May I here give the testimony of an educated, thoughtful young man of thirty? In a frank talk with me, he said: “There have been a few times in my life when I have found it necessary to stop dancing with certain ladies.”
There might not have been the slightest wrong thought in the minds of this young man or the lady he was dancing with, but the outflooding impulses from the sex nerve center in the life of the lady might just at that time have been so vital and have been carried at such rapid rates of vibration as to make themselves felt in the atmosphere about her. This, my friends, might happen without an evil thought upon the part of either, for this brain of the physical life may and does send out these impulses without the recognition of the intellect.
Had this young man observed these ladies he would have noted a charming and unusual color of the skin of the face and an unusual and bewitching sparkle in the eyes, both of which indicate marked activity of the sex brain, or nerve center.
Should the Dance Be Abolished?
There are many good people who would like to abolish the dance, and because of the ignorance of the larger number of people who engage in this amusement, I think I would join with them, but in all probability we will never be able to do it, so long as people love music and instinctively keep time to it.
It may be in our zeal in this matter we are making a mistake and taking a wrong view of the question and by vicious, and sometimes senseless, attacks upon many good young people and this particular form of amusement in which they engage, doing both them and ourselves an injustice and keeping many of them out of the Kingdom. Of this I am sure, if young people are to dance they should have proper chaperonage and a right knowledge of the possible dangers and how to avoid them. No greater mistake could be made than to allow young people to attend public dances.
May I close this little message then, which goes out with a prayer for God’s blessings to rest upon all who read it, that it may be a helpful message to them; by urging frankness and candor upon the part of you, the parents, with your children, and if you are uninstructed inform yourselves and put such books in the hands of your children as will give them pure, wholesome information upon this most important subject in all the world, and God will bless you and them, and in joy and thankfulness you will see them grow up in the purity and nobleness of strong, helpful men and women. Be assured of this, if you do not educate them the streets will.