
Fashion! What power hast thou to browbeat holy nature, so that she dares not speak to assert
her sacred claims against thy imperious sway! We abruptly dismiss this hateful subject without
completing the discussion of it. If our readers have winced at the exceptional plainness of
speech which we have used, we beg them to believe that it has cost us sincere pangs of resolution
to use it. But we have written under duress of conscience that did not suffer us to shrink. The
engineering skill of the devil has defended the dance with a masterly dilemma that leaves open
barely two alternatives of attack about equally ineligible. You may either exhaust your strength
in demonstrating the minor and incidental evils of the usage, in which case you can win an easy
but also a barren victory; or you must freely encounter the peril of damaging your own fair fame
for purity, and deliver your blow full at its inherent and essential immorality. We have deliberately
chosen the latter alternative. We can trust the honest heat of indignation that has warmed
our words to take away the offence of their extreme fidelity. As for the risk of being charged
with bringing the impurity that we find, we contentedly accept it. It is a charge which two classes
of persons certainly will not prefer. These two classes are, first, those who know us and; secondly,
those who know themselves." 

The next witness I cite is the American Tract Society, which has the sympathy, and, to some extent,
the support of all evangelical Christians in the land. It may, therefore, be fairly considered
the best representative we can find of the views entertained by various religious bodies with
regard to any doctrine or duty presented and urged in its publications. Do not forget, then,
that this society has repeatedly published its testimony against dancing, and I have never
heard that any denomination has withheld its countenance or contributions on account of such
testimony. The only possible inference is, that the united voice of evangelical Christians
in the United States, as expressed through the American Tract Society, has declared the amusement
which I am opposing to be sinful, while you affirm it to be innocent. Are you perfectly sure that
you are right, and that the great majority of the disciples of Christ of every name are wrong?

In this connection I will add a paragraph from the "Church Union," which may be considered,
like the Tract Society, a kind of representative of various ecclesiastical bodies, as it has
been established for the object of bringing Christians of all denominations into closer fellowship.
My eye fell upon the paragraph while opening the paper for a moment this morning, and I have no
doubt a vast amount of similar testimony could be gathered from the religious press, if one
would take time to collect it. The "Church Union" speaks as follows:- 

"Beecher says well, in his lecture on amusements: 'Whenever amusements come demoralized,
it is better to get new ones than to put the old in hospitals: the turf is past redemption.' And
he might have added the stage, and cards, and dice, and billiards, which were but gambling-tools
in their very origin, and the dance , which has been devoted to revelry and lasciviousness ever
since such things existed, and in the modern world never had so much as an exceptional better
use, unless the refined dissipation of God-forsaking modern people be better (which we doubt)
than the beastly dissipation from which it descended." 

I now adduce the testimony of the Presbyterian Church; and, first of all, call your attention
to the fact that the General Assembly has again and again uttered its solemn admonition against
dancing. As late as the year 1860, furnishing the last minutes to which I have access, the Assembly
adopted the following resolutions:- 

"That whilst the pleasures of the ballroom and the theatre are primarily intended by the 'dancing
and stage plays' forbidden in the answer to the 139th Question in the Larger Catechism, the
spirit of the prohibition extends to all kindred amusements which are calculated to awaken
thoughts and feelings inconsistent with the Seventh Commandment, as explained by the Saviour
in Matthew v. 27, 28. 

"That whilst we regard the practice of promiscuous social dancing by members of the Church
as a mournful inconsistency, and the giving of parties for such dancing on the part of the heads
of families as tending to compromise their religious profession, and the sending of children
by Christian parents to the dancing-school as a sad error in family discipline, yet; we think
that the session of each church is fully competent to decide when discipline is necessary,
and the extent to which it should be administered." 

