MASTER 
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AUTHOR: 
 
 ANDREWS, CHARLES 
 'ESLEY 
 
 TITLE: 
 
 ON THE 
 COMPATIBILITY OF 
 
 PLACE: 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 DA TE : 
 
 1872 
 
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 THE INCOMPATIBILITY 
 
 or 
 
 THEATER-GOma AO DANCmG 
 
 WITH 
 
 MEMBERSHIP IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 
 
 OFFICE OF LEIGHTON PUBLICATIONS, 
 
 12 26 SANSOM STREET, 
 
 PHZLADELPHtA« 
 
 •^0^ 
 

 ?^ 
 
 Tro"t e, 3> 
 
 ON THE 
 
 INCOMPATIBILITY 
 
 OF 
 
 THEATER-GOING AND DANCING 
 
 .'A 
 
 WITH 
 
 MEMBERSHIP IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 
 
 AN ADDRESS OF THE CLERGY 
 
 \15.7. 
 T*^^^ 
 
 OF 'THB 
 
 CONVOCATION OF THE TAllEY OF TIBGINIA. 
 
 TO THB 
 
 PEOPLE OF THEIR RESPECTIVE PARISHES. 
 
 
 OFFICE OF LEIGHTON PUBLICATIONS, 
 
 1225 SANSOM STREET, 
 
 PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 1872, 
 
NOTE. 
 
 It was stated in tlie first edition of tHs tra^t, that it 
 did not aspire to circulation beyond the congregations 
 for which it was prepared. But q& it has been largely 
 caUed for by brethren elsewhere, including ministers 
 of other denominations having like cause of complaint, 
 and equally concerned for the purity of the Church, 
 this new and revised edition is put forth, in the hope 
 (which is to some extent warranted by experience) 
 that it will prove the means of better instruction to 
 some who are, or may become candidates for admission 
 to the Church, and possibly a means of recovery to 
 some who have fallen, and be otherwise useful at a 
 time when so many seem to be but very imperfectly 
 acquainted with what the vows taken in baptism and 
 confirmation imply. 
 
 
 
 
 - i 
 
 t 
 
 I. 
 
 THE THEATER. 
 
 We start with the proposition "that the Theater has 
 been through its whole history, and is now, a school of 
 vice. If this ba true, the question must be at an end 
 with all who have any claim to the Christian character. 
 Is it true? The facts alleged in proof are, that its 
 literature is often of immoral tendency, corrupt and 
 corrupting, both in sentiment and principle. Its per- 
 formances are not unfrequently characterized by irrev- 
 erence and profanity, religion being made a subject for 
 merriment, if not of derision. Vice is whitewashed and 
 virtually commended. The name of God is blasphe- 
 mously used, and piety ridiculed. Not only do the 
 more popular plays abound with low innuendo and 
 double entendre, with the usual accompaniment of the 
 ballet, which no Christian can witness, but the grossest 
 indecencies are the ordinary exhibition of the stage- 
 such as immodest dances, with exposure of the female 
 person, which are the known incentives to licentious- 
 ness and crime—so that the theater is, as it always has 
 been, the habitual resort of the irreligious and of the 
 immoral. It is the expressed opinion of no less an 
 authority than Sir Walter Scott, in his Essays on the 
 Drama, that no man of dehcacy would wish to expose 
 the females of his family, or youth of the male sex, to 
 
 (5) 
 
// 
 
 M 
 
 D THE THEATER. 
 
 what they must witness at a theater. Touching the 
 London stage, he testifies distinctly to the fact that,, 
 except in cases pf some extraordinary attraction, '' per- 
 sons of immoral character usually form the principal 
 part of the audience": so that no theater-goer can say 
 that he does not stand in the way of sinners, and sit in 
 the seat of the scornful. 
 
 To the shame of the modern apologists for the stage, 
 the testimonies to its corrupting influences are coeval 
 with its existence as found in Plato, Xenophon, Tacitus, 
 Seneca, and many others. Ovid, himself, not the best 
 example of heathen morality, urged the Emperor 
 Augustus to suppress it, as a great source of corruption 
 to the State. 
 
 Added to this, we have, as might have been expected, 
 an unbroken line of testimony against it from the pro- 
 fessed teachers of morals and religion, in the shape of 
 protests, censures, recorded judgments and condemna- 
 tory sentences of the Church, in not less than fifty-four 
 Councils and Synods, general and provincial, both of 
 the East and West, with numerous decrees excluding 
 play-actors and their patrons from the communion. 
 The opinions of the ancient Fathers and Christian 
 writers, to the number of seventy or more, have been 
 collected out of their works : and of modern authors, 
 both Eoman Catholic and Protestant, not less than one 
 hundred and fifty have condemned the theater, as of 
 dangerous and often fatal influence upon society. And 
 these authorities are by no means confined to the public 
 teachers of religion, but embrace writers upon morals, 
 philosophers, poets, jurists, physicians, lawyers and 
 legislators. Their testimonies and opinions would make 
 
 i 
 
 Ui 
 
 Y 
 
 THE theater; 7 
 
 a book. Even the infidel Eosseau wondered how a 
 father could take his daughter to the theaters of Paris, 
 which were so congenial to vice that during the Eeign 
 of Terror they increased from six to twenty-five. 
 
