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A Sermon on Dancing

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International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Feb 18, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 7.

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A Sermon on Dancing.

REASONS WHY CHRISTIANS SHOULD NOT DANCE.

The Baltimore American some time since said: At the Second Christian church, corner of Dolphin and Etting streets, the Rev. D. R. Wilkins preached yesterday on dancing. After reading for a text Judges 21: 20, 21, he said that in the days of such men of God as Wycliffe, Tindale, Coverdale, Cranmer, Bede, Huss, Ridley, Luther, and others, the question with the Christian was not, "How much can I be like the world and be saved?" or, "How near can I come to being lost and escape?" but, "How can I best serve my Master?" was the burden of his heart. But now Christianity has grown both popular and fashionable, and therefore not a few Christians are continually asking the question, "What harm is there in dancing? I read in the Bible of people dancing who were good people. What harm can it be?" I believe it is a great evil, and is doing more to demoralize the church and society than the Christian mothers who are training their children for the ball-room, have any idea; and while I see no reason why Christians should engage in dancing, I see many why they should not.
1. It is nowhere commended in the Bible.
2. Although engaged in by men and women of God at times under the old dispensation, it was never sought as a pleasure, as now, but was one of the ways in which they praised God in the time of victory.
3. The sexes did not dance together, as now.
4. The New Testament tells of but one case of dancing; and that in purpose is more like the dancing nowadays than any other dancing mentioned in the whole Bible. This dancing, which was engaged in by the daughter of one of the wicked women of the Roman Empire, resulted in the death of John the Baptist.
5. Dancing is not done in the name of the Lord. Paul says that we are to do all things in the name of the Lord.
6. Dancing is reveling; and Paul says that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom.
7. It is heathenish. The less of civilization a nation has, the more dancing.
8. It leads to expensive and gorgeous dress.
9. It unfits the mind for reflection.
10. It leads to the violation of the laws of health, involving great loss of sleep, and too much exercise.
11. It keeps people up all night who are too delicate to sit up with the sick or dying for one hour.
12. The minister of the gospel cannot engage in it without doing serious damage to the religion of Christ.
13. Our Saviour did not dance.
14. The apostles and early Christians did not dance.
15. Dancing is of ill repute.
16. No one dying sends for a dancing-master to comfort him.
17. No good dancer wants it placed on his tombstone when dead that "he was an expert dancer."
18. No one dances in memory of a departed friend.
19. It creates or fosters a love for the fatal cup.
20. It tolerates a freedom between the sexes which is immodest and often results perniciously.
21. Hundreds of blasted characters can date their first step toward ruin to their first visit to the ball-room.
22. It creates jealousy between man and wife, between lover and lover.
23. It requires no brains to be a dancing-master.
24. It weakens a person morally.
25. It weakens his influence for good.
26. It is a useless art.
27. No Christian can attend balls and keep unspotted from the world.
28. We cannot let our light shine in the ball-room.
29. Dancing is not a healthful exercise.
30. We are to glorify God in our bodies and spirits. Can we do it by dancing?—Sel.