The Modern Dance AND WHAT SHALL TAKE ITS PLACE. REVISED AND ENLARGED SECOND EDITION BY REV. MELVIN C. DRUMM, A. M. Pastor Penns Valley Lutheran Charge Centre Hall, Pa. Price: Twenty-five Cents. FOREWORD The following sermon was preached in St. Luke's Lutheran Church, Centre Hall, Pa., Sunday Evening, February 13, 1921. An audience of nearly 1000 people attended the service. Here is an article from "The Centre Reporter" which was written the week after the sermon was preached: "It was upon a recent visit to the Grange Hall, made in mistaking another attraction to be scheduled for that particular evening, that the minister found himself in the midst of a merrymaking gathering, assembled for a dance, that he at once prepared to denounce what he characterized as one of the worst evils of any community. The public announcement created a stir, to say the least and the arguments pro and con, that were heard on the street corners, and other places of gathering, were mostly in upholding the dance. However, the writer has observed that since the preaching of the sermon, a quietus has fallen upon the whole affair. Fair-minded men and women were forced to admit that the minister had handled the subject fearlessly, truthfully, and with all the God-given force at his command so that when he was through, there was not left a hope for a successful contradiction of his statements, all of which were either based on the Scripture, of were the words of the highest authorities in the leading Church Denominations." The people of our country need to advised on the modern amusements and if the ministers don't take a stand they are not living up in their ordination obligations. Centre Hall, Pa., Feb. 22, 1921 M. C. DRUMM Dedicated to All Those Whose Lives It May Touch and Help. THE MODERN DANCE Text: "And whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him."-Col. 3:17 These words were spoken by the Apostle Paul to the Colossians. He is admonishing them to do everything in the name and to the honor of Jesus Christ. And this can be applied in our day. We, as Christians, can not do anything that does not honor and magnify the name of Christ. So, my dancing friends, if you can dance in the name of Jesus Christ, you are not guilty of sin. But that isn't done in the Modern Dance. 1. What is the dance: And when I speak of the Colossians. I don't mean the dance of Centre Hall or Spring Mills alone,-I mean the modern Dance, wherever you find it. "The dance is a carnival of death that has come down the avenues of the last few centuries, a monster of destruction, rolling on its way, a veritable hell of evil influences, anretarded in its onward journey, graduality growing larger, stretching out its long tenacles further and further-bringing into its bosom rich and poor, old and young, married and single-sapping out their lifeblood and draining them of mental, physical, moral and spiritual vitality,-until they are thrown into a living hell."-(Vorn Bruch.) My friends that is what the dance is,-and still it rolls on. And how many ministers and Christian laymen are really trying to stop its on-rushing tide of destruction! It catches in its mad torrent millions of people, and unless we discourage it, it will engulf many, many more. If we as Christians love God and His Word, if we love Christ and His Church, the dance will be repulsive to us. The nearer we get to God, the less we care for the dance. "Oh!" you say, "Some ministers say nothing about it, and many Church members dance." But that doesn't make it right. The churches are opposed to it, and if any persons belonging to the church dance, they are not true to the teachings of the Church, whether ministers or laymen. II. Some testimonies of the leading then in the various Churches; 1. The Roman Catholic Church: and is fraught with the greatest danger to the morals. " (b) The Catholic Archbishops of Dublin, Ireland, says in a Lenten Pastoral to his people, that dances just as polkas and waltzes are-"repugnant to the notions of strict Christian morality, and are at direct variance with that purity and modesty of female character for which Ireland has been ever distinguished." (c) Archbishops Spaulding says: "The confessional reveals that nineteen-twentieths of all Roman Catholic fallen women trace the beginning of their sad state to the Modern Dance." He also says: "The round dance is the last sign of expiring modesty." (d) One of the old Church Fathers said: "The dancing floor is a circle, its center is hell, and its circumference the devil's." (e) St. Ambrose said: "The holy maidens are to keep aloof from the dances." (f) St. Augustine says: "It is better to plough on Sundays than to dance." (g) Chrysostem of the Greek Catholic Church says: "Where dancing goes on, the devil is sure to be present." 