 On the 12th of October, 1778, the Congress of the 
 United States adopted the following resolution : — 
 
 "Whereas, true religion and good morals are the 
 only foundation of liberty and happiness, 
 
 " Eesolved, That it be and is hereby recommended to 
 the several States, to take the most efiectual measures 
 for the encouragement thereof, and for suppressing 
 theatrical entertainments, horse racing, gaming, and 
 such other diversions as are productive of idleness, 
 dissipation and a general depravity of morals." There 
 were but eighteen dissenting votes, while those in the 
 affirmative numbered the most illustrious names of the 
 House — Adams, Gerry, Sherman, Ellsworth, Eobert 
 Morris, Dean, Eichard Henry Lee and Henry Laurens. 
 We have also the testimony of merchants and leading 
 men in the business community, concerning numbers of 
 young men once in their employment, and who promised 
 to be their successors, who have been brought to dis- 
 grace and ruin by the theater. So far, then, as the past 
 is concerned, nobody denies it, and nobody defends it. 
 
 But we are told, ^'The stage is reformed, become a 
 school of noble sentiments, and a teacher of morals," 
 etc. — the common subterfuge of its apologists from the 
 beginning, who, unable to discredit history, have found 
 it easier to contradict what has not yet become em- 
 bodied in that form. It was this very plea which 
 Bishop Collier encountered at the beginning of the 
 eighteenth century, when he wrote his famoas history 
 
1 
 
 I 
 
 8 
 
 THE THEATER. 
 
 
 of the stage. None justified what hxid heen, but only 
 what was then alleged to be an improved state of 
 things, and with which divines were presumed not to 
 be acquainted. The former panderings to evil passions 
 had ceased. But Collier was not a man to be silenced 
 either by plausible fictions or by positiveness. He pro- 
 ceeded to collect the facts, undeniable and undenied, in 
 proof that in 1710 the English stage was more corrupt 
 than in any former period of its history. That history 
 was for the most part unknown to its apologists and 
 defenders, and they had little sensibility to current 
 facts, so long as those facts were unknown or uncen- 
 sured by the moral world without the precincts of the 
 theater. So of the late assaults of the secular press upon 
 a minister for refusing to bury an actor, dying, so far 
 as appeared, unbaptized and impenitent, according to 
 the burial service of the Episcopal Church. It usually 
 prefaces its attacks with .assertions about a reformed 
 theater. We have a short answer ready at hand in 
 the counter assertions so often made and accompanied 
 by the jproofs of their truth, many of them unfit for 
 recital in this address, giving the names of those plays 
 and performances which attract the greatest crowds, 
 not only in Paris and London, but in (mr own cities. 
 We are told of the abolished third tier, but what is the 
 gain to virtue from having its former occupants scat- 
 tered among the boxes? It is idle to tell us of the 
 elevated sentiments of the drama, perhaps in the Age of 
 Elizabeth or James I, when none will pretend that any- 
 thing of this sort now attracts the multitude. Those 
 who have looked most into the literature and facts of 
 play-acting, ancient and modern, tell us that the inde- 
 
 THE THEATER. 
 
 9 
 
 y^ T 
 
 cencies of the present would not have been tolerated in 
 the corrupt age of Charles II, and that the immorahty 
 of the stage is more gross now than when Collier wrote 
 his history. Added to this, as might have been ex- 
 pected, the judgment of the world, as represented by 
 the secular press, is proportionally demoralized. 
 
 Christians must beware of the thoroughly worldly 
 spirit^ of the secular press. With no higher standard 
 than It mculcates, religion would soon be driven out of 
 the world. Through this channel it will not be known 
 that no sooner is a theater built than it is surrounded 
 with drinking-houses and brothels, which mark it as the 
 way te perdition; that the profession of the stage is 
 notoriously immoral. Actors and actresses who come 
 before the public and receive their applause, are living 
 in daily defiance of the laws of decency and morality. 
 The exceptions to this rule are so rare that they ex- 
 cite general surprise and comment. Christians must 
 have better sources of information upon these subjecte 
 than the secular press. 
 
 If actors and actresses are excluded from the society 
 of some of their patrons on account of their profession, 
 let it be remembered that both are upon the same r^oral 
 level before God. That which it is immoral or shame- 
 ful in one party te do, is immoral and shameful in any 
 party te go and see done. 
 
 But many professed Christians think it vulgar te go 
 to a theater, yet they can attend the opera. 
 
 The vice of the opera may be more subtle and diffi- 
 cult of apprehension, but it is not the less destructive 
 on that account. The following is the testimony of one 
 than whom none ever better knew what the opera is, 
 
^ - 
 
 10 
 
 THE THEATER. 
 
 THE THEATER. 
 
 or what is its effect upon character : " It is the most 
 artificial of all things. It subsists, not in the imitation 
 of nature, but in contempt of nature. At a theater you 
 may see or hear what has possibly been said or done 
 somewhere, but in an opera you are sure to see what 
 was never said or done anywhere but in an opera. The 
 ear is cloyed with warbled ecstacies or agonies, while 
 every avenue to painful fear or effective sympathy is 
 stopped up. Everything must be made to excite and 
 soothe the feelings of the nurselings of fortune. Tor- 
 tured victims swoon on bods of roses, and the pangs of 
 despair sink in tremulous accents into downy repose. 
 Just so much of human misery is given as to lull those 
 who are exempt from it into a more luxurious sense of 
 their own happiness. Its whole effect is to stifle every 
 proper emotion, and intercept every right ieeling before 
 it reaches the heart, so that there is hardly a vice to 
 which it does not smooth the way, or a single virtue of 
 which it renders the soft and pampered hearer entirely 
 
 capable." 
 