In October of the same year, the Synod of Missouri met in the town of Columbia, and unanimously
adopted the following paper, which I present only as an illustration of the action which various
Synods and Presbyteries have taken scores of times in relation to dancing:- 

"The committee call the special attention of Synod to the deliverance of the Assembly on dancing,
and recommend them to say that, in the opinion of this Synod, there are many pleasures and practices
deemed innocent and proper by those who are not professors of religion, which are nevertheless
utterly inconsistent with the teachings of God's holy word, injurious in their influence
on Christian character, and inimical to the cause of Jesus Christ. The injunction 'be not conformed
to this world,' and kindred passages of Scripture, imply that something more is required of
God's children, in their walk and conversation, than simply to lead what is called a correct
moral life; and a Christian professor who in any way encourages the gay and fashionable amusements
of the world, especially dancing and attendance upon theatrical performances, furnishes
sad evidence that he has not yet 'put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which
is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,' nor 'put on the new man, which after God is created
in righteousness and true holiness,' and that to him, at least, the promises and hopes of the
gospel are a very unsatisfying portion. 

"He thus brings dishonour and reproach upon his religious profession, throws a stumbling-block
in the way of sinners, offends them that are weak, and grievously wounds the Saviour in the house
of his friends. There is a line of distinction between those worldly amusements which are harmless
and those which are sinful. It may sometimes be difficult to determine where that line should
be drawn; and a Christian who has much of the mind and temper which were in Christ, and would keep
his conscience void of offence, may and will avoid indulgence in many things which, from their
intimate connection with lawful and necessary pursuits, may not with unerring certainty
be held to be absolutely sinful. 

"But with regard to dancing and theatrical performances there can be no such difficulty. They
are the most giddy, thoughtless, and fascinating pursuits the world has to offer to her votaries
on the very utmost 10 limits to which worldly amusements can go. And if the Christian may not
go all lengths with ungodly men in the pursuits which Satan so successfully uses to divert them
from the consideration of serious things pertaining to the soul's eternal welfare, he must
certainly pause in his indulgence far before he reaches the highest of the world's gay follies.

"1. It is, therefore, resolved, That the practice of dancing, of giving or attending private
or public dancing parties or theatrical exhibitions, and of educating their children in the
art of dancing, by professing Christians, is clearly forbidden by the spirit of the gospel,
condemned by our Confession of Faith, and by the decisions of oar highest Church judicatories,
and in violation of the covenant obligations entered into by every one who connects himself
with the Church of Christ; and that such conduct is an offence which a due regard to the purity
as well as the peace of the Church will not permit her courts to overlook or disregard. 

"2. Synod does, therefore, recommend and enjoin that the sessions of all churches within our
bodies treat these sins as other recognized sins are to be treated, and, by proper instruction,
admonition and reproof, endeavour in the spirit of Christian gentleness and fidelity to remove
all such practices from our churches. And that when milder measures fail, they proceed by the
exercise of discipline to correct the evil, or to separate those who wilfully persist in these
sinful practices from the body of Christ, that the cause of Christ be not hindered, and that
we may thus co-operate with him in presenting 'to himself a glorious Church, not having spot
or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it may be holy and without blemish.'" 

In my next, I hope to conclude the testimony of witnesses, by presenting the views of some of
the most eminent men in the Presbyterian Church. IX. TESTIMONY AGAINST IT-CONTINUED. 

The late Dr. Alexander, whose name will be honoured and revered by Presbyterians while their
church continues to exist, speaking of fashionable amusements, well says:- 

"The growing laxity of the age gives peculiar meaning to the exhortation, 'Be not conformed
to this world.' The rule of most is corrupt and dangerous; it is to do as others do. The consequence
is mutual injury and perpetual declension in the Church. You will find professors who as they
increase in wealth constantly enlarge their license. It requires a keen eye to discriminate
between their pleasures and expenditures and those of the ungodly. If they abstain from the
theatre, they go freely to the opera; or, if they scruple at this, they linger at the midnight
ball. The step is so easily taken from apparently innocent dancing to that which is free, indiscreet,
amorous, and licentious, that a tender conscience will find it safest to reject all . Apply,
if you can, to such assemblages, however common, the divine maxim, 'Love not the world, neither
the things that are in the world; if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.'
That young communicant is near his fall who is often asking how near he may go to the brink of sin
and yet be safe. Observe the families which have made this passage from ancient strictness
to fashionable Christianity, and you will find their children, one by one, sliding away to
looser forms of religion, if not to utter carelessness." 