2. In the Episcopal Church: (a) Bishop Hopkins of Vermont says: "No ingenuity can make it consistent with the covenant of Baptism." (b) Bishop Meade of Virginia says: "It is, in itself, wrong, improper, and of bad effect." (c) Bishop Vincennes says: "Dancing is a terrible waste of time and study and premature excitement of passion." 3. The Baptists: Charles Spurgeon says: "The waltz would not be tolerated if Christian mothers would set their faces against it and remove their daughters from this contaminations." 4. Presbyterians: At a meeting at Columbia in 1800, they passed this resolution: "Resolved that the dances are the most giddy, thoughtless, and fascinating pursuits the world has to offer to her votaries on the very utmost limits to which worldly amusements can go." 5. The Methodists: In their book of Discipline, section 280, under the subject of Imprudent Conduct, we read the following: "In case of neglect of duty of any kind, imprudent conduct, indulging in sinful tempers or words, dancing, playing at games of chance, attending theatres patronizing dancing schools, or taking such other amusements as are obviously of misleading or questionable moral tendency," the pastor or class leader may take such action as will result in the expulsion of the member. In section 69-under the subject of Special Advices, we read as follows: "Improper amusements and excessive indulgence in innocent amusements are serious barriers to the beginning of a fruitful Christian life. Some amusements in common use today are positively demoralizing, and furnish the first day steps to the total note of warning and entreaty, particularly against the dance and such games of chance." 6. The United Evangelicals: In their Discipline, page 28, section 25, articles 8 and 9, under the subject of General Rules, we read: "We should avoid that which is clearly prohibited in the Word of God-the indulgence of pride, vanity, and wastefulness in dress and living. The singing of frivolous song, the reading of pernicious literature, the patronizing of questionable amusements and resorts, and playing of such games, and indulgence to such diversions as do not tend to the knowledge or love of God, and can not be practiced in the name of Christ." 7. The Reformed Church: Here is a statement from a leading minister of the Reformed Church: "Our Church does not approve of anything frivolous or questionable. We leave it to the judgment of our pastors and people to decide what things can he done in harmony with the Word of God, and without hurting our spiritual lives." (Schmidt.) Another Reformed minister says: "I am, personally, opposed to the dance. And I am glad to hear that you are taking a stand against it." 8. The Lutherans: (a) Dr. Valentine Loescher says, in his "Personal Piety"-"The dance is a vain thing, which brings dangers to the soul, dissipates the mind and makes the heart giddy, and does not become a Christian." (b) Martin Luther, himself in 1524, in preaching on the marriage at Cana, said: "Faith and Charity cannot be danced out nor romped out, if only you are modest and temperature in it. The little children also dance without sin; you do that also and become as a little child, then the dance will not harm you. Otherwise, if dancing in itself were a sin, we could not permit the children to do it." That looks as if Luther sanctioned some dancing, doesn't it? But listen! In Luther's time they didn't have the Tango, the Grizzly Bear, the Turkey Trot, the Bunny Hug, the Scissors, the Shimmy, or the Hootchee Koochee. One day Luther had a talk with his students, and this is what he said to them about the dance: "There is one thing about dancing I don't like, and I wish the law would forbid it, and that is that young men with young women turn around in a circle, especially the liely before many onlookers." My friends, in these words, Luther conduce the Modern Dance. 9. Evanglist Barrow of Nebraska says: "I have noticed that people lose interest in Christianity when they become interested in dancing." 10. Professor Amos R. Wells, that wonderful scholar and author, says: "The sensuality of the dance makes bold women of soft eyed maidens; it makes swaggering rakes of pare lads; it changes love to flirtation and a game of flippant rudeness. It never creates a Christian." 12. Another says: "The dance school is the Devil's kindergarten." 13. Still another says: "The very pose of the parties suggests impurity." 