 It is little to say that the religion of the cross of 
 Christ cannpt flourish in an atmosphere like this — it 
 
 cannot live at all. 
 
 Touching the judgment of the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church, there is no dispute. We have it in resolutions 
 of the General Convention, and in this diocese a special 
 canon provides for the discipline of those who fall into 
 this sin. In this view of the case the Church has a 
 right to expect at the hands of its ministers the exer- 
 cise of its discipline. And it is in the city churches 
 that judgment must begin. It is in these churches 
 that the patronage of the theater is common; in some 
 
 y 
 
 s 
 
 ? 
 
 T 
 
 11 
 
 it is less common, from the generally higher standard of 
 piety, but in nonCj so far as we are informed, does it 
 incur suspension from the communion. The members 
 of country churches visiting cities in winter soon learn 
 this, and enticed by the example of city communicants, 
 fall into their sin. These, in turn, going into the coun- 
 try parishes in summer, have been the chief instru- 
 ments of leading the young communicants of those 
 parishes into sinful compliances with the world, quoting 
 their own pastors against those of the parishes in which 
 they were guests. 
 
 What shall we say of such tolerated conformity to 
 the habits of those who are "living in pleasure"? 
 Can that Church be a spiritual society in which disci- 
 pline takes notice of nothing short of that which sub- 
 jects the offender to a civil prosecution? We are 
 ashamed and confounded at witnessing quarrels and 
 censures about the violation of "ordination vows" in 
 mere matters of rubrical direction, or the prerogatives 
 of the clergy, while the promise "to minister the dis- 
 cipline of Christ as this Church hath received the 
 same," seems to be entirely forgotten — "tithing mint, 
 anise and cummin, while passing over judgment and the 
 love of God." 
 
 There is but one way of safety for any of us, and 
 that is by preaching in love, with all courage and per- 
 severance, the whole truth; with specific statements, 
 after the manner of Christ and his apostles, of the sins 
 which we preach against. This will convert some, in- 
 duce others to withdraw, leaving the cases for final dis- 
 cipline so few as to render its- exercise comparatively 
 easy. 
 
II. 
 
 ON THE CHRISTIAN PATRONAGE 
 
 OF DANCING. 
 
 Though the moral evils of dancing, in some of its 
 forms, be not so great as those which result from 
 theater going, the unlearned reader will be surprised 
 to find that the moral warfare against this also dates 
 back from before the Christian era. Suffer us, there- 
 fore, to call your attention to 
 
 1. The argument from authority. The earlier Greek 
 and Eoman moralists classified dancing with play-act- 
 ing, as in this Address, and condemned both on substan- 
 tially the same grounds. Plato, Aristotle, Livy and 
 Cicero are quoted as its censors. They held it as not 
 only productive of moral evils, but as indicating a low 
 grade of character. When Cato charged Murena, the 
 Boman Consul, with having danced in Capadocia, Cicero 
 considered the charge so disgraceful to his client, that 
 had he been unable to disprove it, he would have 
 abandoned his cause. "Blush then," said Cardinal 
 
 (12) 
 
 ON THE CHRISTIAN PATRONAGE OF DANCING. 13 
 
 Beliarmine to the Christian apologists for dancing, 
 *'when a pagan has thought more sanely on this sub- 
 ject than you, and lest that pagan condemn you in the 
 judgment day." In the civil code of Theodosius it \& 
 subjected to censure by the State; as also by Council 
 after Council of the Christian Church, by whose deci- 
 sions dancers as well as play-actors were excluded from 
 the communion. Basil, Ambrose, Augustine, with the 
 fathers and doctors of the Early Church so far as known, 
 were of the same mind about this practice. 
 
 St. Chrysostom entreated his hearers "not to dis- 
 qualify themselves for the communion by such mortal 
 diversions." Tertullian said that "if Christians were 
 found in the assemblies of the dancers, it proved them 
 to be no longer true Christians." The Church of Kome, 
 by no means remarkable for severity in matters of 
 worldly amusement, has produced a host of witnesses 
 against dancing, derived from its history in all forms, 
 no regard being paid to its being more or less public, 
 as there is no distinction in principle. The authorities 
 may be seen at length in the work of the Abb^ Hulot, 
 entitled "Balls and dancing parties condemned by 
 Scripture, Holy Fathers, Holy Councils and most re- 
 nowned theologians of the Church." The drift of that 
 work is to show that while some of its forms are enough 
 to rouse evil passions in an anchorite, all of them are 
 corrupting to the lower classes of society; while in 
 every class and with all their participants, whoever 
 they may be, they are more or less unfriendly to that 
 command of God, the violation of which goes more 
 directly than any other to the very heart of social life. 
 
V ^1 
 
 14 ON THE CHRISTIAN PATRONAGE OF DANCING. 
 
 And when we see that Church from which we once 
 separated, as well for 'Wiciousness of life" as for ''error 
 in religion," not only censuring the licentious dance in 
 synods'^ but effectually extruding it by discipline, we 
 *are filled with profound mortification at seeing it pass 
 without notice in Churches called evangelical. Are the 
 Protestant Churches falling in the rear of Eomanists 
 in consistency of the Christian life? The distinguished 
 infidel Bayle once said of them—" The Eeformed 
 Churches which forbid dancing cannot be sufficiently 
 praised for it, since the manner of it creates a thousand 
 impressions dangerous to virtue." 
 
