St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-03-08
THE DANCE OF DEATH.

interested the human race in all generations
and by the overwhelming crowd before him
he judged that the subject was tolerably in
tereSting vet. In the last lecture on card
playing he had addressed himself especially
to young men, as that amusement seemed
to have peculiar charms for tine masculine
portion of the house; in this lecture. how
ever. he proposed more particularly to
speak to the women, for, if amusements
were to be classified according to sex,
dancing partoOk of the feminine gender.
Women care more about dancing than men.
In the absence of the sterner sex they will
dance together by the hour at summer re-
sorts, but unless men can dance with women
they will not dance at all. In fact it is for
the women more than for the amusement
itself that men care to dance. Man takes
delight in rougher and more daring sports.
He would prefer to steer boat through
stormy sea and be drenched with brine than
steer his partner over polished floor and
bedew himself with lavender and cologne.
Most men regard dancing as rather effemi-
nate business. The grace and poetry of
motion appeal more particularly to the finer
sensibiliteS of women. They are more
deeply stirred by music and inclined to con-
vert rhythmical sound into rhythmical bodily
motion.
The origin of dancing was to be found in
joyful emotion. When the prOdigal re-
turned TO his fathers house his sisters
danced because they were happy over his
return. There was music i'm the heart and
this led to music in the house. Blithesome
maidens skip along to school when they
might economic their labor and walk.
That skip, however, is a rude torn of
dance. 1t indicates internal eXhilaratiOn.
Children dance unconSciouSly; as for eX
ample when an organ grinder makes his
appearance you will always find one or two
on the outskirts of the crowd keeping time
to the music in an original but highly en-
thusiastIc form of dance. COlored people
are notorious for their good spirits and
equally notorious for their love of dancing.
1t takes only modieum OF happiness to
start one of them off into shuttle and a
shout. In Hebrew the word TO dance
means to ''leap for jOy." Wherever there
is happiness there will be dancing of some
sort. David danced for joy when the ark
moved into Zion and Lyman Beecher was
wont to let of his good spirits after
REVIVAL WORK
by capering about his room to the music of
| his own fiddle. Our Lord loved to watch
the children in the marketplace as they
piped and danced, and certainly he re-
garded this amusement with favor at the
wedding i'm Cana of Galilee. But the dane
| ing in those days was far different from
what il is to-day. Then people danced
mostly out of doors and in the daytime, and
the sexes danced separately. If people
would confine themselves to the Bible
method of dancing, there would only be
sne side to the question SIS it right to
Gance?" But dancing has changed in all
these three particulars, and in deciding this
question we are left to our conscience and
common sense. In the Psalms people are
told to praise the name of the Lord in the
dance" from which deduce this broad
and comprehensive principle, namely, if
glorify God. go ahead and dance; but if
as to scandaliZe your God. you
If you cOnfine dancing TO respectable
persons. places and methods no one can
find fault. 1t is the abuses of dancing
which good people should inveigh against.
find mighty divergence or opinion
and practice among Christian people upon
this subject. Some brush the whole sub
ject aside with sweeping denunciation;
others more intelligently discriminate be-
tween innocent dancing and that which is
pernicious by reason of its associations.
know hundreds of excellent Christian peO-
pie who dance themselves and allow their
children to do the same. They regard
dancing as harmless as riding or skating,
and i'm the way they do it it probably is.
The church can lay down no rigid code of
laws on this subject. Some people think
they cannot unite with the church because