14. Billy Sunday says: "The dance is the dry-not of society. In the ball room men take liberties that they would not dare to take in any other place or circumstance. Three-fourths of all the girls who are ruined have become so through the dance. The Tango, the Shimmey, and the Scissors are the vilest, rottenest, most potrid dances that wiggled out of hell." 15. Bob Jones says: "Anyone who says be can dance with a half-dressed woman and not have any evil thoughts, or have his passions aroused, is one of three things-he is more than a man, he is less than a man, or he is a dirty liar." He further says: "I am a man, and if I could dance these Modern Dances without an evil thought, I would send for my family doctor and see what was the matter with me." 16. Even more non-Christians, like Lord Byron, who was a prodigate, denounce the dance in their writings. In a poem written by Byron on his thirty-third birthday, Jan. 22, 1821, we find these words; 17. New York policeman say: "Three-fourths of the abandoned young women of the city were ruined by the round dances." 18. Professor Faulkner of Oakland, Cal., a dancing master, who earned one thousand dollars a month from his classes, qutt the business, became in one of his classes right girls became prostitutes. Anyone who reads his two books, "From the Ball-room to Hell," and "The Lure of the Dance," will see enough to forever afterwards denounce the Modern Dance. He says: "The waltz is the spur of lust." He also says that "Two-thirds of the girls who learned to dance under his instructions fell during the first year, and three of an insane asylum, one hundred sixty-three were there thru the influence of the dance." 19. The matron of a Home for Fallen Women in Los Angeles says: of the girls here have fallen thru the dance and its in . 20. Jane Adams, in her books, tells us horrible stories, in her experience as a social worker in the city of Chicago, which resulted because of the dance. 21. The Girl at Rolling Green.-While walking around the dancing pavilion at Rolling Green Park, near Selinsgrove, I heard a fierce shriek. It was the cry of a lady. Rushing to the scene I saw several men carrying a lady from the dance floor. She was in a hysterical state. Upon inquiring, I was told that while dancing, some one informed her that he little brother had died, and that she was to stay with him that evening: but she had said to him, "O, no, this is a special dance, the only night in which we are camp here." I went away with a horrible feeding about the dance. This is only one example of many who are neglecting their duties in the home for the sake of a dirty, rotten, immoral dance. 22. A girl's Seven Reasons for not Dancing: First-The dance would lead me into crowded ball-rooms and late hours, which would be injurious to my health. 23. Just one more quotation. (It isn't so much what I say, but what these men and women say. They have made a life study of social evils.) The quotation is: "In a court festival in England, the Duke asked a fair lady to dance with him, and she replied: 'I am ready to dance with you if the dance is accompanied with the hymn entitled. "'A narrow way leads us to life.'" The dance was omitted." My friends, you ought to take that same stand and, as the text says. "Do everything in the Name of the Lord Jesus." III. Is it a sin to dance? Yes, for several reasons. 1. Because the dance is death to spiritual life. "Oh," you say, "didn't they dance in Bible times?" Yes, dancing was a religious act. But men always danced alone, and women always danced alone. Dancing was always carried on in the day time, and in the open air-on the highways, in the fields and groves. Friends, if mend and women were compelled to dance alone today, the dance would not continue another week. (a) In Exodus, 15th chapter, we read that the women of Israel were so glad for God's deliverance from the Army of Pharaoh that Miriam, the sister of Moses, took up the timbrel and all the women answered her and danced to the honor and glory of God. Is that what you danced for in Centre Hall? (b) In 2d Samuel 6: 14 we read that David danced, before the Lord with all his might because the Ark of the Lord was restored. But he danced alone, and he danced to the honor and glory of God. (c) In Ecc. 3:4, Solomon say, "There is a time to mourn and a time to refers to the kind of dancing that is mentioned about Miriam, and about David. In Psalms 37:23 we read, "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord". Yes, but the steps of the dancer are ordered by the dancing master, and God has nothing to do with their steps. The 150th Psalm says, "Praise Him with the timbrel and the dance." The dance here mentioned is from the word "machol" which is the name of an instrument-a sort of hand timbrel with bells. O, you say, but how about Herodias' daughter? Did she dance to God's glory? No, the danced alone, but it was the kind of dance we see in side-shows and carnivals. "Well, what about it?" you say. This is what I say: She danced off the head of John the Baptist." Didn't some characters in the Bible sin? Yes, they sinned and they were punished, too. You can't justify the Modern Dance by the Scripture. It can't be done! The dance is a sin. Let me repeat, It is death to the spiritual life. Can you tell me that the low necked waist, the short skirt, the silk stockings, and the close mingling of the sexes are conductive to Spirituality? Friends, I believe in pleasure, and I am n "Old Fogy." but listen, when your daughter or your son hangs in the balance, I protest! 