A Discourse on the Evils of Dancing

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 manuscript 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 God. 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 classes 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 God. 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,"--assuming it as an undeniable truth that, what God 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 assert that the fashionable amusement of Dancing, is contrary to the spirit and aim of the Gospel, and, therefore, is opposed to the revealed will of God. 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 constitute the great bulk of the inhabitants of our globe; in short all persons who do not belong to the Kingdom of God.

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 passage, but is amply sustained by other portions of the word of God. 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 friendship of the world is enmity with God?" "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." "Choose ye this day whom ye will serve." "If the Lord be God, 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 God 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 God 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 God 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 trespasses and sins. The one are governed by the Spirit of God, and the other are under the dominion of Satan. The one consult the glory of God, 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 constitution of things--and is the natural result of the incompatible differences between submission to the will of God 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 fashionable 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 perishing 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 amusement, the position assumed by the text, would exclude it from the recreations of those who love and obey God, 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 fashion, the most unseasonable hour, and the most unfavorable circumstances 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 pass 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 fashion, in a chamber brilliant with a multitude 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 assembly 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 fashionable 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 God-forgetting multitude, this fell destroyer snatches his prey from the ranks of fashion 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 amusement 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 assumed by the text, would exclude Dancing from the list of Christian diversions, even if it could be shown that it is innocent in itself.