My next witness is Rev. William S. Potts, D.D., for many years the faithful and beloved pastor
of the Second Presbyterian Church of St. Louis. In a sermon which he published on the text: "Have
no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them," he first affirms
that dancing is one of these unfruitful works of darkness, and then says of the public ball:-
10* 

"The female is expected to make her appearance in a ball-dress, which means that as much of the
person as modesty will at all permit shall be exposed. She may be held in the embrace of the smooth-tongued
stranger whom she never saw before, and whose heart is filled with lust, and her panting breast
drawn close to his, while waltzing or practising any of the still more indelicate dances now
most fashionable. Do these assemblies and acts commend themselves as very proper for either
your sons or daughters? There is enough of virtue and sense of sound propriety yet to decide
that these, too, are not the places for the lovers of light and purity. 

"We come, next in order, to the dancing party given by an individual in his own house. Let us examine
into the difference between this case and the public ball. Now, the rules of the ball-room are
the rules in his house, the moment the dance is announced as the amusement of the evening. The
same dresses, the same indelicate dances, the same excitement, the same refreshments and
drinking, the same late and unseasonable hours; the numbers, too, are about the same. There
is a little less caution and restraint on the part of the females, because of a sense of a greater
security against impropriety from its being a private party. But let us, according to the principle
with which we set out, apply the Scripture marks to the amusement, as now described under four
different phases, and thus see whether it comes under the prohibition of the text. Is it unfruitful?
Who ever heard of any one being made more upright, a better citizen or neighbour, by dancing?
What vice or evil in society did dancing upon the stage, at the masquerade, the public ball,
or private party, ever reform? Who is more sober, more honest, more charitable, more public-spirited
or industrious, in consequence of dancing? Who is more prayerful, more diligent in reading
the Scriptures, in training his family for God, in leading men to a Saviour, by virtue of his
dancing? Who ever was converted to God by dancing? 

"Perhaps you say these are questions entirely foreign to the subject,-it is no part of the design
of dancing to reform society or advance religion; they are amusements simply, and are not to
be viewed in any other light. Then, Christian, they are not for you. You promised, when you gave
yourself to God, that whether you ate or drank, or whatsoever you did, to do all to the glory of
God. To engage in works, giving to them your time, money, and attention, while you pronounce
them unfruitful in any good, is an open violation of your own solemn covenant with God. To you,
at least, these amusements are sin. Expensive dressing and its attendants, pride and vanity,
are inseparably connected with this amusement. Drinking is encouraged, the fires of lust
are fanned, the veil of female modesty removed, and, in the cases just mentioned, the foundations
of female chastity are shaken and often overthrown . 

"Now, I direct your attention again to God's command:-'Have no fellowship with them.' Keep
your mind for a moment simply on that. Remember it means, 'Don't countenance, don't become
an apologist, don't go part way, don't aid or abet.' Can God command less? Can he in wise admit
of your being a partaker in other men's sins? Then you break God's command by going yourself
to such scenes, or suffering those under your authority to go. And still more, if you convert
your house into a ball-room for the exacting of such scenes, you become an aid to Satan in his
work. 

"There is also involved in this command that you shall not send your children to the dancing-school
. That is to countenance the whole evil; it is the root from which all the rest springs. It is to
become by your conduct an apologist, and your example will be quoted by every advocate of the
dance in all its forms. It is to aid and abet in a most decided manner, giving the minds of your
children, as well as your money, to perpetuate the evil. This is the most strange infatuation
that ever possessed the mind of a Christian parent. The viper's egg is harmless, but, watched
over and warmed into life, it has a deadly fang." 

Rev. N. L. Rice, D. D., who does not need an introduction to you nor to any other Presbyterian
in the land, has published his views in regard to the great danger of permitting even children
to learn to dance; and his testimony is in harmony with that just given from the pen of Dr. Potts.
In a printed sermon on dancing, he says,- 

"I am aware that there is some difficulty in the discussion of this subject, arising from the
various phases which it assumes,-from the family dance in the parlour of a professor of religion,
under the eye of the head of the family, to the gayest and most brilliant ball, and even the masquerade
dance. We labour under the same difficulty in showing the sinfulness of card-playing, horse-racing,
and the theatre. It might be difficult to prove it a sin in itself for a few young persons to amuse
themselves an hour or two by playing at cards. We know, however, that it is an attractive and
exciting amusement; that when once our children have become pleased with it, they are likely
to yield to the suggestion that, by risking a few cents, additional interest will be imparted
to the game; and we know that, having gone thus far, they are fairly introduced to the gaming-table,
and that they are likely enough to become regular gamblers. We proceed, therefore, upon the
Latin adage, 'Obsta principiis' ('Resist the beginnings of evil'). Or, rather, we are guided
by the word of inspiration:-'Abstain from all appearance of evil.' 

