Dancing.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXI, Issue 3899, 18 May 1899, Page 4

Dancing.

(By the Bev F. Qointrell).

(Concluded.) ANOTHER OBJECTION. is that if these people go eren to churoh they are just ns liable to fall. This also is to speak thoughtlessly. The influence of the dancing saloon or ball room cannot surely he the same as that of a devoutly rendered church servioe. In the former case the whole of the proceedings are calculated to arouse the animal passions, while in the latter the consideration of stupendous moral nnd spiritual themes have the opposite tendency. The two are direot opposites, and to say that their effect is the same is to incur the censure of speaking unwisely or with bias in favour of dancing, and this we can ill afford. Can we, fathers and mothers, b« so utterly careless of the welfare of our ohildren ? Will brothers allow their sisters, and sisters their brothers to enter the vortex of ruin and not warn one another, besecoh one another to stop and consider ? Far down the river of life in thousands of instances there lie the fearful cataract and the awful abyss. Thousands have gone over the falls and down into the Beethiug, boiling, foaming waters below and away on—God alone knows where. But they first entered the rapids or they could never have reached the cataract. They drifted on, under a genial sun and cloudless sky, drifted smoothly, quietly, unconsciously until too late to return, and now from the horrible depths of the chasm of death and despair, from the broken hearts of somebody’s boys and girls comes the thrilling lamentation

Once I was pure as the snow, but I fell Fell like a snowflake from heaven to bell Fell to be trampled on as filth in the street. Fell to be scoffed at, spat ou and beat Pleading, cursing, 1 igging to die; Selling my soul to whoever would buy i Dealing in shame for a morsel of bread Hating the living and fearing the dead. SOCIAL ASPECTS.

In this paper there is no attempt to deny that many thoroughly respectable people dance. The contrary has been affirmed. But is it not true that many whom wo would not admit to our drawing rooms and in whose presence no respectable female would care to walk down the street, have free access to the dance room and while there, live on intimate terms with our daughters and sisters. Now, what justification is there for this ? Why should we permit in the ballroom or dancing hall what we disallow elsewhere P Consistency demands that we either recognise these persons outside the ball room or else hare no connection with them there. One man is as good as another if their attainments and characters are equally good. I do not plead for social distinctions on the ground of wealth, much less on the strength (or rather pitiable weakness) of assumed superiority where there is none. Tet as a matter of convenience and justice wo must recognise merit and power. But we should not hare one code of morals for the ball room and another for the home and street.

FEMALES OF THE BEST FAMILIES are often brought in too close contaot with bad men, and vice versa, in the dancing saloon, and the influence of a vicious person is always pernicious, but especially so in the case of the innocent youth or maiden who is unacquainted with the wily wiokedness of the world. And again, is not the FEAUE OF HOMES often seriously interfered with by means of connections formed and cemented by the dancing hall p Especially where the husband is a dancer and the wife opposed to it or vice versa. Such cases are known. Oases where a wife and mother leaves the husband and ohildren at home and goes to the dance until far into the night, and as may be reasonably expected, the result endangers the peace of the home and perhaps entails life-long hardships on the children by the estrangement of the father and mother. SEMI-I'IUVATE DANCING. i This is often upheld by many who strongly condemn public dancing. I admit the public danoe is the greater evil of the two but hold that it is simply a question of degrees of evil The principle is the same, the mode of danoing is the same, and often distant homes have to be reached exactly the same in one case as in the other. True the company is selected ; but we cannot read the heart, and often do not know the manner of life of our nearest neighbour. What guarantee have we that our boys and girls are different to others. It is unwiße to presume that such is the case. Many men are OUTWARDLY UPRIQHT simply for laok of opportunity to be otherwise. If we encourage them with these opportunities and they fall, shall we be blameless ? Says Talmage, speaking of dissolute dancing : “ It is seen not only in the low haunts of death but in elegant mansions. . . This gate of hell swings across the axminster of many a fine parlour and across the ball room of the summer watering place.” The semi-private dance is the TRAINING SCHOOL. for the publio performance. Here in the house the taste is acquired, under the very eyes of father and mother, and with their approval ; the'subtle spell of the strong fascination is upon the children. What wonder then if while the serpent is held lovingly to the breast it should gnaw the vitals of its victim. I ask —Who is responsible ? The child leaves home and goes into the world. Her companionships are formed to suit already acquired tastes, and the transition from the parlor

