St. Cloud Democrat. [volume] (Saint Cloud, Stearns County, Minn.) 1858-1866, 1861-03-07

ed, pcrhaps destroyed; and as We are til,
weakest Of all the weak brothers and sis
ters, We claim to DO general conscience
keeper. TO this point would Mr.. Nelson ,,
doctrine lead! but Paul did not 90 teach
The habit Of eating meat offered to idol.
in an idols temple, was alike unlawful,t,
Jews and Christians, if BY 90 eating the,
joined in the wor'hip of idols. 1t required
some logical acumen to understand that a.
act known as idol worship might be don.
without violation of christian duty, and 81
the ignorant christians of that day were
liable to think idol worship part Of chris
tianity, and practice it accordingly. Yet
still, with this great danger o: misunder
standing, Paul afterwards says. ".Whatso
ever is set before you, eat, asking no ques
tons for conscience sake"
So that Paul appears to have reconsider.
ed the matter, or to teach that his frs,
injunction was For exceptional cases. Any
one to read the 9Th, 9th l. 10th chapters
Of LIST Cor, must see that Paul never
taught, or intended to teach, that we
should abstain from, doing what we believe
to be right, for fear Of giving offence 49,
But, even it he had, it would not apply to
this case, for it is the ''rong brothers .
the preachers AMI leaders in the church,
who keep up perpetual ding dong about
dancing; and so persuade weak bre+hercn
that they ought to be offended. Churches,
in their organized capacity, have made
rules which describe dancing as worse than
all the crimes specified in the decalogue.
These rules are taught to the common peo-
pie as of divine origin, until weak bret er-
en- really imagine that God must have Civ
en- some law against dancing, when the
whole affair Was manufactured by the
strong brethren, who assume to do the
thinking for all nations and the rest of
mankind. The Pope at Rome is mere
baby legislator compared to our pro es-
tant popcs, who alter, amend, take from
and add to the law Of God, to make it suit
their own ideas. Then, after they have
persuaded few weak bretheren to believe
their laws are the props of the universe,
they come to those who assume the right
Of private judgment with Paul's charge
about the weak brethcren. Their address
is just this, I'VE have taught the weak
brctheren that dancing is worse than the
sum of all villainiss, if you dance you will
offend them. Destroy not him for whom
Christ died. If ye sin against the breth-
eren, ye sin against Christ. Ifye sin ye
are Of the DEVIL" &c &C.. This is a
roundabout way Of playing Pope; but we
prefer to do our own thinking.
Mr.. Nelson slightly named the
dances mentioned in the Bible.
Miriam danced at the Red Sea in
honor of the dc]iverance of the children
of Israel from bondage, while Mo es and
Aaron sung psalm. The children of
Israel danced around the calf which Aaron
had made. Jeptha's daughter met him,
dancing in honor Of his victory. David
danced before the ark. The women of
Israel went out to meet Saul anil David.
dunci"g. and saying saul .lath slain his
thousands and David his tens of thousands. :"
The daughters of Shiloh came to dance at
a feast of the Lord, when the sons of Ben
jamin caught them for wives and, final
ly, the daughter Of Herodias danced for
John Baptist's head All these dances he
said we're religious, except the last, which
he described rs frightfully obscene. We
had not heard Of this before, but are glad
to learn it now,-to be assured that the
innocent amusement Of dancing was not
perverted to 50 bad use. If it had been,
it would be no argument against it, for all
good things have, at some time, been so
perverted.
1t was preaching and praying which
brought about the murder Of Charles FIRST,
the Martyr King Of England, yet this is no
argument against preaching. The Phara-
sees tasted that they might smite with the
fist of wickcdness; but this Is no argument
against fasting. If a wicked woman had
used her daughters talent for dancing the
most becoming and modest dance, to &C.