2. The dance is death to death to health. Oh, why, you say, I dance for exercise. It makes me graceful. Say! do you know that there are some people in this town who dance and are as clumsy as I am, and I never danced. I know a lady dancing teacher who is as crooked as a hickory stick. And, even if that were true.-that it makes us graceful, then I would rather be clumsy physically and clean morally and spiritually, than to be graceful and immoral. The dance violates every law of health. The medical profession as whole, denounces it. Dancing from eight o'clock until after twelve, in a hot, stuffy impure atmosphere is not conducive to good health You dance with all perspired and warm, then cool off during intermission, and disturb the action of digestion by eating a midnight lunch, consisting of a pickle and an ice cream cone, and some "booze" if it can be had. Is that healthful? Then you go home on a cold winter night with scarcely anything to cover your nakedness. Shame on the women who dress so that every Tom, Dick and Harry can study their anatomy! Do you know that men's passions are aroused by the sense of sight, and women's by the sense of touch? Sure you know it! That's why you dress that way. Women get the styles from New York gets them from Paris, and Paris gets them from hell. Say! If dancing is so healthful, so inspiring and so refining why are most of the dances found in the slums of the cities, in the underworld and tenderloin districts? Do the real spiritual minded people of Centre Hall and Spring Mills dance? "Oh." you say, "I go to only select dances." Listen! I had a friend-now an evangelist-who tells a story of one of your picked dances, in the city of Pittsburgh. It goes like this: "A girl friend asked me to come to a select dance. I said, 'Are you sure all present will be Indies and gentlemen beyond reproach?' 'Oh, yes indeed!' 'All right, I'll be there.' Before I went I listened to some men talking on the porch. The dance had begun and these men had been taking a smoke during intermission. Well, the remarks made about the ladies were something horrible. Print would not allow some of the vulgar things mentioned. Some one remarked about his partner, and when I asked who his partner was, he said, "Miss-." I, was dumbfounded, to she was the lady who started the dance and invited the guests and said the crowd was a select one." Well, my friend had no time after that for select dances. 3. The dance is death to morality. let me describe to you a couple on the dance floor. This is Dr. Stough's description: "The dancers interlock their bodies in embrace, brought in such close contact, their bodies move as one on the floor. Her breast rests upon his shoulder, her face is upturned to his, her naked arm is almost around his neck: her breast heaves tumultuously against his: face to face they they whirl, their limbs intertwining: her eyes look into his, but she sees nothing: the soft music fills the room, but she hears nothing: swiftly they march along: his hot breath is on her hair; his lips almost touch her forehead: his glimmering eyes gloat over her,-she is filled with rapture divine," Friends, if that isn't death to morality, then I don't know anything. If that isn't a sin, then I'll lose all confidence in everything that is good. There were Lutherans present at the dance to which I refer, and I suppose I dare say representatives of almost every church, and some belonging to no church. Can you see your wife or your husband embraced by some one else in such a passionate dance and say it is no sin? Then, my friend, "God will excuse you as an Idiot!" If you have never become passionate on the dance floor, then your should quit dancing or you will soon become so, if you have all your naural God-given powers. You go to a restaurant, a pool room or a harber shop, and listen to the conversation after a dance and you can soon see that passion is the chief end of the dance. 4. The dance is death to modesty and virtue. Listen, friends, in Binghampton, N. Y., a young woman gives birth to a fatherless child, with but show for a pillow and the sky for a covering, in an open field, crying. "Oh, if I had only known! Oh, if I had only known! Oh, God, help you to see tonight, the awful influence of the dance." This is an extract from "The Lutheran": With increasing frequency, voices of warning are being heard against the evils of the dancing mania; but it remained for Mrs. Henrietta Hunt, the superintendent of the Redemption Home of Springfield, Ill., to lodge an effective protest in that city. It came about in this way: The Springfield Improvement League had advertised a Redemption Home benefit dance, the proceeds of which were to be given of the "dance