"Duncan, if we who profess to be following Christ are in no wise different from those who are walking in the ways of sin, how shall we recommend our faith? If, through fear of repelling, we fail to attract, what have we gained? There is a great deal of that sort of talk nowadays, but I think it is all wrong. We are expressly enjoined to 'come out from the world,' to 'love not the world,' to 'be not conformed to the world.' If these words mean anything, they mean that you and I, and all who are the disciples of Christ, have no part in that which must come under the head of worldly dissipation. Duncan, I am very sorry about this matter; it will be a stumbling block to many."
"But I shall not join the dancers, and my duties as one of the committee relate to the literary part of the entertainment."
"The theatricals! Yes. Ah, my boy, it's all alike. You indorse the whole, and it is not the dancing or the theatricals in themselves. It is this element of worldliness that pervades the entire plan of the entertainment. The spirit of conformity to the world has crept into the Church at large in just this way, undermining and destroying spirituality."
"There is another thing," continued Judge McNair. "It is to be upon Wednesday evening. Five or six years ago, I knew a boy who thought it a very inconsistent thing when the church decided to omit a prayer-meeting on account of a scientific lecture at the hall. Where is your consistency now?"
"But would you cut us off from recreations?" asked Duncan, ignoring the judge's last remark.
"Not at all," was replied; "but I would discriminate between recreations and amusements. The propriety of one who professes to do all to the glory of God engaging in anything, simply as amusement, may be doubted. There is a wide range from which a Christian may choose his recreations; and when used as a needed rest, relief or exercise of body or mind, are right and proper; but when we carry them so far that they become dissipations, we may conclude that we have gone beyond our limit."
Just at that moment Mr. Earle looked in. He only asked—
"Duncan, did you ask God what you'd better do about it?"
Ah! Duncan had not been living very near to God lately. Here was the trouble; this was how he had become entangled in this affair, which had in it not a single element of spirituality. Talk about carrying one's religion with them through the week-days as well as the Sundays! One may carry his Christian faith and practice into his palatial store, or into his dingy, dark grocery-store, keep it with him in shop or stall, but do people ever carry it with them into scenes of frivolity and dissipation? What place has the Christian faith in the ball-room?
The family at the Golden mansion were at dinner. Clarence Golden, Duncan McNair's old crony, was at home for the holidays. It was he who said—