p. 46 | DANCING by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 27, 1881

DANCING.

By Editor

ONE of the best articles we have seen on the subject of dancing is the following, by the Rev. S. J. Tomlinson, in the Indianapolis Journal:—

“The Chief of Police of New York says that three-fourths of the abandoned girls in that city were ruined by dancing. Young ladies allow gentlemen privileges in dancing which, if taken under any other circumstances, these gentlemen would be reported as improper persons. It requires neither brains, good morals, nor religion to be a good dancer. It leads to bad society. I never saw such a vicious crowd of young men at our college as on a night when there was to be a ball. It won’t mix with religion any more than oil and water will mix. As the love of one increases, the love of the other decreases. How many eminent Christians are distinguished dancers? As certain as the atmosphere around the thermometer at zero will freeze things, as certain as the wind that is bellying the sail will drive the boat, so certain will dancing freeze the religious sentiments out of the soul; it will drive its devotee

away from the church; it is a wind that blows in that direction. No dancing is spoken of in the Bible that was done by divine authority. In ancient times, the sexes danced separately.

“Alcohol is the ‘spirit’ of beverages. Take it out and the young men of the land would as soon seek a beverage in the swill-tub as in the saloon. So sex is the spirit of the dance. Take it away, and let the sexes dance separately, and dancing would shortly be out of fashion. Parlor dancing is dangerous. Tippling leads to drunkenness, and parlor dancing leads to ungodly balls. Tippling and parlor dancing sow to the wind, and both reap the whirlwind. Put dancing in the crucible, apply the acids, weigh it, and the verdict of reason, morality and religion is: ‘Weighed in the balance and found wanting.’”