The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-09-18
On the Downward Path.

'Why is it that the Catholic church, which is so liberal upon many matters is so strict against dancing?' was the question put by a Protestant minister to a Catholic priest some time ago. Be cause" was the answer, in the confess sional we priests are able to trace the source of almost every sin. We have found out by the admission of ruined men and women that most of the immorali- ties of great city or q country town can be traced directly to the dance hall" The dance hall is the beginning, not the end of the downward path. Some good people aye, many good and respectable people-dance But it is the place where many good people are spiritually de- stroyed or spiritually depleted. It is the place where we have the spiritual slaughter of the innoeents. Therefore tonight as a Christian watehman it Is my duty to warn you of the danger of en- tering it. Some there are who escape as by fire, but to all the ordeal is fierce and perilous. 1t Is the place in which the enemy of souls finds his most numer- ous victims and exercises his most insid- ious power. You who pray Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil beware of entering the dance hall. Beau
 
 English dance hall. He was the Ward McA Ulster of his day. But that is all the history most people know about Beau Brummel l will tell you his end. Beau Brummel died in the insane asylum of Le Bon Sauveur. Many young men and women who once wore a royal crown and pass not only the end of their earthly but all of their eternal days in spirit ual Le Bon Sauveur. in a spiritual mad house.
 What of the Night?
 But standing in the watch tower to- night 1 see more than the gleaming lights of the evil resorts turing the victims to their fascinating but fatal haunts. l see dark shadows in the streets where no lights are. l see these dark shadows following the burglar apd, the "hold up man and the murderer with his pistol and knife. l see the dark and tightly closed houses from which no ray of light Is coming. These houses look deserted, but they are not deserted. They are out posts of perditon, silent, but haunted with outcasts and gamblers and conspir- ators who are fagrantly breaking the laws of the land. l see the low dives of great city rocking with human vcr- min. l see also where the counterfeiters are silently doing their work in the still ness of the night. Night is a symbol of social calamity, sin and death. So we find that most of the lowest outeasts of society try to conceal their evil actions in the darkness of the night. It is the time when the deyotees of sin hold their high carnival It is when the death deal CTS are able to deliver their hardest blows with the least chance of detection. But
 with God the night is not only the em- blem of calamity; 1t Is also the harbinger of the day, for as Isaiah traveed forth into the darkness as a divine prophet he "saw the gleam of the sunrise coming over the eastern hills" Yes, he saw the | time when righteousness would claim it's | deciples as well the time when the | enemies of God should be hurried away | 10 their eternal incarceration. What of | the night, Isaiah? What of the nlght?'' cries the officer of the guard Then the prophetic watchman calls. "I see the | morning cometh and also the night l That means: "I see the righteous trl- umph through God. l see also the ene- mics of God scattered in complete de- | feat" What of the night? What of | the night?' You call to me. l answer: | ''The morning cometh for the disciples of Jesus Christ. I see also the eternal night