A Discourse on the Evils of Dancing Part 1

A Discourse on the Evils of Dancing.

by John F. Mesick.

HARRISBURG, March 11, A. D. 1846.

REV. JOHN F. MESICK--_Dear Sir:_ On last Sabbath evening, 8th inst., you preached a sermon to our congregation on "_The Evils of Dancing_." As this is a custom which is in much practise even by those who consider themselves patterns in society, and, who generally comprise the youth, and say that it is an innocent amus.e.m.e.nt. We would esteem it as a favor if you would furnish us with a copy thereof for publication that it may be circulated in our Sabbath Schools, among the votaries of dancing, the parents and friends of those who have been a.s.senting to it, in the hope that they may read it and learn its evil consequences, and abstain from its practice hereafter, and be satisfied that its use is not in character with the present age, whatever may have seemingly commended it in former days.

JOHN C. BUCHER, GEO. P. WIESTLING, GEORGE ZINN, DANIEL W. GROSS, ELIAS ZOLLINGER, JACOB Sh.e.l.l, LUTHER REILEY, GEORGE BEATTY, RUDOLPH F. KELKER, SAMUEL B. KEYSER, VALENTINE EGLE, GEORGE L. KUNKEL.

HARRISBURG, March 11, 1846.

_To the Vestry of the German Reformed Salem Church:_ DEAR BRETHREN: Although the Discourse preached on Sabbath evening last, was prepared during the preceding week as a regular duty, without a thought in reference to a request of this kind; yet as you have been pleased to express a wish to see it in print, in the hope of extending its usefulness, the ma.n.u.script is at your service.

With sincere esteem and affection, yours, &c., JOHN F. MESICK.

THE EVILS OF DANCING.

ROMANS, XII. 3.--"BE NOT CONFORMED TO THIS WORLD."

The Bible is the only rule for all who wish to be saved. The professed Christian, not only, but every unconverted man, must bow to its precepts, if he would gain the favor of G.o.d. There is but one way, and but one gate of entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven, for saint and for sinner. Whatever, therefore, shall be acknowledged to be the duty of the covenanted follower of the Lamb, is equally the duty of every individual who stands disconnected with the visible Church.

It is a doctrine of revelation that, both cla.s.ses of persons will be judged by the same law, and will be tried with equal impartiality and rigor. We are taught that, what Divine justice shall demand from the one, it will demand from the other; and that there is no respect of persons with G.o.d. The human race, as dependent and accountable agents, are placed on the same moral level in his sight. Each commandment of his word is addressed to every hearer of the Gospel. And all are under obligation to obey its injunctions, as they value the eternal welfare of their immortal spirits.

It is on this incontrovertible principle that I shall proceed to speak from the text: "Be not conformed to this world,"--a.s.suming it as an undeniable truth that, what G.o.d requires of his children, he also exacts from the people of the world; and that whatever is inconsistent with the reputation or character of a good church member, is no less inconsistent with the eternal salvation of those persons who have not made a public profession of religion.

We take our ground boldly on this portion of scripture, and a.s.sert that the fas.h.i.+onable amus.e.m.e.nt of Dancing, is contrary to the _spirit_ and _aim_ of the Gospel, and, therefore, is opposed to the revealed will of G.o.d. Your attention is invited to two points:

FIRST--To the necessity of non-conformity to the world; and

SECONDLY--To the facts proving that Dancing is an act of conformity to the world.

I. We begin with _the necessity of non-conformity to the world_.

The Scripture sense of the term, _world_, is that collection of idolaters, unbelievers, and wicked men who const.i.tute the great bulk of the inhabitants of our globe; in short all persons who do not belong to the Kingdom of G.o.d.

_This definition_ corresponds with the declarations of Christ: "My kingdom is not of this world;" "Ye are not of the world, even as I am not of the world;" "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own, but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you."

The sentiment of the text is not the voice of a solitary pa.s.sage, but is amply sustained by other portions of the word of G.o.d. There are many similar precepts addressed to believers: "Arise ye and depart, for this is not your rest; because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction;" "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing." "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world; if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." "Know ye not that the friends.h.i.+p of the world is enmity with G.o.d?" "Ye cannot serve G.o.d and Mammon." "Choose ye this day whom ye will serve." "If the Lord be G.o.d, follow him; but if Baal, follow him."

