p. 64 | Dancing by Am. Wesleyan

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Feb 9, 1882

Dancing.

By Am. Wesleyan

DANCING is not a Christian institution. It had its origin in paganism, and is the offspring of man's natural depravity. Profane history frequently makes mention of it as a common practice among the ancients. It constituted a part of their religious rites and ceremonies. They danced before their altars and around the statues of their gods. The Greek chorus, in the oldest time, consisted of the whole population of the city, who met in the public place to offer up thanksgiving to their country's god, by singing hymns and performing corresponding dances. The Spartans had a law obliging parents to exercise their children in dancing from the age of five. This was done in the public place, to train them for the armed-dance, and their great festival occasions.

One on my left hand affirms "that it is a healthful pastime." Have those the best health who do the most of it? In what does the peculiar healthfulness of dancing consist? In violent and unnatural exercise; in the swift alternations of heat and cold; in the exposure, constant, imminent and unavoidable, in the dress and refreshments. Who can be ignorant of the fact that among the dancers pulmonary consumption often finds its victim decked for the sacrifice? If Christians seek only a relaxation from toil, a pleasing recreation, or improvement of health, each could be procured without the scandal and reproach of dancing. But dancing is a representative of a peculiar species of dissipation, and those who love the dissipation love the dance. Without such love the pastime would not be tolerated one moment. Shut up a young person alone in a room, with a command to dance for health, from bed-time till dawn, and such a command would be pronounced an act of the grossest cruelty. A whip of small cords would be necessary to enforce it.

Dancing is also identified with late hours and full suppers; these constitute half of the charm of the dance. It is associated with an immodest mingling of all classes and characters. It is distinguished by a rude familiarity, which, in any other amusement, would be resented as an insult—resented with indignation. It is, as to cause and effect, immodest. It is immodest as to the material worn, and in the fashion of the dress. A lady who would appear at her table, or in her drawing-room, in the garb she would wear at a ball, would at once lose her reputation for modesty. On the boards of a theater the charm of

the dance is its indecorous character. The more wanton the figure, the more propriety is violated, the louder is the applause, the higher the premium of the boxes! It is not recreation or exercise people plead for when they dance, but dissipation in some degree, of which dancing is the representative. Peter commands the Christian women to adorn themselves with "a meek and quiet spirit, which is, in the sight of God, of great price." Let a dancing Christian, arrayed for her amusement, compare herself with this description. Let her look at its influence upon her health, her character for consistency, her reputation for modesty, and then decide, if she can, that dancing is consistent with her vows to God. We say not the mere bodily exercise does all this. But we do say that such results are so inseparably connected with dancing, that without them it would not be sought for by its patrons, nor condemned by its religious opposers.—Am. Wesleyan.