"On the same general principle we oppose dancing, as now conducted. Suppose we admit that there
is nothing improper in the family dance in your parlour: we know perfectly well that this is
but the commencement of the difficulty. Your children learn to dance; they are delighted with
dancing; you have admitted that there is nothing improper in it; and now that the principle
is conceded, they will carry it out for you. And you will find it no easy matter to prove to them
that dancing in the parlour is proper enough, but dancing in a large and elegant ball-room quite
sinful. They will attend balls, the gayest and most brilliant of them; and you cannot prevent
it. You have introduced them to an amusement of the most fascinating character; you have conceded
and contended that dancing is not wrong; and now that they have reached the age when they claim
to act for themselves, they will pay little regard to your prudent advice." 

Rev. B. M. Palmer, D. D., of New Orleans, who stands in the very front rank, as you are aware, of
preachers and thinkers in our day, says, in a published sermon on dancing,- 

"Above all, do we profess to be the followers of Him whose style and title on earth was 'the man
of sorrows?' Do we profess to 'bear about in our bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus;' and have
we been to the communion-table expressly to remember him in his death and to have fellowship
with him in his sufferings? Oh, tell it not out to earth, lest it rend again the very rocks and
break once more the slumbers of the dead,- a dancing disciple of a crucified Redeemer ! Indeed,
so deeply impressed is my own mind with the inconsistency of dancing with baptismal obligations,
I hesitate not to utter my mature conviction that members of the Church who consent to the dancing
of their children are perfectly amenable to the discipline of God's house, on the ground of
their breach of vows. Promiscuous dancing between the sexes is essentially voluptuous and
demoralizing. Nor is it a sufficient answer to say that multitudes dance who are never conscious
of any improper associations. It might not be safe for many whose character is above suspicion
even to themselves to make too nice an analysis of the pleasures they experience in the dance.
How comes it that even in communities where the gospel lifts its voice, and therefore virtue
has a sure abode, the waltz so extensively prevails?-a species of dance I do not hesitate thus
publicly to denounce as undisguisedly licentious . 

"The liberties, too, taken in the dance are such as can hardly be safe, even when sanctioned
by the sacred laws of kindred and tender friendship. And it seems strange to us that a freedom
which, if indulged in ordinary intercourse, would be chastised as impertinence, should be
allowed in the public assembly, and even to perfect strangers. Take human nature as it is, fallen
and depraved, and subject to the domination of wicked passions, and judge ye whether the concomitants
of the dance are not as dangerous as the smoking brand to the magazine of powder. The ball-room
dress,-not generally such as a severe taste would approve,-the electric touch of the 11 hand,
the fascination of the eye, the excitement of physical motion, the gay confusion of sounds,
the bewildering glare of light, act powerfully upon the senses, and occasion a vague and wild
delight, into the source of which there is little opportunity to examine. What aggravates
the evil still more is that the persons who are chiefly subjected to this severe ordeal are the
least able to abide it. And at no period of life is it so difficult to stem the current of appetite
as when the passions begin to develop, and, in all the freshness of novelty, fill the mind with
images of pleasure. The young are the very last who should be surrendered to such a trial. It
is just the season when sense and appetite enter the lists against reason and principle,-just
the season when the lusts of the heart rise up from their lair, hungry as young lions, and the
judgment is untrained by experience,-just the season when the die is cast for life,-and just
the season when every evil thought leaves a stain upon the soul indelible forever. In short,
if the dance has not worked out its worst results among us, it is because Christianity will not
close her jealous eye nor hush her warning voice. Let these Bibles be closed, these pulpits
be silent, the voice of weeping and intercession, now heard between the porch and the altar,
be stifled, let no banner be lifted up by the Spirit of the Lord, and the tide of profligacy and
vice will sweep on, until religion and common morals shall go down together beneath their gloomy
waves." 

