Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 August 1883 — Dancing Denounced. [ARTICLE]

Dancing Denounced.

Not a few Christiana are continually asking the question: “What harm is there in dancing? I read in the Bible of people dancing who were good people. What harm can it be ?” I believe it is a great evil, and is doing more to demoralize church and society than the Christian mothers who are training their children for the ballroom have any idea, and, while I see no reason why Christians should engage in dancing, I see many why they should not. I. It is nowhere commended in the Bible. ' ‘ 2- Although engaged in by men and women of God at times and under the old dispensation, it was never sdught as a pleasure as now, but was one of the ways they praised God in the time of victory. 3. The sexes did not dance together as now. 4. The New Testament tells of but one case of dancing, and that in purpose is more like the dancing nowadays than any other, dadoing in the whole Bible. This danairig, which was engaged .in, by the daughter of one of the wicked women of the Roman empire, resulted to the death of John the Baptist , 5. Dancing is not done in the name of the Lord. Paul says do all things in the name of the Lord. 6. Dancing is reveling, and paiil says they who tfo- ‘such things -shall not inherit the Kingdom. 7. It is heathenistic. The less of civilization a nation has, the more of dancing. i * J ' l 8. It leads to expensive and gorgeoiis dress. 9. It .unfits the mind for reflection. 10. It leads to the violation of the laws of health, among which is thegreat loss of sleep and too mtich exercise. 11. It keeps people up all night who are too delicate to sit up with the sick or dying for one hour. 12. The ministers of the gospel can not engage in it without doing serious damage to the religion of Christ. 13. Our Savior did not dance. 14. The apostles and early Christians did not dance. 15. Dancing is of ill-repute. 16. No one dying sends for a dancingmaster to comfort him. 17. No good dancer wants it placed on his tomb-stone when dead that “he was an expert dancer.” 18. No one dances in memory of a departed friend. 19. It creates or fosters a love for the fatal cup. 20. It tolerates a freedom between the sexes, both immodest and often resulting perniciously. 21. Hundreds of blasted characters can date the first step of their ruin to their first visit to the ball-room. 22. It creates a jealousy between man and wife, between lover and lover. 23. It requires no brains to be a dancing-master. 24. It weakens a person morally. 25. It weakens his influence for good. 26. It is a useless art. 27. No Christian can attend balls and keep unspotted from the world. 28. We cannot let our light shine at the ball-room. I 29. Dancing is not a healthful exercise. ’ 30. We are to glorify God to <tor bodies and spirits. Can we dp it by dancing?—ffiev. D. R. Wilkins, of Baltimore. . >