The sun., 1880-02-01

tenanoe 90 worldly an amusement with o
view to the conciliation OF gay young con-
verts who refuse to abandon the Joyous
excitements OF life at the baptlsmal font.
And undoubtedly she is right In saying that
dancing is not distinctlvely religious per-
formance, unless 1t be In the Shaker Church.
where care has been taken to dlvest 1t OF
the allurements which render the rhythmic
motions OF the dancers 30 delightful to
youth. Shaker dancing Is q sufficiently sad
and repulsive exercise to destroy any
charms 1t might have for tho worldly mind.
Still, though dancing lacks religious
quality, it Is very popular among young
people, and even old ones find enjoyment at
ball. Their stiff joints grow flexible at
the sound OF a STRAUSS waltz, or when the
musicians start up spirited galop. Unless
1t was for dancing, what would become OF
the social entertainments of the gay sea-
son How dull they would grow. and how
slow the beauty and grace which now lend
these their charms would be to adorn and
glorify the halls of polite recreation
SPURGEoN, the great London Baptist preach
er, once declared his readiness to favor
dancing II the brethren would dance to-
gether. But Pmch showed how ridiculous
that would be, In picture representing the
fat preacher waltzing with one OF his seri
ous-minded deacons. 1t may as we'll bo ac-
knowledged at the start that dancing as an
amusement would be dropped in disgust II
men could not dance with women. and
women with men. If that Is wrong. then
dancing must be tabooed by the churches.
The Baptist young lady thinks 1t is wrong,
and eO she would hive mono Of IT,
But the question might arise, were the
young converts of whom she speaks really
converted ? If their new-found religion was
not strong enough to keep them faithful to
its obligations unless they lived a life Of
austerity apart from the world-which, in
the nature Of things, 1t is not possible for
the run of people to do-what was the use Of
their embracing it2 II dancing shook it out
of them, their religion could not have taken
much hold on their characters; and even IL
they had not waltzed, they might have done
something else which would have allowed
feelings so volatile to evaporate.
The Baptist young lady should think Of
this, and we venture to say of even her, that
II she can keep religious only by keeping
from dancing and from having the good
times her young friends feel are SO neces-
sary to q tolerable existence, her piety Is
not of the genuine sort. Instead of flower
which will blossom in the open air, it is
plant which blooms only under artificial
heat. And that is not the sort Of religion
she should try to cultivate.
However. II sho thinks dancing wrong,
why, then don't dance. II other people fail
to find any moral quality in it whatever,
they will go on dancing when it pleases
them, and be sorry for her because her con-
science deprives her OF the recreation by
which they profit And probably If
churches try to stop them, the churches
will suffer more than they.
But our fair and pious correspondent said
one thing we commend to the consideration
Of the next Baptist Conference. 1T seems
to me-" she remarked, that the difficulty
is not with the young people, but with un-
converted ministers, who, II they know the
truth theoretically, know nothing about it
practically" Do not recent developments
justify the language of the Baptist young
lady2 Or have the old tests Of conversion
gone out OF date