These commandments of our Heavenly Father, are not _hard sayings_ to the soul that has been delivered from this present evil world through faith in Jesus; for it has acquired through the work of the Spirit, a holy resignation to every intimation of the Divine will, and supreme delight in G.o.d as infinitely lovely, which causes every other source of pleasure or of happiness to become tasteless and insipid. To carnal minds, we admit, that they will sound like tyrannical edicts, because they seem to them to take away their natural liberty; shutting them up from the pursuit of that kind of enjoyment for which they pant, which they know not where to find, and in search of which they wander "through earth, its gay pleasures to trace."

But to souls renewed by Divine Grace, the yoke of Christ is easy and his burden light. True Christians, the heirs of glory, are separated from the world, not only by profession, not only by external badges, but what is of higher moment, by their character and spirit. They are essentially a peculiar people; singular in their opinions and practices, and created unto good works. They are distinguished by a conversation in Heaven.

They move through society as pilgrims and strangers on the earth. They keep themselves unspotted from the world, as temples of the Holy Ghost.

They seek in Heaven an inheritance which is incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, as heirs of G.o.d and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. And they reflect the love and holiness of Jesus, as those who bear the Saviour's image.

_A wide and unalterable distinction exists, therefore_, between the servants of G.o.d and the people of the world, a distinction as perceptible as that which divides the night from the day, and the darkness from the light. "The one are born from above, the other from beneath. The one are quickened by Divine grace; the other are dead in trespa.s.ses and sins. The one are governed by the Spirit of G.o.d, and the other are under the dominion of Satan. The one consult the glory of G.o.d, and cheerfully resign all for Christ; the other make self the centre around which they move."

Such irreconcilable discordance in the primary elements of their character forbids the thought of their amalgamation. We might as reasonably expect that oil and water would commingle and become one fluid, as that true Christians should blend their hopes and interests with those of the world. The natural and ardent opposition, growing out of their respective principles and aims, renders a separation between them inevitable, absolutely necessary, necessary at least for the safety, comfort, consistency, and usefulness of believers.

There is no need of further exposition, to show that the injunction of the text is deep-laid in the very const.i.tution of things--and is the natural result of the incompatible differences between submission to the will of G.o.d and rebellion against his moral government. The followers of Christ can never consent to a compromise involving these principles, unless they are willing to sacrifice his cause. Allegiance to Heaven demands that true Christians should never shrink in the hour of trial from the ignominy or suffering of the cross. If they would be holy, they must possess the courage to dare to be singular, and to meet the world's derisive laugh on account of the tenderness of their consciences, or their inexperience in the vanities and customs of fas.h.i.+onable life. They should receive as an honor its scorn and ridicule, when heaped upon them because they continue faithful to Christ; because they implicitly follow the directions of his humbling doctrines before men; and because they steadily maintain the line of separation between the church and the world.

No man deserves the name of Christian, no man can indulge a good hope of salvation, unless his faith in Christ is productive of non-conformity to the world; a stand which is indispensable to his separation from a peris.h.i.+ng race and his incorporation into the Kingdom of Heaven.

II. In the second place we proceed _to adduce the facts proving that Dancing is an act of conformity to the world_.

1. Even if could be shown that it is a _healthful amus.e.m.e.nt_, the position a.s.sumed by the text, would exclude it from the recreations of those who love and obey G.o.d, imposing on them the obligation to refrain from it, and to resort to other means of exercise, to which no valid objection could be made.

No apology, we are sure, can be offered for Dancing, as usually conducted, _more weak_ than the common one, that it promotes the health of the body. Some thing doubtless might be accomplished by it for the attainment of this object, if it were practised in the day-time and in the open air. But usually, in obedience to the arbitrary decree of fas.h.i.+on, _the most unseasonable hour, and the most unfavorable circ.u.mstances are chosen_.