Rev. S. R. Wilson, D. D., pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Louisville, Kentucky,
who is one of the ablest and purest of ministers in any denomination, preached a sermon on dancing,
which has been sanctioned and published by the Presbyterian Board of Publication. In it I find
the following language:- 

"Without the least hesitation it may be affirmed that this fashionable amusement, as taught
by French monsieurs and mesdames, whether to children or grown-up boys and girls, and as indulged
in by a thoughtless world, at soirees, at fairs, at weddings, or at balls, belongs to the forbidden
category of 'chambering and wantonness,' which the Spirit of God has associated with 'rioting
and drunkenness.' This amusement can never, with propriety, be participated in by Christians
. The promiscuous dance is with modesty. This remark may be applied to the children's dance
in the parlour, and to the dancing of grown-up men and women in other places, according to the
measure of each. The evil, indeed, begins in the dancing-school, which, instead of being called
a school of easy manners, ought rather to be styled a place where girls are taught to substitute
the finesse of the coquette for true female delicacy, and boys take their primary lessons in
the art of seduction." 

Rev. Stuart Robinson, D.D., pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church of Louisville, Kentucky,
whose vigorous intellect and fearless advocacy of what he believes to be truth have made him
well known throughout the land, says, in a recent article in the "Free Christian Commonwealth",-

"To intelligent Christian men and women, with the word of God in their hands and in their hearts,
as the infallible rule of faith, it is simply impossible that this question of indulgence in
such worldly pleasures as the theatre, the masquerade, the card-table, and the dance, can
be a doubtful or debatable question. And the ground on which the Christian pastor warns and
rebukes is chiefly neither because of any inherent sin in the amusements themselves, nor even
the ethical precepts of the gospel against worldly conformity, but as evidences of a decay
of spiritual life and danger of making shipwreck of faith. Whether able metaphysically to
prove the sin or not, or to demonstrate the points of casuistry arising under the application
of the gospel rule, or to confirm by testimony of the Church or not, the signs of spiritual decay
are manifest, and therefore he warns and enforces the gospel precepts upon the declining believer."

Rev. Le Roy J. Halsey, D. D., the accomplished Professor of Historical and Pastoral Theology
and Church Government in the Northwestern Theological Seminary, writes,- 

"We can see no defence of our modern promiscuous dancing from the charge of 11* being an irrational,
unscriptural, and injurious custom. And shall parents train their children to all the 'misty
mazes' of the dance, and yet, with strange inconsistency, expect God to convert and save them
while thus placing one of the greatest obstacles in the way?" 

Rev. W. M. Engles, D. D., in an introduction to a tract on dancing, issued by the Presbyterian
Board of Publication, uses the following language:- 

"Supposing, however, that you are now actually contending for the innocence of dancing, we
ask if your present opinion has not been preceded by an evident decline in your religious sensibilities,-the
cooling of that fervour which characterized your first love? Have you not been neglecting
the duties of the closet? Has not religion lost much of its impressiveness? Have you not been
silencing conscience and giving way to temptations? In a word, does not your heart testify
that you are backsliders? These are serious questions, and they deserve serious answers.
Our own opinion is that no true Christian can become an advocate of promiscuous dancing until
he has gone through this fearfully retrograde process." 

The New School General Assembly, in 1843, and again, substantially, in 1853, declared,- 

"The fashionable amusement of promiscuous dancing to be entirely unscriptural, and eminently
and exclusively of the world, wholly inconsistent with the spirit of Christ and with that propriety
of Christian deportment and purity of heart which his followers are bound to maintain." 

Rev. Albert Barnes says,- 

"Dancing, balls, and parties lead to forgetfulness of God. They nourish passion and sensual
desires. They often lead to the seduction and ruin of the innocent. No child dances into heaven;
but many a one dances into hell." 

Mr. Horace Holden, for many years a well-known ruling elder of the Brick Church in New York City,
exclaims, "The scenes witnessed at dancing and waltzing parties do not look much like waging
war with the world. Here I am in a vortex: I am surrounded by fashionable, dancing, late-party
Christians. My children are exposed to their influence. We have no other society. What am I
to do?" His pastor, the venerable Gardiner Spring, D. D., whom I met in the winter of 1860, said
to me, in the presence of his colleague, Dr. William J. Hoge, as nearly as I can remember the words,
"Sir, dancing has been a source of greater trouble to me in my church than all other causes of
disquietude combined." 