money" would be accepted, and gave as her reason that "fully half the girls in our care who went wrong last year" owed their downfall to the public school dances. Further light is shed on the evils of the present dancing mania, which is being fostered in many public schools, by what has transpired in Indianapolis. The question as to the propriety of dispensing with corsets at high schools dances came up when a daughter complained to her mother that the boys called the girls who wore corsets "old ironsides," and they were doomed to be "beautiful wall flowers" unless they doffed them. The mother complained to the principal and he at once issue I orders that girls must wear corsets. They complied; but it was afterwards learned that the dressing-room was piled high with corsets while the dancing was going on. Supervision was afterwards inaugurated: but the girls contended that wearing corsets restricted their movements and prevented them from doing the steps! It is not difficult to guess why boys do not care to dance with "old ironsides," and why some girls like that particular style of dance which hans corsets. Volumes might be written on this question. Its seriousness cannot well he overstated. Somehow the passion for objectionable forms of dancing has become an obsession, and many of our high schools are launching out into the entertainment business at a rate that is bound to make theatrical and dancing performances the chief attraction at school. The taste for study and the cultivation of a serious purpose and aim in life seem no longer to be in the running, and nearly every teacher you meet complains that the disposition for study in the high schools of our cities is limited to comparatively few students. There is said to be a woeful dearth of idealism among of our pastors who is engaged in welfare work among young boys and girls be expected when the home has ceased to function as a divine institution, and when our high schools have become adjuncts to the theatre and the dancing hall? You Grangers, who stand for justice and equity and right, don't permit a life-blasting, soul-destroying dance ever to be given in your hall again! You lodge men-Masons. Odd Fellows P. O. S. of A., you stand for right, fraternity and morality, live your obligations and see to it that dancing never infests your halls! You Christians in God's name, support your Pastors to the step taken and pray God to save souls from hell! 5. The dance is death to American ideals and consequently it means death to the good of the world. The preamble to our Constitution says "To promote the general welfare," but the dance, as I have shown, hinders the general welfare and is a menace, and is therefore on American. It is destroying American homes which are the bulwark of the nation. American leads the world. All eyes are fixed upon her: and if she fails, the world fails. And yet we thought we were patriotic, when during the world war we held dances for our boys, and sent them cigarettes and today we are reaping the harvest of our sewing. You school directors, are you going to permit a dance within the halls of the High schools building? Are you in favor of a class dance? Think of this seriously. IV. Dancing affords opportunity for the white slaver. There are 5,000 girls how locked behind iron bars in Chicago alone, where they are visited by 25,000 libertines. Their life lasts, under those conditions, about seven years and then they are buried in a potter's field. Oh, the horror of it all: No loved ones to kiss them good-by: no one to bear the boatsman's oars from the other side! Listen, friends read Col. 3:17 the text, and see if you can dance in Jesus' name when you know to what all it leads. Get on your knees with an open Bible before you and ask God's forgiveness, and dance no more. "I'd rather be a cripple on the road to Heaven than an athlets on the road to hell." The Commandments says, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," and "He that looketh on a woman to last after her, have committed adultery already in his heart." "The Modern Dance was conceived in last born of heathen parentage, matured and reared in brothers." V. What is the masquerade Dance. An Illustration of Professor Faulkne's will explain better than anything I can give you. It has already been hinted that he give up his good paying position because of the prostitutes made by the dance: but here is the real climax in his life that made him opposed to the dance. Here is his story: "In a western city there was held a masquerade dance. Music and wing run free. Profanity and gossip were above par. There goes a young couple tightly clasped in each other's arms. All advances he makes she responds to as a part of the dance. "Tis midnight, and the young woman hanging heavily upon the arm of her gentleman friend, winds slowly through the outskirts of the city, up hill