Many an untimely death has been the dreadful penalty incurred by exposure on such occasions; and the fearful blow has generally fallen among the ranks of lovely woman. Follow the fragile, venturesome forms of our delicate, modernly dressed ladies to the ball room. They pa.s.s from their habitations, arrayed in a garb whose style and materials would render it a fit garment to be worn only at mid-summer; covered with a light wrapper, lest the decorations of the toilet should be deranged, and protected from the snow or frozen pavement only by thin soled shoes. They spend several hours together under the excitement of lively strains of music, and of the glittering array of beauty and fas.h.i.+on, in a chamber brilliant with a mult.i.tude of dazzling lights, and crowded with guests to the destruction of the vital properties of the atmosphere; and in physical exertions to which they have been unaccustomed, and which open all the pores of the skin. The system is also deranged by loading the stomach with indigestible food, and by encroaching on the ordinary and necessary hours of repose. Then with heated and wearied frames, in that state peculiarly exposed to the injurious action of the cold, they suddenly exchange the warm temperature of the a.s.sembly chamber for the chilliness of the damp night air--the tropic of the ball room for the Siberia of the street. Alas!

what a perilous price to pay for the admiration of the fas.h.i.+onable throng, or for the fleeting gratification of the hour. In that wintry blast consumption smites his smiling victims, and fills up the weekly calendar of his fearful ravages. In our large cities, where this insane contempt of health and life is sanctioned by the uniform practice of the G.o.d-forgetting mult.i.tude, this fell destroyer s.n.a.t.c.hes his prey from the ranks of fas.h.i.+on by scores, and scourges them more fatally than the pestilence.

And yet individuals can be found in the midst of our community, so devoid of wisdom and foresight as to advocate the introduction of this pernicious amus.e.m.e.nt into our social circles. We trust that if they cannot be reached by any higher motives, that a regard for the health and lives which will be sacrificed to this modern idol, will induce them to pause, and to consider well the way of their steps.

2. The position a.s.sumed by the text, would exclude Dancing from the list of Christian diversions, even if it could be shown _that it is innocent in itself_.

This, however, is a point which the worldling labors in vain to prove by the most skilful use of religious sophistry.

Persons on whose judgment we rely with great confidence in matters of this sort, have abandoned the idea which they, in common with others, once entertained, that Dancing, if properly regulated, might be harmless. It is their settled opinion, founded on considerable personal experience and on observation, "that the nature of the amus.e.m.e.nt itself, even in its least exceptionable forms and in limited exercise, is such--that it has a tendency to inflame pa.s.sion, to poison virtue, to endanger purity, and to lead on to gross and deadly evils."

Modern dancing, as generally practised, is a gay and guilty pleasure. It receives no warrant from the Bible. The only kind of Dances recorded in the Sacred Scriptures, are religious Dances, forming part of the wors.h.i.+p of G.o.d: "with the exception of that of the vain fellows devoid of shame, of the irreligious families described by Job, and of Herodias"--which are no more an example for us because they are recorded in the sacred narrative, than the treachery of Judas Iscariot, in betraying his master with a kiss.

But then we must remember the fact that the Religious Dance was practised only on joyful occasions; that it was performed in the day time, in the open air, and only by one of the s.e.xes at a time. There is not a historical notice in the word of G.o.d, of _promiscuous dancing_ either as an act of wors.h.i.+p or amus.e.m.e.nt.

And those persons were reckoned among the vilest of mankind who perverted Dancing from a sacred use to mere purposes of amus.e.m.e.nt.

At the present time, as we cast our eyes over the map of the world, we discover that dancing is still practised as an important part of religious wors.h.i.+p by the inhabitants of all heathen countries; by the Indians of our own Western forests; by the superst.i.tious natives of Africa, and by the effeminate and luxurious Asiatics. But as employed among the ceremonies of idolatry in Southern Asia, it has been changed from the slow measured movements, practised by the ancient Greeks and Romans, to a style, which one Missionary remarks, "would not be tolerated on the boards of the lowest theatre in Europe, or in America."

Dancing girls, arrayed in the most costly ornaments of dress, and quite equal in skill to some of the modern exhibitors of that art in the theatres of civilized lands, are invariably connected with heathen temples in the East Indies, as their constant attendants.

Let us turn our attention from these regions of idolatry, and inquire among what nations of Christendom this amus.e.m.e.nt is most popular, that we may trace it throughout its various existing a.s.sociations. At the head of what are usually denominated civilized countries, we must place France, Italy and Spain, where on the Sabbath it is deemed entirely consistent with the claims of Christianity to go to the house of G.o.d in the morning, and to a bull-fight and a dance in the public gardens in the afternoon. And it might be an instructive commentary as to the evil effects of this amus.e.m.e.nt on the morals of those nations, to go more into particulars, were it not that the facts concerning the virtue, purity and chast.i.ty of the fas.h.i.+onable circles of France and Italy, disclosed by travellers, are too appalling to be repeated.