But, even if time permitted, it is useless to cite other witnesses. I could quote from leading
men in all the evangelical Churches both in this country and in Europe; for the true people of
God of every name give precisely the same testimony on this subject. 

One more letter will conclude what I have to say about dancing. X. CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS.

My dear Friend :- 

If you have followed me carefully through these letters, which are now brought to a close, I
am sure you have already resolved not to dance again. I do not say that you have found here a thorough
and exhaustive discussion of the subject; for I have written hurriedly, amid the constant
pressure of manifold duties. But I am satisfied enough has been said to make you doubt whether
a Christian should ever engage in this fascinating and fashionable amusement. And now, if
I have succeeded in raising a doubt in your mind, my labour has not been in vain in the Lord; for
no true child of God will pursue a course of conduct that is of doubtful propriety. He cannot
rest until he knows he is on the safe side. 

Let us review for a moment the ground over which we have passed in the progress of this investigation.
After stating the precise question to be discussed, noticing the apologies or excuses that
are usually presented by the advocates of the dance, and examining the character of the witnesses
that appear in its defence, I brought forward twelve arguments against it. 

The first of these is found in the fact that dancing, as at present conducted, is forbidden by
those passages of God's word which require us to "abstain from all appearance of evil." Second.
It is condemned by those passages which charge us to "be not conformed to this world." Third.
It was shown that the practice increases this dangerous relish for the world, while it leads
to the neglect of the ordinances of religion and to evil associations. Fourth. It was proved
to be inconsistent with the fundamental principles of a true Church and of church membership.
Fifth. It is in direct conflict with the duties, privileges, and tastes of sincere Christians
as they are set forth in the sacred Scriptures. Sixth. It is a source of grief and cause of offence
to many of the disciples of our Lord, and is therefore clearly unlawful. Seventh. If "there
is no wrong in dancing," as you affirmed, then no wrong would be done although your minister
and ruling elders and all other members of the church should rush into the frantic whirl of gayety;
but this you could not tolerate for a moment. Eighth. It is forbidden by those Scriptures which
declare that the body of the Christian is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and that he is bound to
live with reference to the glory of God whether he eats, or drinks, or whatsoever he does. Ninth.
It invariably destroys the influence of professed Christians for good. Tenth. It is a source
of unspeakable injury to those who are not Christians. Eleventh. It furnishes the most important
test, perhaps, that can be made in our day, of the willingness of the young disciple to deny self
in conformity with the example and precepts of the Saviour. Twelfth. Fashionable dancing,
into which every form of the amusement is certain to run with the great majority of those who
indulge in it at all, is essentially immoral and licentious. 

After presenting these arguments, I adduced the testimony of various witnesses to sustain
my position; and, although they disagree about many questions of doctrine, and church government,
and forms of worship, they perfectly agree in their condemnation of the dance. I gave the testimony
of the Roman Catholic archbishops and bishops, and the testimony of four leading bishops of
the Protestant Episcopal Church, and the testimony of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
to which I wish to add that, since my last letter was written, I have received a communication
from a distinguished member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, North, in which he says,-"Of
course no good Methodists ever dance. Our discipline and general rules are plain and direct
on the question." 

Then I offered the testimony of the Baptist Church, and of the Tract Society, supported largely
by the Congregational Church, and of the "Church Union,"-a representative, in some sense,
of all the churches,-and of the Presbyterian Church, in the resolutions repeatedly adopted,
without a dissentient voice, by the General Assemblies, both Old and New School, and in the
tracts issued by their Boards of Publication, and in the published sermons delivered by some
of their most eminent ministers. Drs. Alexander, Potts, Rice, Palmer, Wilson, Robinson,
Engles, and Barnes were quoted; and I could add the testimony of many others on both sides of
the Atlantic, including such names as Payson, McCheyne, John Angell James, Adam Clarke, Chalmers,
and scores of the most illustrious men who have ever preached Christ. 

