There is No Harm in Dancing

by W. E. Penn

I read in the Scripture, in that ever memorable sermon on the Mount, this significant declaration: "Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." Some may not receive this as sound doctrine, because it is the language of Jesus Christ; but this will not give relief, because the corrupting influence would be just the same if Christ had never said one word about it. Christ only gave the great sin a name by calling it adultery. It was in this way the seed was sown in the heart of the Psalmist David that caused him to commit one of the greatest crimes ever committed on earth. See 2 Samuel, 11 Ch. In the same way the seed has been sown in the hearts of thousands of men in the ball room, in the dances and in the private parlors, which has ripened into disruptions of the marital relations—has ripened into husbands murdering their wives, has ripened into husbands losing their wives by elopement, has ripened into husbands being murdered, has ripened into young men killing each other; and last, though not least, has resulted in the utter ruin of hundreds of thousands of the fair daughters of our land and country. Taking the declarations of Jesus Christ as true, and no honest man can doubt it, there never was and never will be a dancing party or ball that the great sin He referred to was not and will not be committed in the hearts of some men.

Here permit me to ask an important question, and solemnly charge every reader to make answer as upon oath:

WITH WHOM IS THIS GREAT SIN COMMITTED?

If common honesty compels fathers, husbands and brothers to admit these things to be true, will you ever again permit your wives, your daughters or your sisters to be found at one of these places, however decent the people may be, while they are under your control? If you do, after your attention has been called to the hideous deformity of the dance, God, man and your own conscience will condemn you. Whatsoever of evil or crime may be committed, unyielding justice, unmixed with mercy, will certainly hold you responsible. This last objection to the dance will hold and be just as good against the theaters and operas, because no one will deny but that a special effort is generally made at these places to excite the passions of men and women by an indecent exposure of their persons. To say the least of it, Christians have no business at these places.

A Christian has no business at any place where he cannot go in the name of Jesus Christ, because the Scripture says: "They shall walk up and down in His name."—Zach., 10 ch. 12v. Micah, 4 ch. 5v.—"His name shall be on their foreheads."—Rev., 22 ch. 4 v. "Ye are my witnesses."—Isa., 43 ch. 10 v. Can a Christian, a true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, "walk up and down" in a ball room in His name? Can a Christian go into a ball room with the name of Jesus Christ written on his or her forehead? If a man has His name written on his forehead, and he goes into a ball room, theater, opera, or a drinking saloon, does he not, by that act, hide the name of Jesus Christ? Can a Christian be a witness for God in the ball room, theater, opera, or drinking saloon? If not, his testimony is false, and he is a perjured man! I have no doubt some very nice people—society people—will be terribly shocked at the developments herein made.

I was raised in the country, and I remember a varmint got to visiting our poultry yard and carrying off those roosting nearest the ground, which were generally our improved blooded (society) chickens, and whenever we would get after him, he would run down through a very muddy place, and take refuge in a hole in the bank of a creek. We rather dreaded the task of following him through all this mud and filth; but, as a last resort, rather than let him have all the poultry, or allow him to continue his depredations at pleasure, we waded through the mud down to his den and dug into his hiding place; and when he was struck on the head with the back of a hoe, he too was terribly shocked.

Now this little animal was not, as may be supposed by some, one of the "common or unclean," but he was one of the elite, a regular society mink. He was covered with very fine fur, but had his stomach filled with stolen chickens. I leave the application to all to whom these presents may come, GREETING. When I want to buy a hat, I never take one unless it fits me.

More or less of the girls participating in the dance are engaged to be married, and great effort is made to keep this a profound secret, so she very naturally has every man for a partner except her intended. Here is music in the back-ground, if her intended is present, and he is sure to be there if he is in striking distance—if he is not down with typhoid fever or in prison.

This music is in his heart, in the nature of clamoring for blood, by a legion of different sized devils. It may be there is not one man in the room that would have his girl under any consideration whatever, but he imagines that they all want her. The female outfit for the ball consists of girls and a number of young married women, and some a little older, and some old women, forty to fifty years old, with grown children, false teeth, false hair, and bloats to swell out their wrinkled cheeks, and they, too, are dressed in the fashion with red ribbons, and blue and green; these furnish the disgust for the occasion—and one of them has been known to furnish disgust enough for a city of ten thousand inhabitants, and of the very best quality. Let us return to the basket containing the young married people, and examine the fruit therein. Reader, did you ever see the young married woman watching her husband as he glides up and down in the merry dance, with an old sweetheart in his arms? If you never did, the first opportunity you have, take a good look at a cat's eyes in the dark and in imagination transfer them to the young wife's head, and you will have a very correct idea of how sweet and amiable she looks.

Who among the living will ever forget that poor unfortunate girl, in the State of Georgia, who was assassinated in the ball room by a jealous young wife? The civilized world was shocked by the announcement of this terrible tragedy, which was purely the fruit of the ball room. These parties were not of the low and vulgar, but were of the society people of the age. How many husbands have in the same way and for the same cause had all the baser, brutish passions aroused to such an extent as to have their reasoning faculties dethroned, and have been driven by the raging devils within to commit many of the greatest, most shameful and most disgraceful crimes that ever blackened the records of a criminal court? How many have cursed and abused their wives while on the way home from the ball room? How many, after their arrival at home, have used their superior physical strength in abusing their wives in a most shameful and disgraceful manner? How much of all this was the result of a frenzied imagination, and not for any real misconduct? How many of all these cruel wrongs and outrages are never known except by the parties themselves? How many fathers and mothers have neglected their children by leaving them in incompetent and unsafe hands, while they spent the night in the ball room? How many husbands have left their wives, in poor health, sometimes sick in bed, with two or three little children crying around them, while they have spent the night in the ball room dancing with other women? How many men and women, and especially women, from physical and mental causes superinduced by the effects of the ball room, have been driven to madness, and have thus become inmates of insane asylums, or have deliberately taken their own lives? O! for the pen of a Milton or a Pollock! But this would not suffice, because these questions can only be answered at the Judgment Bar of God, when the secrets of all hearts shall be made known.