 But there is, in fact, a like consensus of judgment 
 among all Protestant writers who have treated of 
 ''pomps and vanities;" and rules for the most part 
 have been adopted adequate to their repression. In 
 this diocese, the XIX Canon specifies not only attend- 
 ance upon "theatrical exhibitions," but "public balls," 
 as offenses for which those guilty of them should be 
 suspended from the communion. The responsibility 
 now rests on those who do not enforce the rules made 
 
 and provided. 
 
 But what are ''pullic Balls?" The Church has 
 given no definition, nor has it defined "pomps and 
 vanities." In rubrics and offices which continue un- 
 changed for centuries, the terms are general, and for 
 this reason— to have made them specific by enumerar 
 ting the particulars of those current at any one time, 
 necessarily leaving new developments unprovided for, 
 would have opened the way for the advocates of license 
 to claim that rule of interpretation which holds in the 
 
 f 
 
 O 
 
 i' 
 
 1\ 
 
 Oi( T^E CHRISTIAN PATRONAGE OP DANCING. 15. 
 
 civil law, that whatsoever is not prohibited is allowed. 
 The work of applying general principles to the correc- 
 tion of current forms of sin belongs to the legislation 
 and discipline of the Church for the time being. 
 
 In the Bible we find first general laws, as in the 
 decalogue, and in such forms as the following: — Be ye 
 holy. Let him that nameth the name of Christ depart 
 from iniquity. Abstain from all appearance of evil, 
 hating even the garments spotted by the flesh; and we 
 find also some specifications, doubtless the chief of the 
 Vanities incompatible with the Christian profession then 
 current, even to those of the fashions of female dress 
 and of wearing the hair by the worldly and frivolous 
 of that day. (See 1 Tim. ii, 13). It is so in the legis- 
 lation of the Church. We have general laws, and we 
 have some specifications. These are added to or altered 
 from time to time, as circumstances may require. It 
 would be vain to search the Scriptures for a prohibition 
 <)f the pomps and vanities of the present day, such as 
 liave been prohibited either by resolutions of the 
 General Convention or by Diocesan Canons, for they 
 did not exist when the Bible was written. Theatrical 
 exhibitions were unknown in Judea until introduced by 
 Herod, that illustrious wretch who sought the life of 
 the infant Saviour, and then it was against the protests 
 of the native population, who could never be reconciled 
 to them, much less were they named among them as 
 becoming saints. 
 
 No rubric or canon can include every form of vanity 
 for which discipline should be exercised, as this par- 
 ticular canon declares concerning itself, that it shall 
 
.X ^ 
 
 16 ON THE CHRISTIAN PATRONAGE OP DANCING. 
 
 not be so considered. TKere are those now in the 
 Church, as there always have been, who in worldly 
 conformity will go to the utmost limit of the law.* 
 Tertullian speaks of these same troublers of Israel in 
 his day, who were always hanging upon the borders of 
 discipline, and must needs have a sjpediic text for every 
 vanity they were called upon to surrender. Conse- 
 quently, now, as in the first Christian Societies, and as 
 it always must be, questions arise which in their de- 
 tails must be decided by those entrusted with the disci- 
 pline of the local churches for the time being, of course 
 under general laws, the subjects of discipline mean- 
 while being entitled to appeal. 
 
 When the question is asked what are "public Balls,** 
 we answer, without regarding those refinements which 
 are unworthy of a Christian, they are all those assem- 
 blages and parties where promiscuous dancing is carried 
 on by the two sexes, and not less for being in a private 
 house. This is the view taken in the Eeport of the 
 Committee on the state of the Church in the Council of 
 1866, which was directed, by a unanimous vote, to bo 
 read in all the Churches of the Diocese. 
 
 Such, in brief, is the argument from authority, which 
 certainly must have some weight with such as " lean 
 not to their own understanding." But had it even been 
 otherwise, and councils and doctors have been divided 
 
 • It Is related of a Prince, that wishing to employ a charioteer, ho 
 examined the applicants by asking how near they could drive to the 
 edge of a precipice without going over. The first said within so many 
 Inches. The second could go still nearer. The third said he did not 
 know, as he always made it a point to keep away from, such places. 
 Tke choice between such was easily made. 
 
 ^ 
 
 ON THE CHRISTIAN PATRONAGE OF DANCING, 17 
 
 or adverse in judgment, still the moral argument would 
 be held as conclusive. 
 
 We have then to consider 
 
 2. The moral argument. By the moral argument, 
 we mean that which is drawn from the nature of the 
 case, without regard to laws, or promises to obey them. 
 And here we take dancing not in some supposable or 
 occasional circumstances; but with its actual history, 
 its ordinary associations and its known tendencies. We 
 compare this with the picture drawn in Scripture of the 
 Christian life, and in this view appeal to conscience 
 when in its tenderest and best state. What are its own 
 decisions? What the real promptings of a regenerate 
 mind? What the decision of those in closest sympathy 
 with the life of Christ? This is the decision which we 
 desire, as most decisive of the moral argument and of 
 the practical question. For so long as rubrics and 
 canons for the exclusion of pomps and vanities from the 
 Church are looked upon simply as coercive; or like 
 positive institutions, the reasons for which are not seen 
 or felt to be xnoral, intrinsic and necessary, just so long 
 will they encounter a disputatious and resistive spirit. 
 But however numerous or conclusive such reasons may 
 be to a spiritual mind, it is antecedently probable that 
 in the present state of the Church they will not be 
 appreciated by all its members. Otherwise laws were 
 unnecessary, since they are not made for the righteous, 
 but for those in whom is the spirit of transgression, and 
 concerning whom it may be counted upon beforehand, 
 that the restraints of law will be distasteful, and if poa- 
 aible, set aside. 
 
