The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-05-07
The Dancing Question. DR.. Adger and
Prof. DabneY Thereon.

urSt, cnttlcd Inc Dancing question,
is by the Rev. Prot. Il. l.. Dabney, d. D.
LII. D., Of Virginia, and the seconds cn
titled "Tho Question of Dancing, from
Another Point of View" is from the pei
Of the Rev. John 3. Adger, D. D., o
South Carolina. Any articles written a
any time on any subject by two sucl
scholars and divincs would attract atten
ton, but these articles have q pcculia,
Significance and Importance at the pres
ent time, on the subject of Dancing, an(
with the reverend reviewers OH opposite
sides. They may be regarded in the ligh
of campaign documents %cmbodying thu
idea of the two ~contcnding parties in the
Southern Presbyterian Church who a
the General Assembly which meets thi:
month in Louisville will join issue or thu
Dancing Question" The famous At
lanta Block case will come before the AS
sembly on appeal against the decision 0
the Georgia Synod, and that Supreme
, Court OF the Southern Presbyterian
Church will be called on to reverse OF
affirm the decision, to say whether or no
dancing is sinful, and disciplinablc. Az
so great prominence has unfortunately
been given to tho social dance by thu
church courts, and as the members of so
cicty of all denominations will watchfully
regard the action Of the Assembly, We
have printed in our columns this morn
ing one-half Of DR.. Adgcr's admirable ar
ticlc, and shall print the remainder in
the next issue Of the Press aad Banner
1t would have afforded MS pleasure to lay
Prot. Dabney's article also before oul
readers, but it is far too long, it is III sew
= cral parts marked by a morbid pruriency
suggestive of indecency, and it's best
parts and general drift can be more pleas
antly gathered from DR.. Adger's article
which is a reply to and q most successful
rebuttal of Prof. Dahney's argument.
Prof. Dabney is a man of Learning and
picty, but he is an example Of that class
numerous in history, in whom learning
and piety gre found to consist with Puri-
tanic fanaticism, and tyranny, and mar
row-mindedncss. Two or three centuries
ago that class prosecuted to the death
the milder manners, purer laws of this
ago restrain them now, but 1t may be
safely said, if You scratch such 4 man
you will find a prosecutor. Prot. Dabnev
represents the Lcftwich wing of tho adj
versarics of Dancing, the men who have
communicated and would always ex-
communicate the church member who
like Mr.. Block Of Atlanta dares to allow
q dance in his parlour. Such men in their
mistaken zeal for God, which is too often
only q pricstly desire for power, over
ride the tenderest and rurcst and most
sacred feelings of humanity and societv,to
attain their end, to impose their unbeara-
BILE and unnatural yoke. Having once in
their Owl minds pronounced on the sim
~fulncss of daucing,-and in cases of men
like the Rev. Mr.. Leftwich, we cannot
sec how dancing could be otherwise than
sinful--thcy search ecclesiastical a%utllori-
ty to prove it's observation-disclosures and they
beat Satan himself in their ability to
quote Scripture to serve their purpose.
Worst of all, they inject into the subject
so much that suggests l~asciviousncss and
lust. that the pure minds of thousands Of
young girls and young men are smirched
and soiled by those very men who arc
acting--sare the mark-in the interests
of purity. Purity in man and oma is
like humility, a very sensitive plant, so
delicate that it cannot bear even to look
upon itself, much less to be talked about.
Purity is a different thing altogether
from prudery. Yet just as humili-
ty changes into vanity the moment that
the possessor venture to esteem it his,
so purity becomes prudery whenever it
talks about itself or is much talked ofin
public. TO the pure all things are pure:
to the prudo all things arc suggestive of
impuritv. Herein is found the great evil
that is done by making Dancing n matter
Of public discussion in the Courts of the
Church, or of private dispute in the par
lor. We can imagine nothing more hurt
full to the moral atmosphere Of Atlanta
and Of Georgia than the discussion Of the
great Block Case. The speeches made by
Leftwich and others like him contain
more prudish indccenco and impure sug-
g~estions than many prohibited French
novels. There is a world of truth and
there is a great moral lesson in the words
of bean Swift,--"Nice people arc those
who have nasty IDEAS"
We shall not in this issue refer more
particularly to Prof. Dabney's article;
perhaps in u next We shall recur to it.
Suffice it to say that he fills thirty-six
octave pages with his arguments to prove
dancing to be sinful and to assert its dis
ciplinableness by the Church. In spite
of some grievous faults in taste in select
ing his authorities, as when no quotes
from Lord Byron to prove the sinfulness
of waltzing, and when he quotes an au-
tllority whose language has for deccncy's
sake to be supplied by a blank--it is a
very able paper, covering the whole
ground, and requiring a disrutant of no
mean scholarship and Of tried polemical
power to assail his positions successfully.
Such an one is DR.. Adgcr, as our readers
will find when they read his article.
With that fearless regard for individual
liberty which is the heritage Of the true
Presbyterian, with a desire for peace and
concord worthy Of apostolic times, and
with that jealous w%atchfulness over the
purity of the Church and tho family
which should characterize tho minister
Of tho Gospel and member of society,
DR.. Adger at once advances IN medias res
and offers battle to Prof. Dabney thus ::
1--WE Shall essay to dispute some of his
positions, being much impressed with the
opinion that there is danger both to the
purity, the liberty and the peace of our
ecclesiastical household from some of the
views which he has advanced"
In the course Of his learned paper,
Which we commend to our readers, he
takes up Prof. Dabney's arguments one
by one and successfully reiutes them.
he establishes W great facts, that the
slnfulness 0 fdancing has not been proved;
and that it is not All offence to be formally
disciplined.
Pianos and Organs.-Grahd Introduce
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