dance to the ball room is a simple, easy, and natural step. Young and unexperienced in the world’s vices, if that child falls who is responsible? Undoubtedly and with

DAMNING EMPHASIS it must be said, tbe first criminals are those who encouraged the child to learn to dance aud so acquire the taste. Many who shudder at the least outward appearance of harm to their children are slowly and by refined methods, and often unconsciously luring their loved ones on to a fate infinitely worse than honorable death. And they are astonished when a child of theirs does wrong. Those children will yet rise up and curse that first dance and perchance will not spare their home and parents, and the Judge will say, “ Woe unto that man by whom the occasion (to stumble) oometh ” —Matt. 18—6.

THE CHURCH AND DANCING. Sorrowfully we hare to admit that some churches encourage dancing. Their conception of the New Testament spirit, the spirit of self-sacrifice and careful guarding against every appearance of evil, the many injunctions to watch and pray lest we enter into temptation, is to many inconceivable. Professing to safeguard the young and lead them into wisdom’s ways, they seem to me to put a dead weight upon the young and lead them into slippery places. These practices are not to be condoned in a Christian church. They form for Christ another tear-stained Olivet. Fortunately we hare a higher standard and authority than the practice of any part of tbe Christian church. The church has sometimes found it convenient to burn her noblest and truest sons, and some parts of the church now find it convenient to mingle in the unhallowed dance. It makes an open door and gains a (falsely-called) cheap popularity. But if dancing is against the spirit of the New Testament, if it ever leads to evil, or has even the appearance of evil; or if it leads weak persons astray, then it certainly is the duty of the church and of every individual Christian to abstain and combat it. And there are many churches and thousands of individual Christians who, in the course of their evolution, have recognised this, and who set their faces steadily against the foe. Many of the leading men in the churches in all lands are ever ready to lift up their voices, or wield their pens against dnDcing, fully persuaded that it is opposed to the spirit of Christ and the Bible, and detrimental to the best interests of the church and the young.

WHAT SHALL WE DO. Save the young. Those who are grown into matured life yon may not be able to convince, but if you cannot convince you can command the children. And it is as much a parent’s duty to command as a child’s to obay. The sapling you can train almost as you wish, but not so with the older tree. The minds of the young are impressionable and their faith in their parents is yet unquestioning In a few years more it will not be so. Their temporal and eternal interests are for some years entrusted to your care. You will not betray the interests of your own loved children ? Do your part faithfully while you can, and if in after life they take the reins from you and drive the wrong way you will have delivered your soul. Do not let the little ones step upon the ioe lest they should slip and fall. Do not let them walk into the flames or they will be burned. Let me add

THE SHORTEST AND SUREST WAY to save the children is to take them to the Lord Jesus Christ and place them in His care. He will take them up, and this is the only real safeguard against human evils. But this you cannot do unless you yourselves are His followers. Spurgeon was right when he said, “ An ounce of practice is worth a ton of precept. Let us live rightly and set before our families a noble ideal of life, and show them the possibilities of good open to them as well as the dangers to which we all are subject. The captain who risked his ship, his crew, his life, to save a couple of children drifting to sea in an open boat, found to his astonishment that they were his own children. Mothers and fathers if you cannot save others make an effort to save your own boys and girls aud always remember That not on earth caa there be found Through all life's varied plan A nobler greater work than hers Who rears an honeßt man.