IS ON THE CHRISTIAN PATRONAGE OF DANCING, 
 
 When, therefore, rules are cited and applied to world- 
 Imess in its less palpable forms, we constantly encounter 
 this reply, "I cannot see any harm in it." Wo show 
 them in the plainest manner the evil effect of this 
 worldliness, both upon themselves and upon the Church; 
 but they see as little as before, and go on repeating,' 
 "I cannot see any harm in it; show me what harm 
 there can be in a dancing party, or in playing cards, if 
 we don't gamble; and would not this be better than 
 slandering one's neighbors," etc., etc. 
 
 When, after a full and clear statement of the case, 
 with time for reflection, the objector still continues in 
 the same strain, we have only to say that we withdraw 
 from the controversy, aU hope of success being at 
 an end. There is no basis for conviction. Submit a 
 problem in the ^gher mathematics to one unacquainted 
 with that science, and it is quite unintelligible to him 
 He asks an explanation ; but in order to do this, you 
 must employ terras of which he docs not know the 
 meaning. Your explanation is as obscure as the 
 original proposition. You must begin with him at the 
 very rudiments of the science, for which he may or 
 may not have the disposition. 
 
 So in our religious instructions we constantly meet 
 with those who have no definite ideas respecting the 
 pomps and vanities renounced at their baptism, and to 
 whom It seems impossible to impart any. To such we 
 . must tail in aU endeavors to show them the "harm" in 
 ttoe thmgs. We cannot impart to them a spiritual 
 understanding; or cause them to discern sin, except in 
 Its grosser forms, which the world itself condemns; It 
 
 
 > 
 
 
 ON THE CHRISTIAN PATRONAGE OF DANCING. 19 
 
 is 80 with respect to many Christian judgments and 
 duties; e. g, our Lord says "it is better to give than to 
 receive," and every child of God accepts it as a truth. 
 But one replies '' I do not think so, my experience tells 
 me that it is better to receive than to give," and we 
 have no more to say. So we see morbid symptoms in 
 the body, which it is useless to treat directly. They 
 come from an unsound constitution. Let this be reno- 
 vated, and those symptoms will disappear without any 
 treatment at all. 
 
 Do we then set down as unconverted all who are 
 unable to "see the harm" of these things, and regard 
 the inability as itself the proof that they are destitute 
 of spiritual discernment? 
 
 The question of another's being in a state of salva- 
 tion is a question which one hesitates to decide under 
 any circumstances, even in his own thoughts, even 
 where appearances are most discouraging. Charity 
 hopes, or replies, "the Lord knoweth." But so far as 
 we do form a judgment, it must be in accordance with 
 our Saviour's rule, "6y their fruits ye shall know them; 
 do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles T 
 taking as an aid to judge of these fruits, the- general 
 ' voice of the Clmrch in past ages. In this view we have 
 to say of those within the scope of our observation, who 
 after due endeavors for their conviction have still pro- 
 fessed their inability to "see any harm" in these and 
 such like things, and have continued to be the defenders 
 of dancing, whether they practiced it or not, that in no 
 instance have they been persons wlio, on other grounds, 
 and apart from this particular question, have giveu» 
 
«.»iJ^1L I •rJyrirrnM.m.nn 
 
 20 ON THE CHRISTIAN PATRONAGE OF DANCING. 
 
 satisfactory evidence of being born of the Spirit (Gal. 
 V, 22), or whom we should have thought of with com- 
 fort in the day of their death. To give less than our 
 real convictions upon such a subject, derived as they 
 have been from observation and the Word of God, 
 would be to deal unfaithfully with those whom we thus 
 address, those who, as the Apostle says, "are dear to 
 us," and for whom we shall be held in some sort re- 
 sponsible at the final day. 
 
 But, inasmuch as some have been convinced by the 
 moral argument, our hope is that by its repetition we 
 may convince more. 
 
 (1.) The most plausible plea for dancing which we 
 have seen (and it comes from one of whom, as of some 
 of the late apologists for the theater, the Church had a 
 right to expect better things), and for such like things, 
 was founded upon this proposition, "Play is as natural 
 as work," from which it was argued that "people must 
 have amusements, and that it was the duty of the 
 Church to supply its members with amusements," in 
 which the rule is moderation, not prohibition. But 
 this rule of moderation manifestly appHes only to things 
 lawful, whereas the question about dancing is whether 
 it be lawful for a Christian, all things considered.- 
 Touching this alleged or admitted necessity for amuse- 
 ments, there are surely resources enough to occupy all 
 the leisure which a Christian should have in a world 
 like this, from the more serious pursuits of life ; things 
 which are healthful and properly enough called amuse- 
 ments in art, lectures, lyceums, music, painting, poetry, 
 ■the social converse, the culture of fruita and flowers, 
 
 h 
 
 OS THE CHRISTIAN PATRONAGE OP DANCING. 21 
 
 riding and walking, with thoughts which are every- 
 where suggested by the works of God in nature. The 
 range, including sports for children, all of which come 
 within the bounds of unquestioned propriety, is end- 
 lees. 
 
 But if by amusements be meant such " popular amuse- 
 ments" as are now under consideration, or which have 
 at any time incurred the censure of the Church, we are 
 at a loss to know by what authority of Scripture, 
 either in its text or its spirit, this proposition that 
 Christians must have amusements, can be sustained. 
 On the contrary we know that it cannot be sustained. 
 St. James' prescription for those who are "merry" and 
 seek some suitable expression for their feelings, would 
 probably be received with ridicule by those Christians 
 who demand this liberty of dancing. 
 