And, now, I ask you with all earnestness, in the first place, whether you believe 12 that all
of these Churches and distinguished ministers of the gospel have conspired to deprive you
of an innocent enjoyment; and, in the second place, whether you believe that they are all deluded
fanatics; and, in the third place, whether you believe that dancing is of too trifling importance
to be seriously noticed. I am aware that there are preachers who pretend to ridicule any mention
of the subject, as beneath the dignity of the pulpit; but I also know that they are more anxious
to gain the applause of the fashionable, by connivance at their worldliness, than they are
to gain the applause of our Lord. I am willing to place against their affected sneers the solemn
warnings of the principal Churches of Christendom, and the most prominent leaders of these
Churches, whose shoe latchet they are not worthy to unloose. 

Look at these warnings, and then look at the brazen effrontery of some sappy fop who is only a
vulgar fraction of a man, and of some giddy girl whose brains have run to her heels, when they
lisp that the remonstrances which are raised against dancing by faithful pastors are "cant"
and "fanaticism." It is questionable whether they have sufficient intelligence to understand
the meaning of such terms, which they so flippantly use. Let them dance on, for, probably, it
is the only species of enjoyment which they are capable of receiving or appreciating; and let
us comfort ourselves with the thought that there is a bare hope of their salvation on the ground
that the divine mercy is extended to infants and idiots in a peculiar way. 

But for you, my friend, who possess an intellect and profess to be a Christian, there is no such
excuse and no such hope, if you continue to indulge in an amusement so clearly condemned by the
word of God and by the unanimous verdict of his true followers. "To him that knoweth to do good,
and doeth it not, to him it is sin." You certainly know that not one person of any sense claims
that it is a duty to dance, while thousands upon thousands of the most earnest Christians claim
that it is sinful to dance. You certainly know that the bearing of the Bible is against modern
dancing, while the world, which is the enemy of God, approves and upholds it. You certainly
know that those whose wisdom, experience, and piety entitle them to be heard, insist that it
is a practice fraught with imminent peril to the soul and to the blood-bought Church of Christ,
while, as a rule, the young, the thoughtless, and the impenitent are its chief advocates. 

But even among these last mentioned there are many who see the gross impropriety of fashionable
dancing apart from all religious considerations, as the following occurrence will show.
While engaged in writing these letters, I was called to officiate at the marriage of a friend,
and, after the ceremony, was thrown into the company of several young men who were present.
During the progress of our conversation, the subject of dancing was incidentally mentioned,
and at once it became the theme of an animated discussion. Three of these gentlemen, I am sorry
to say, are not Christians, and two of them are members of "dancing clubs," so that I had the testimony
of eye-witnesses with regard to the scenes that transpire in their midnight revelries. I was
struck with the fact that these eye-witnesses condemned the "round dances" without a moment's
hesitation, one of them particularly expressing himself in terms of severest denunciation.
Nor could I wonder at the violence of his language when informed that respectable girls frequently
appear at these club-meetings with dresses so shamefully low in the neck that the bosom is exposed,
and with dresses so shamefully short that in "the voluptuous movement of the waltz" the limbs
are fully exhibited to view covered only with flesh-coloured stockings and drawers, while
the young men make comments during the entertainment or afterwards upon the comparative 12*
shapeliness of the "fine legs" revealed to their gaze. 

Such is the "earthly, sensual, devilish" thing which, with unblushing brow, demands recognition
in decent society and even in the Church of God. Such, too, is the amazing impudence of the devil,
who "is a liar and the father of it,"-I mean the father both of the tie and the dance,-that he roars
most pitifully because I have struck this infamy a blow which it richly deserves. One would
think from the noise he makes that I had sapped the foundation of his kingdom, or carried by assault
his chief stronghold among men. With the help of God I shall give him occasion to roar and writhe
again. 

If, however, you are ready to admit, with the better portion even of worldly and fashionable
people, that the "round dances" are disgraceful, and hence fall back upon the "square dances"
as proper and allowable, permit me to say that such a compromise is utterly unworthy of a child
of God. The "square dances," while far less objectionable than the wanton waltz, certainly
have so much "the appearance of evil" as the question now stands, and exhibit so much conformity
to the world, and so decidedly define your position among those who are seeking to corrupt and
destroy the Church, that the only safe rule for the Christian is to abstain from them all, and
to abstain from them entirely. In the language of Bishop McIlvaine, when speaking of the dance
as well as the theatre, "The only line I would draw in regard to these is that of entire exclusion
." In the language of Bishop Meade, "we ought conscientiously to inquire whether its great
liability to abuse, and its many acknowledged abuses, should not make us frown upon it in all
its forms." 

