The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1859-02-02

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to urge that everything which draws at
tention from reyivals is "detrimental to
the moral and religious welfare of the
community e. Even good school in our
District or Academy would necessarily
draw the attention Of scholars away from
,reviyals, and check their legitimate inf1u-
ence. Why not then, with the same
propriety, urge that sehools-good ones
at least-ar positive evils in community 7
Rejoice, Q young man." DC. You
seem inclined to construe this text to
amount to q prohibition, and assert that
God will bring men into Judgment for
INDUCING in these pleasures" 1t seems
to us to be equivalent to permission, if
not even to- command. :. Rejoice, o
young man in thy youth, and let thy
heart cheer thee" Why not! The in
ference is that we should indulge inplea-
sures, but reasonably, knowing that we
cannot violate any law of God with impu-
nifty. "a a5saIs .arf 73siH 5ags4
That morality, whether in or out of
the church, is morality still" you are in
clined to think '"naay be, true;" but you
are rather Of the opinion, if we interpret
you correctly, that it is, at least, ga little
mixed -"' requires proof" DC. We had
supposed that morality was and is the
same the world over, both in the church
and out of it, and we now ask you to
point out to us the difference. We had
supposed that a meal of victuals from the
hand of heather would satisfy hunger
just as quick, and just as well as though
it came from the hand OF Christian.
But we wait for further light on this point.
aalI In your reply to our invitation to dis
cuss this resolution, you say, You are
probably aware that the very existence of
our Academy, as an institution which
will either receive or deserve the patron
age of Christian people, is at stake on
the question which we propose to discuss,
according to the Judgment of many who
sympathize with u.s." We are not aware
that the existence of our Academy as an
institution, is at stake on this question
We trust YOU will enlighten us on the
subject. a. 90. ...s..a..
You have, in your last article, pro-
posed new. conditions and new terms on
which to discuss this resolution. If you
will refer to our reioinder, you will find
the following: eve accept the resolution
as you have wordod it, The preliminary
correspondence settles this matter. t..f
We do notjointly ho!dloursolves respon-
sible for anything any one of us may have
said in private conversation with you or
anybody else. We confipe OF rselves to
the published correspondence, and we
think you had no right to go outside OF
# ri sG Hosat Ha7 70
"Your remarks on preliminaries seen,
70 me to be quite as irrelevant and imper-
tinent as ours did to you. l had sup
posed that it belonged to the affirmative
to commence the discussion, and, that
courtesy, as well as the rules of debate,
required the negative to make no reply
Ne deny having opened tho discus
sion; on the contrary, we carefully avoi-
ded anything pertaining to the proper
subject matter of the debate. We only
commented upon portions of your reply,
which were entirely irrelevant, and which
placed us in false position. In doing
this we violated no rules of courtesy OF
debate, unless, perchance, your rules Of
courtesy and debate, like your morality
are unknown to "unrc~enerate hearts,
In conclusion, we claim that we have
shown you that your (one) argument is
inapposite-that anusements are, and
ever have been conSenia to both social
ed, regenorate and unrcgenerate hearts
that dancing has been practised by relig-
ious persons-was practised on joyful oe-
casions, such as national festivals and great
victories-was sometimes performed IN
the open air, in public highways, fields
and groves-that Christ recognized dan,
cing, and evidently regarded it as being
proper in its placc-tbst "these praeti-
ces' have no more tendency to check re-
ligious reyivals, than lyceums, common
schools, or any ofthe common duties o.
life; and finally, that for these things
God will no sooner bring us into judg
ment than he viii for eating. drinking
or sleeping. - ''.'3
Most Respectfully Yours,
G. B. cox,
8BIeu eds 30 sa9 d "A. MORSE, =
eas .7afsee2 81. A. TAYLOR.