 We are almost constantly asked by the advocates for 
 this practice whether it be "wrong in itself" or "wrong 
 in the abstract." If those magic words "in itseK," 
 which appear to puzzle only those who use them, refer 
 only to the bodily movement, the question is childish, 
 and if by "abstract" be meant abstraction from its 
 antecedents, accompaniments, and consequences, it is 
 almost equally childish, for it does not exist in that 
 shape. There is no such dancing. You never see a 
 person go into a private room, alone, and there dance 
 by himself, which is the most reasonable conception we 
 can form of "dancing, in the abstract." 
 
 Then again, this general proposition that "people 
 must have amusements," makes no distinction in kind, 
 but only in degree, between the joys of the children of 
 
22 ON THE CHRISTIAN PATRONAGE OP DANCING-^ 
 
 God and the children of this world; nor does it give 
 any higher standard of indulgence than worldly pru- 
 dence, which condemns only that which ''Society/' at 
 any one time or place has agreed to denominate excess; 
 whereas Almighty God declares that his people "are a 
 peculiar people." They are peculiar in their princi- 
 ples, peculiar in their conduct, peculiar in their amuse- 
 ments, if so called; they are peculiar in their joys and in 
 their sorrows, peculiar in their deaths, and (according 
 to the intention of the Church) in their burials, as they 
 will be in their resurrection, their award at the judg- 
 ment day, and their eternal state. 
 
 (2.) We encounter another class of apologies, such as 
 the ''need of exercise." Did any one ever say that 
 this was his own real motive for dancing? *'To over- 
 come diffidence in Society." Alas I we fear that this 
 has been too much overcome already. Will Christians 
 be referred in vain to what the Apostle says about 
 "shamefacedness," not perhaps now the best translation 
 of the original word; but the idea is obvious enough, 
 and quite the opposite of that which the dance is com- 
 mended to cultivate. " Giving ease and grace of car- 
 riage and manner." This is another plea in the same 
 class, also frivolous and without any foundation in fact 
 or experience. It does not require a serious refutation. 
 Another, of a little more weight, is, that when asked to 
 join others in this amusement at a party, especially 
 when pressed to do so by the host, it seems discourteous 
 to decline. A considerate Christian will be apt to know 
 beforehand of what character any proposed party is 
 likely to be, and accordingly know whether to accept or 
 
 f .V 
 
 •ON THE CHRISTIAN PATRONAGE OF DANCING. 
 
 23 
 
 ll 
 
 
 \\. 
 
 \ 
 
 n . 
 
 decline the invitation to be there at all. But when 
 members of the Church, whose principles touching 
 pomps and vanities should be known to the communi- 
 ties before whom they have publicly promised to re- 
 nounce them, and known by something more than pro- 
 fession, when such are invited to parties, so far from 
 being chargeable with rudeness to the host by decli- 
 ning his invitation to dance, he himself is guilty not only 
 of discourtesy to his Christian guests, but of violating 
 the rights of hospitality by even permitting that which 
 so many Christians are known to have conscientious 
 scruples against countenancing even by their presence. 
 
 The above statement of the case, as we have reason 
 to know, has proved quite sufficient for some, and we 
 doubt not will be so to others; though, as was to be ex- 
 pected, those farthest from the truth are hardest to be 
 won. But shall we abandon those who in the midst 
 of light continue in darkness? Are we exonerated from 
 preaching because few sinners are converted by the 
 best sermons? No. And as to such as we cannot 
 reach by the living voice of instruction and remon- 
 strance, we would place the truth before them upon the 
 printed page in the most forcible manner, and despair 
 of none so long as they will read. 
 
 Moral suasion is indeed the main instrument for 
 maintaining the purity of the Church, but it is not and 
 never has been the sole instrument. When persuasion 
 fails, resort must be had to warning, judicial admoni- 
 tion, suspension from the communion, excommunication. 
 And where is this process of warning to begin? Evi- 
 
 ii 
 
24 ON THE CHRISTIAN PATRONAGE OF DANCINa. 
 
 dently witli those in the highest office of the Church; 
 else what are they there for? * 
 
 But our Bishops have faithfully discharged their 
 duty herein, both in Council and from Church to 
 Church. In his address to the Council of 1872, Bishop 
 Johns says, "the most oflfensive inconsistencies speci- 
 fied consist in indulging in that lascivious mode of 
 promiscuous dancing called the round dance, a demo- 
 ralizing dissipation, disgusting to the delicacy of a re- 
 fined taste, and shocking to the sensibilities of the 
 renewed mind. This scandal is not to be tolerated in 
 the Church of Christ." 
 
 If all other expedients fail, he adds, " decided disci- 
 pline must be exercised." To this the Council re- 
 sponded by an affirmative resolution declaring it the 
 duty of "ministers faithfully to execute the canons 
 bearing upon the subject, and to discountenance and 
 restrain' the practice alluded to. 
 
 But are Christians only to cease from that which the 
 world itself — ^more candid by condemning what it prao- 
 tices — declares to be of such brazen immodesty as to 
 scorn all Christian profession ? Have they no percep- 
 tion of the connection between the less exciting and 
 the more exciting forms of this vice ? Do they not see 
 how generally the one has now come to resolve itself 
 into the other; or the worthlessness of the distinction 
 
 • In this connection we gratefully acknowledge our indebtedness to 
 Dr. Coxe, Bishop of the Diocese of Western New York, for his out- 
 spoken and timely admonitions of current abuses in the Church 
 touching doctrine, discipline and worship. It is by such fidelity, re- 
 gardless of the currents of popular opinion, that we are to look for Um 
 preservation of the purity of the Church. 
 