and down, till they come to a large tree, in from the road a little. Here the leaves else their ears, the moon hides its face in shame and the angels turn away to weep-a young woman and a man offer upon the ailar of lust and passion all that ought to be held dear,-virtue, womenhood, honor and manhood. Then, all at once, the man thinks he would like to see the free of the girl he wronged, and when he tears off her mask, he is shocked at most to death to know it is his own sister. "My God, sister, is it you?" be the barriers of a morphine bottle, and the other over a gun." This story true as anything could be, caused him to give up dancing, and write his books against the Modern Dance. Say, friends, her tonight in God's name, rise and take your stand! Will you allow a beautiful little town of Churches like Centre Hall to be interested with this Carnival of Death-the Modern Dance? When you think of these two persons whose bodies. He beneath the god awaiting the judgment day, do you think they will say, "There is no harm in the dance"? The Apostle John says, "Love not the world; neither the things of the world, If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not a him." My friends, let Col. 3:17 ring in your ears-"Whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks god and the Father by Him" and I feel sure you will be opposed to the Modern Dance. Some Scripture proofs against the dance 2 Tim. 2:22; 2 Cor. 6:17; 1 John 2: 15; 1 Cor. 6:26; 1 Col. 10:31; Rom. 12:2; Rom. 13:14; Matthew 18:7; Thess. 5:22; James 4:4; Gal. 6:14; Matthew 6:13. What Shall Take the Place of the Modern Dance? Col. 3:1-4. "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in Glory." The Apostle Paul here outlines our duties as Christians. Though we are made free from the ceremonial law, we are still enjoined to obey the moral and spiritual laws. We must walk closer to God. We are to set our hearts on heaven, and heavenly things. If we did this we wouldn't have as much time for worldly things. We must make heaven our scope and aim and seek the favor of God above. We must keep up our communion with upper world by faith and hope and holy love; and make it constant care and business to secure our title to, and qualifications for, the heavenly bliss. Christ has secured this for us at the Cost of His Life Isn't it worth while then to fill our life on earth with useful and Godly things. "For," says the are hid with Christ; and because He lives, we too shall live. The Apostle further reminds us that this same Christ is coming again-that He shall appear and we shall be with Him in Glory. But, friends, in this program of a Christian's life we are not to idly wait we have duties to attend to and a work to perform. We owe something to our God, to our Church, our community, and to the world. The Christians program is worldwide. "Go ye into all the world" was Christ's great command. In this program, to my mind, there is no place or time her a Modern Dance. Well, since "nature abhors a vacuum"-what shall take its place? There are many wholesome and useful pursuits that every citizen and every Christian has a right to enjoy. There are certain privileges and opportunities which some people are enjoying elsewhere which to our people in Centre Hall are denied. Let me enumerate a few that our town ought to have and can have and let me tell you how to get them. And what out town needs applies to many other towns as well. I. A School of Religious Instruction. Listen to these resolutions offered by a Judge at an educational meeting held one year ago: "Whereas, the school is the moulder of character, the childhood of the nation taking like wax the training of our youth; and whereas, Religion is the binder-together of humanity and the foundation of society, the voice of the deepest human experience, providing a conception of life, bettering character, safeguarding virtue, and producing happiness; therefore. Resolved, that education must no longer be officially severed from faith. We demand that it penetrate to the vital-that it be made the key to life." Our children are entitled to the compass of divine truth. We insist that they are doing their best by precept and example to teach high and noble ideals. They ask no praise and need no eulogy. They are enshrined in our respect and esteem, but, we demand that our children shall be provided an ethical and religious training together with the other subjects taught in the public schools of our town. Ruskin says, "Education is the leading of human souls to what is best, and the making what is best out of them." The Bible says. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Education must aim at the building of true and noble manhood and womanhood. It must not merely be to enable a man to earn a living, but to live a life; not merely to aid him to acquire a fortune, but to safeguard a soul; not merely to fit him to shine in drawing room, but by God's grace to enter the Celestial City. In a word, it must be not only of the life that now is, but for that which is to come. It must fuse itself into the gold of religious truth. It hearkens to the voice of the deepest human experience. It must be grounded and anchored on FAITH. Where and how shall we study these truths? Where shall we learn of these men and women of faith, like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Samson, Elijah. David, Daniel, Hezekiah, Sara, Rebecca, Rachel, Esther and Ruth? And how shall we know the beautiful characters of John the Baptist, Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul and the twelve? We learn of them in the Bible and in the Bible and in the Sunday School. But a more definite knowledge can be obtained through the Religious School of Instruction held on a week day or evening and taught by the ministers of the town. "Educate men without religion," said the Duke of Wellington, "and you make them but clever devils." "Religion and liberty are inseparable," said Phillip Shaff. "True religion is the foundation of society," said Burke. II. A good Literary Society. Education is not so much learning facts as it is using those facts tactfully and effectually in real life. One of its very best ways of becoming leaders in Church, State, or business is by taking part in a good program of a literary society. III. A good town Milary. Some boys and girls the privilege of reading good books and magazines from their school or church library or some club-room. But not all children have these privileges. For this reason every town and city should have a free public Library. How shall we obtain such a library? 1. Solicit founds and donation in the community. 2. Write letters to influential persons who, like Carnegie, have donated such institution. 3. Hold plays and entertainments, using the proceeds for that purpose. IV. A Play-ground for Children. This should be a beautiful and attractive piece of ground, having a good prospective-a view in several directions. It should be large and well drained. On it should he placed swings, see-saws, slides, and other amusements,-made safe for the children. Part of this ground should contain tennis courts, croquet fields, a ball diamond, etc. On it should be a modern, well-equipped gymnasium. If the public school does not have such a play-ground. One should be provided by the citizens of the town. V. A good Y. M. C. A. and a good Y. W. C. A. These make up the three points of the triangle, and develop body, mind and spirit. Thought falsely accused during the war they are doing a great work in our colleges and also in our towns and cities. It has the approval of such great man as John R. Mott and Robert E. Speer. VI. A Civic Club. Such a club composed of the leading citizens of the town should make a clean-up of the town. Help of rid the town of any unsightly objects. Clean up garbage, plant trees and make flower beds. This club in some cities helps wonderfully is ridding the town of social evils, such us dance halls, immoral movies, nude theatrical performances, pool rooms, saloons and gambling dees. They do a great good in the community where they operate. VII. A Chamber of Commerce. This even more than the civic club, helps to enforce law and order, and to attend to the business of the town in general. VIII. A good Hand or Orchestra or both. Great man and woman have received their start in music through practies in the old hand-hall. The town celebrating any anniversary, or any organization of the town can then hire their own hand for the music. With this could also be arranged an old-fashioned singing school, where children could be taught the rudiments of music. If it is not taught in the public schools. All these things and many others could take the place of they Modern Dance, and would he placed in the category of the text which says. "Seek those things which are above"-"set your affection on things above, but on things on the earth." All these are healthful, wholesome and good. Let us give of our time our talents and our money so that our town may be a splendid place in which our children are reared. "Give to the world the best you have: And the best will come back to you." So, Instead of attending a dance several evenings a week, why not spend that time in the work of the church, and what time we have left we could attend the meetings of these organizations which I have here mentioned. These are all helpful and not detrimental and destructive, as is the Modern Dance. And surely God's blessing shall go with us and bless us. Let us try this program in every town and city and see how it works. And surely the Kingdom of God will be nearer than before. May God bless all our efforts for the advancing of His Kingdom, for Christ sake, is your humble servant's sincere prayer.