PENTECOSTAL DANGERS. «

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8247, 21 February 1905, Page 2

PENTECOSTAL DANGERS. «

THE NEW "REVIVAL." SHRIEKS INT) ECSTASY. The Pentecostal Dancers had a moderate audience at the Camberwell Public Baths on December 7 (says the London " Daily Mail*" ). From the dressingboxes a stony audience gazed unmoved at the "laboured contortions of the Rev Mr Kent- White, the whirling jig figures of the Rev H. L. Harvey, and • the solemn or ecstatic perpendicular I jumps of the ladies. " We were told," Mr Kent-White explained to a representative of the "Daily Mail," " that\Camberwell was about the toughest section of this city. So we reckoned to open the mission right here. Seems to me it's a ripe harvest." . But it- has resisted so far the appeal ; to its emotional side which the Pente--1 cQstal Dancers do their best to address. The cake-walk, the fling, the -hop, the set-tq-partners, the breakdown, and all the« rest elicited only gasps of utter be- ; wilderment,' which gave place later to laughter and delighted applause. The , Pillar of Fire and the Burning Bush I are going to have a magnificent vogue when their fame has gone thoroughly abroad. The meeting opened with, a hymn, and the dancers, went straight to busi- ; ness. No sooner were the first notes sounded th/in the Rev H. L. Harvey slipped himself from leash, and went down the stage, singing vociferously and giving a good exhibition of the sand dance. Mr Kent-White, known to local fame as Abadiah, stood aside for 1 a while and confined himself to the; : hvan, but when Miss Sadie' Walker (of Chicago, Illinois) joined in the mazy dance he became infected, and yielded .to the seduction of the moment. His I'was the kind of step dance which is performed by jumping slowly from one - foot to the other, a performance-sen-si^ly enhanced by the iron gravity of i his face all the time. TO ASTONISH THE NATIVES. A slender little woman in brown, who carried off 'all with a/ face radiant with sheer ecstasy, hopped intp favour at once. She is going to Tndia as a missionary, and' is qualifying to astonish the natives. She pirouettes with an almost professional grace, and now and aijain relieves pressure with shrieks. Those in the dressing-boxes testified their sympathy by shrieking weirdly also. , „ At this point a man in the audience lurched to the fore, and . would^ nave danced too— did dance, in fact. . and was forthwith removed by an /ttenaant, under the supervision Mr narvev, amid the protests of the pubhe. The sermon which Mrs Kent-White delivered was, to say the least of it. a fine example of the direct style. She told of converts to the order who recollected with grief days when they had omitte-d to pay their fares on tramwaya She has ,no patience with the baser sido of church life. ;; ' , 4. „ "Chicken suppers *n' doughnut socials an' oyster stew—oh^ my aear people, I do hope 'n trust you don t her' none o'- them over hyer. "Seems to me most o\ r the holmes* that's abroad has gone mto the cookm b % n d£Le, she admitted: 4< In America we have' thousands of cases -the rottenest cases you ever heard. Thft audience cheered this. The Pentecostal Dancers ,zt » Jv W