IS DANCING SINFUL?

Evening Star, Issue 11697, 1 October 1902, Page 1

IS DANCING SINFUL?

,; , '. TO THS KDITOK.. .Sir,--"Hoping' to Ke'SaVed" asks ]>r Torrey to look upiis jliWe I.: Samuel xviiL} 6";;•■ Exodus xr.-.v20; Jeremiah xnij 4 anii

13; Judges xi., 34, aid says he will find dancing there authorised, and that from these quotations he would see dancing was an old custom sanctioned by usage and precept, etc. I have-looked at the quotationßj and do not find any authority or sanction for men and women dancing together as they do in our day. For instance, Exodus xv., 20, says : " Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women wont ont after her with timbrels and dances," and that the dance was a religious one. expressive of joy, is shown in the next Terse—via., 21, which reads*. "And Miriam answered them,-Sniff ye to tho Lord, for.He hath triumpbed gleriously: the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea." Verses 6 and 7 of the eighteenth chapter of First Samuel read thus: "And it came to pasa as they came, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all cities of Israel, sinking and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tabrots, with joy, and with instruments of musick. And the women answered ono another as they played, and said: Siiul hath slafu his thousands, and David his ten thousands." Again you will observe that it was the women alone who sang and danced joyfully, not the men nor men with women.. v

Jeremiah xxxl, 4, reads: "Again I will build thee, and thou fhalt bo built, 0. virgin of Lrael; thou shaJt. again be adorned with thy. tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them .that moke merry."' Again we have a virgin dancing alone. Jeremiah xxxi., 13, reads thus: "Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance,, both young men. and old ' together." Hero the virgins dance and the young and eld men rejoice together: theyouug and old men d'> not dar.ee with each other nor with the virgins. Judges xi., 34, reads thus : "And Jephthah came to Misspell unto his house, and, behold, bis daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances," etc. Where are the modern Waltz, polka, galop, schottisihe, lancers, quadrille in this verse or any other of those quoted by your-cor-respondent? As for what Dr Torrey said about dancing I havvs no apology to offer, but close with the remark that your correspondent's use of the quotations mentioned reminds me of "the unlearned and unstable'who wrest (or put to the torture—that is, mako them say anything) the Scriptures'unto their own destruction." See 11. Peter iii., 16.—1 am, etc., ' Tbuth. September 30.