 !♦ 
 
 . 
 
 K 
 
 % 
 
 ON THE CHRISTIAN PATRONAGE OF DANCING. 25 
 
 in principle between Ahab, who serves Baal a little, and 
 Jehu, who serves him much ? 
 
 But if they do not, and if upon a comparison of 
 the teachings of Holy Scripture with the facts in the 
 case no conviction ensues, and no incompatibility is 
 discovered between dancing and a Christian profession, 
 and no cause for censure when those who practice it 
 are admitted to the communion, then we have no more 
 to say. 
 
 There is no basis or acknowledged principles in com- 
 mon, on which to conduct such argument. Any spiri- 
 tual sensibility will give warning long before those ex- 
 cesses are reached which are incompatible with senti- 
 ments of virtue. Where the new hfe in Christ is want- 
 ing, reformations will be but external and prudential, 
 not inward — in form, not in principle — ^submitted to 
 from the force of law, or pastoral persuasion, not chosen 
 through the work of the Spirit — ^saving some scandal 
 to the Church; but acting from the will of man and 
 not from the will of God, his blessing will not rest upon 
 any such obedience. 
 
 In conversion, the soul acquires a new faculty of 
 judgment, which detects the errors of education, many 
 of them instantly, as we see in persons converted from 
 heathenism, which masters the prejudices of a lifetime, 
 and sets itself against public opinion, and reverses the 
 decisions of society quite in advance of sermons, argu- 
 ments or books, for love runs before reason. 
 
 Still we do not forget that the divine life which 
 supervenes upon conversion, with its new spiritual per- 
 ceptions, may be vigorous or weak, that it is subject to 
 
 
, 26 ON THE CHRISTIAN PATRONAGE OF DANCING. 
 
 cultivation, to revivals and decay, and theoretically to 
 extinction, and hence our labors with the weak, the 
 uninstructed, the stubborn, the slow of heart to be- 
 ; lieve. In this work we might repeat the arguments of 
 Bishops Meade, Mcllvaine and Hopkins, and what has 
 been so often and forcibly said by other writers about 
 the dangers to health from exposure, the passing from 
 heated rooms, with a flushed and heated person, into the 
 cold and dampness of night, and the consequent ex- 
 change of the ball room for th.e death chamber, the 
 ; interruption of useful studies and of the order of fami- 
 lies, the incitements to personal vanity and display, the 
 restless and dissipated habits so often engendered by 
 this amusement, all of which is sound and conclusive. 
 We might cite numerous incidental facts, which are 
 often the quickest arguments to those who have the 
 quickness to perceive their application; e, g.^ How 
 comes it that the very name of a "dance house" is sug- 
 gestive of degradation? How comes it that dancing 
 masters, like play actors, could never gain access to the 
 best society, even of those who patronized their pro- 
 fession? How comes it that so many have changed 
 their views or their professions upon this subject, in 
 circumstances of danger or of sorrow ? What is the 
 import of that well authenticated case of the mother 
 who "could not see the harm of dancing," "could see 
 no force in the objections to it," "wished to see them 
 if she could," encouraged her daughter in the practice, 
 attended her to the ball to enjoy the admiration which 
 she would win, and when in the ardor of the perform- 
 ance the daughter was struck with death, begged that 
 
 ^y 
 
 T r 
 
 ON THE CHRISTIAN PATRONAGE OF DANCING. 27 
 
 she might be taken out of the ball room ? As life was 
 ebbing fast, she became more urgent, and said "If my 
 child must die, for God's sake do not let her die in the 
 ball room." "Where shall we take her?" "Any- 
 where," she said, "but here." But according to her 
 former professions what could be the special incongruity 
 of death in a ball room ? What new truth had reached 
 her mind? Nay, rather what had been her better, but 
 suppressed convictions all the time ? Yes, there is a 
 secret judgment upon this subject, contradicted it may 
 be in words, but often speaking out unbidden. Some- 
 times upon the bed of death, sometimes in times of 
 general awakening. Under such circumstances we have 
 heard the voluntary confession made with tears, that 
 under instruction conscience had testified with the 
 preacher, and testified to the insincere excuses for their 
 vanity and folly, and testified against the places of its 
 indulgence, from which, by common consent, religion 
 must be excluded. And shall old converts have less 
 sensibility to sin than new ones ? 
 
 If, then, in this connection it can be asked "what 
 harm is there in children s dancing and in Christian 
 parents sending their children to dancing schools ? we 
 answer, if you admit the practice to be of unchristian . 
 tendency at any age, you settle the question. Why 
 foster in childhood the tastes which in age lead so many 
 into sin ? Train up a child in the way that he should 
 gOy and when he is old he will not depart from it. 
 
 In this, as in other parts of this address, we have a 
 right to expect of our Christian brethren that they will 
 neither represent nor understand us as seeing all this 
 
 i. 
 
n 
 
 28 ON THE CHRISTIAN PATRONAGE OF DANCING, 
 
 evil in the literal dancing. Would that this were sepa- 
 rable (if any wish it) from the general injuriousness of 
 its occasions, the unspiritualizing associations, and 
 generally irreligious atmosphere of the places of its 
 performance. But what avails it to separate in theory 
 what has never yet been separated in practice ? 
 