In England the chief patrons of the dance are their card-playing, theatre-going, and horse-racing aristocracy; who are indebted to their purse and to their t.i.tle for their standing in society; who are too indolent generally to cultivate their minds; and who are seldom capable of gaining distinction, except by extravagance and debauchery. In these _higher_ circles no man is deemed respectable who cannot "trip it on the light fantastic toe." And that person is scouted as a mawkish prude or a hypocritical fanatic, who scruples to go the whole round of these _elegant_ amus.e.m.e.nts. Says a writer of this cla.s.s: "He must be a desperate gnat-strainer who gives and goes to dances and yet objects to cards. The strictest Pharisee in the land, indeed, _could find no argument against it_." This is a modest a.s.sumption which we have no time to notice. In commenting on this quotation, it is sufficient for our present purpose to remark that the opinions and practices of the fas.h.i.+onable world, compel us to cla.s.s these recreations in the same category.

Let us now look at the _introduction_ of this fas.h.i.+onable amus.e.m.e.nt into the United States. It comes from the gay saloons of Paris and of London, and it is an imitation of the corrupt and ruinous fas.h.i.+ons of the old world. It is the entering wedge of luxury and licentiousness, the fatal antagonists to the purity and simplicity of our republican inst.i.tutions and manners.

Look again at the _tutors_ of this art, to whom fond parents entrust their beloved children, to enable them to acquire this agreeable indulgence, and you will generally find that they are the very refuse of foreign cities; men dest.i.tute of either stability or principle; who, on account of their profession, are not esteemed worthy of an introduction into the social circle of the families by whom they are employed. Every judicious person must acknowledge that there is great danger that the tender and susceptible minds of youth will be contaminated by such a.s.sociates. There is not a family in our land, so high or well governed, but that its children are more or less exposed to temptation and destruction; and we cannot, therefore, with too great jealousy or care guard against the beginnings of evils.

Look, also, at the style and character of those modern dances, which are most admired and most fas.h.i.+onable; and you will perceive at a glance that their movements, att.i.tudes and evolutions are repugnant to a natural sense of propriety, and inconsistent with that unsullied purity of mind which we consider inseparable from the individual to whom we would yield the homage of our hearts. The soul that commands the love of the virtuous, must be spotless as the unfallen snow. Genuine attachment can be based only on esteem. In all honesty, therefore, we must strike that from the list of innocent amus.e.m.e.nts, which, from its very nature, involves such a perilous trial of moral principles; that contact with it almost inevitably inflicts a loss of mental refinement, if not positive pollution, by opening the doors to a licentious imagination.

There are other evils of great magnitude, which strip off the mask of innocency from this frivolous and sinful amus.e.m.e.nt. It occasions a loss of precious time, which G.o.d has given for n.o.bler objects. It produces dissipation of mind, disqualifying it for the ordinary and serious duties of life. It wastes money, which some cannot well afford to give away, or which might be much better employed in furnis.h.i.+ng the means of intellectual improvement, or in works of benevolence. It encourages extravagance in dress; inflating the mind with intolerable vanity and pride, and training up our sons and daughters to become reckless spendthrifts, despising honest industry and commendable economy. It is ordinarily connected with the use of wine and of strong drinks, casting down unwary youth from the path of sobriety, into the depth of poverty and drunkenness. Finally, it indisposes the soul to _religion_, exciting folly, levity, and kindred corruptions of the human heart, and begetting disgust for the wors.h.i.+p and service of G.o.d.

Miss Beecher, who ranks with the most distinguished ladies of our country, and who owes her reputation to those circ.u.mstances only, which should command esteem under our democratic inst.i.tutions, to her intelligence, refinement, and virtue, speaks of this art in the strongest terms of disapprobation. "In the fifteen years during which she had the care of young ladies, she affirms she has _never known any case_ where learning this art, and following the amus.e.m.e.nt, did not have a _bad effect_, either on the habits, the intellect, the feelings or the health." A testimony so respectable, ought certainly to satisfy every mind, which is governed by truth and reason, as to the evils of Dancing.

3. But a higher consideration, why dancing should be discountenanced, and that indeed which decides the course of duty, is, _that it is an amus.e.m.e.nt by which the world is distinguished from the kingdom of Jesus Christ_.