When a man discovers that he has an appetite for strong drink, his only safety consists in total
abstinence; and when a Christian discovers that he has such fondness for the dance that it is
difficult for him to surrender its fascinations, he ought to abandon it at once and forever.
Nearly every argument which I have presented against "round dances" applies with equal force
to "square dances," so far as the Christian is concerned; and when you reflect that the latter,
in a vast majority of instances, inevitably lead on to the former, and that their influence
is against Christ and his cause, and that they divert the mind from religious duties, and that
they involve a sinful waste of time and a foolish expenditure of money, and that they associate
you intimately with ungodly companions, and that they destroy your positive influence as
a disciple of Jesus, and that they are manifestly unsuitable to one who is an heir of glory, I
think you will cheerfully renounce them to seek higher and nobler pleasures. 

It is said that Daniel Webster was once asked by a dandy why he did not dance. "Sir," replied the
statesman, "I never had the ambition nor the talents to learn the art." Surely, my friend, you
do not possess the mean ambition to excel in an art more becoming untaught savages than intelligent
Christians. Whatever may have been your enjoyments previous to your conversion, now that
you have tasted and seen that the Lord is gracious, you should promptly say to all who solicit
you to dance, "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child;
but when I became a man, I put away childish things." If you are really "born again," your aims
and aspirations, your pleasures and pursuits, are all changed, and you can turn back the world's
pressing temptations with the brave confession, "The time past of our life may suffice us to
have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine,
revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries." 

Go forth, then, under the constraining love of Jesus, to work so earnestly for the promotion
of his kingdom that you will have neither time nor taste for the poor and pitiful amusements
of this perishing earth. Go forth, stirred by the sublime consciousness that "the Spirit of
glory and of God resteth upon you," and impelled to deeds of heroic daring and devotion by the
thrilling battle-cry of the sacramental host, "To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."
Go forth, panoplied in the whole armour of God, to resist "the world, the flesh, and the devil,"
to "endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ," and to walk in the footsteps of your Lord,
who went about doing good, and hath left you an example, "that ye should show forth the praises
of Him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light." 

"When such a man, familiar with the skies, Has filled his urn where those pure waters rise, And
once more mingles with us meaner things, 'Tis e'en as if an angel shook his wings: Immortal fragrance
fills the circuit wide, And tells us whence his treasures are supplied." 

Praying that God will bless this imperfect effort to vindicate his insulted cause and defend
his outraged Church, I remain 

Your friend and pastor, 

James H. Brookes . 

THE END. 

J. W. McINTYRE, PUBLISHER, BOOKSELLER & STATIONER, FIFTH STREET, Corner of MARKET, SAINT
LOUIS, MO. 

ESTABLISHED, 1858. 

Standard , Miscellaneous, Theological, Sunday School, Educational and Agricultural Literature,
in great variety, at Eastern Catalogue Prices. 

Family, Pulpit, School and Pocket Bibles, Testaments, Prayer, Hymn and Music Books. 

School Books, Ladies' and Counting House Stationery. 

We keep the largest and best selected stock of THEOLOGICAL & SABBATH SCHOOL BOOKS of all denominations,
with those of the American Tract Society American Sunday School Union, and private publishers.

Goods ordered not on hand will be bought and forwarded Catalogues on application. 

We are constantly supplied with a full assortment of Fashionable Stationery. 

Paper and Envelopes stamped with initials or Monograms free of charge. 

Monograms, Crests, Wedding and Visiting Cards, Engraved in the latest styles. 

Chromos, Stereoscopic Pictures, Brackets, Book Shelves, Home Games, &c. 

We make a specialty of goods for gifts, adapted to all occasions ages and tastes; and for Home
Amusement, adornment and instruction. 

In connection with our Publishing and Sabbath School trade we are prepared to do all kinds of
Job Printing and Binding Books, Pamphlets, Catalogues, Programmes and Reports of Conventions,
Circulars, Cards, Envelopes, Letter Note and Bill Heads, and all other COMMERCIAL PRINTING.

Small jobs can readily be sent by mail to our customers at cost of only 8 cents per lb.