 In connection with all that has now been said, we 
 have but to submit a single fact, and with this conclude 
 our address. If it be as stated, it must be conclusive 
 of the moral argument. It is this. In the lives of the 
 saints there is no record of one, man or woman, who 
 was a dancer. And by saints we mean all those, living 
 or dead, who have illustrated their religion, accredited 
 it to the world as true, who have given character to 
 the Church, and made it a power against the world, the 
 flesh and the devil. We appeal to history, and call 
 upon you for a single name identified with the propaga- 
 tion of the gospel, or ever called in connection with the 
 advancement of the kingdom of God, who was a dancer. 
 We appeal to your own observation. You never knew 
 such an one, you do not know one now who is of repu- 
 tation for a devout hfe. A few indeed have been found 
 who cite exceptions or supposed exceptions, but their 
 opinion is not sustained by such facts as are really did- 
 anguishing of true religion, or by the opinions of tho^e 
 most capable of forming a true judgment. 
 
 And now in all this are you unable to see at least a 
 probable case of incompatibility, and so determinative 
 of the conduct of every Christian? And have you 
 nothing to oppose to all this but your non-knowledge 
 and your non-ability "to see/' setting yourself against 
 
 <♦ 
 
 ON THE CHRISTIAN PATRONAGE OF DANCING. 29 
 
 history, against the testimony of the Church in all ages, 
 and of its living ministers and teachers, supported as 
 they are by such a host of illustrative facts! Where, 
 we must ask in amazement, where is at least humility! 
 Has it utterly failed among our young communicants, 
 from the catalogue of Christian graces ? Will they sepa- 
 rate themselves in opinion and practice from the com- 
 pany of the faithful, and insist upon walking close up 
 to the Hue of prohibition, inducing the just belief that 
 though their feet may be on one side their hearts are 
 on the other? Let them know that it is impossible for 
 them to walk thus related to those on each side of this 
 line, so as not to be injurious to both. No man liveth 
 to himself and no man dieth to himself, but either liv- 
 ing or dying he helps or hinders the Lord s cause. 
 
 It is not without a sense of humiliation that we feel 
 obliged to linger upon these low grounds, especially 
 with any who by this time should have left "pomps 
 and vanities" far behind them in their race for the 
 crown of life. If unable to free yourselves from bond- 
 age to these elements of the world, renounced at the 
 very beginning of the Christian life, how can you hope 
 to overcome the subtler forms of sin, or contend suc- 
 cessfully with spiritual wickedness in the high places 
 of the soul ? If thou hast run with footmen, and they 
 have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with 
 horses? And if in the land of peace, wherein thou 
 trustedst they wearied thee, then how loilt thou do in 
 the swelling of Jordan ? 
 
 Let us eatreat you, then, neither to participate in 
 these things nor apologize for them, or countenance them 
 
30 ON THE CHRISTIAN PATRONAGE OF DANCINa. 
 
 by your presence ; but flee from them and from -all the 
 tempters thereto, like Joseph from the Egyptian 
 seducer; as you would not be of disputed and doubtful 
 piety, even in the world's judgment; as you would set 
 an example which he who shall preach your funeral 
 sermon may exhort all to follow; as you would have 
 the testimony of a good conscience and boldness in the 
 day of judgment, and make sure of being numbered 
 with the saints in glory everlasting. 
 
 But we stop not here. We also ask you to sustain 
 v^s w^ho are laboring for your salvation, as also for theirs 
 who are yet in the gall of bitterness and bonds of 
 iniquity; to hold up our hands in the discharge of 
 duties so responsible and so difficult, not only by your 
 example, but by your voice and testimony borne boldly 
 for the cause, whenever circumstances call for it or 
 opportunity offers. We Christian brethren, inheritors 
 with you of the common salvation, are chiefly desirous, 
 both for ourselves and our people, that we may walk 
 worthy of our high calling. Why should wo aspire to 
 anything less than sanctification, to be free from all 
 sin, waiting for the coming of the Lord, holding our- 
 selves in a posture of serious expectation against that 
 day when we shall dwell with him and reign with him, 
 glorified in his glory and rejoicing in his joy. And as 
 toward the world without, why should we aspire to 
 anything less than freedom from the very appearance 
 of evil, and to have it said of us with truth, among 
 
 WHOM YE SHINE AS LIGHTS IN THE WORLD, HOLDING 
 FORTH THE WORD OF LIFE. 
 
 Almighty Godj who showest to them that are in error 
 
 r 
 
 
 ON THE CHRISTIAN PATRONAGE OF DANCING. 31 
 
 the light of thy truths to the intent that they may return 
 into the way of righteousness y grant unto all those who 
 are admitted into the fellowship of Christ's religion^ that 
 they may avoid those things that are contrary to their 
 profession, and follow all such things as are agreeable 
 to the same, through our Lord Jesus Christ 
 
 Calling on you to join us in the continued offering 
 of this prayer, we are most affectionately your friends 
 and pastors in Christ, 
 
 C. W. Andrews, 
 C. E. Ambler, 
 W. C. Meredith, 
 Henderson Suter, 
 W. D. Hanson, 
 T. F. Martin, 
 Wm. T. Leavell, 
 
 J. R. Jones, 
 W. H. Meadb, 
 
 B. M. Baker, 
 James Grammer, 
 
 C. H. Page, 
 
 A. W. Weddell, 
 George S. Mat. 
 
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