Part 4 (1/2)

Does it seem very strange to you? So it did to David's wife on that occasion; for as she had no praise in her heart, no sympathy with the joy, of course the expression of it tried her patience. Dancing for joy,--we often use the image, but these people did the thing. It is hard enough to keep still sometimes, if one is very happy.

Not like our dancing!--you say. Indeed not much. No special steps, no intricate figures, no elaborate positions, no dressing for effect.

David even laid his royal robes aside, instead of putting them on; they were in his way. How could one dance for joy in a state dress? No need of partners, where every one danced for glad thankfulness of heart. No ”envy, malice, and all uncharitableness” stirred up by another's dancing or another's dress; no ”wall-flowers,” no monopoly.

No late hours, leaving mind and body jaded for the next day's work. I think ”dancing before the Lord” must have been very pure refreshment.

And by the way, speaking of dress, I feel, somehow, as if--would people but choose their ornaments out of that treasure-chest of jewels ”a meek and quiet spirit,” ball dresses would lose their charm, and the German its great attraction. One never likes to go where one's dress is out of keeping.

Christian dancing, for Christian joy. There was music and dancing, as well as feasting, when the prodigal son came home; returned from his sins, washed from his defilement, clothed at last in ”the best robe” a sinner can wear.[12] According to the word:

”Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing.” [13]

Is such glad thankfulness so rare in our days that people have forgotten how it acts? And would such dancing be possible now? I do not know. But answer this question, and you settle at once the other perplexity whether Christians may dance. For there is no other sort of dancing permitted to them, than this which springs up out of the mercies of the Lord, and is all consecrated to his praise.

it is not quite the only sort mentioned in the Bible; but the others do not look attractive upon paper. One of them indeed comes more properly under another head, and the rest are all idolatrous; in the service and honour of that biggest idol, the world; whether any special graven image was set up or not. Dances indulged in only by heathen, or by nominal Christians who had swerved from their allegiance.

When Moses tarried long in the mount, receiving his orders, the people, you remember, grew tired and restless,--in want of recreation, we should call it now,--and then they ”quickly corrupted themselves.”

Weary of waiting, impatient of the monotony of their life, out of their own possessions they made themselves an idol, and then--danced before it! conducting themselves as well became those who had chosen a G.o.d that could neither hear nor see.

”The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” [14]

And you will find this is always just what people do after unhallowed recreation: they _never_ rise up to do good work. Test your amus.e.m.e.nts by that. Recreation _should_ be a re-creation to every n.o.ble end.

Neither joy, nor thankfulness, nor the unbending from labour, was there among those poor Israelites--those people of the Lord in name; but only lawless mirth and unhallowed indulgence.

”He saw the calf and the dancing, and Moses' anger waxed hot.” [15]

You think I am very hard upon dancing; and I have reason. ”Two years ago,” said a young girl to me, ”you told me that if I went on doing these things I should myself change; that I _could_ not do them, and keep myself. I was almost angry then, but do you know it has come true? I _have_ changed. Things that I minded and shrank from then, I never notice now. I have got used to them, as you said. It frightens me when I think of it.” Poor child!--neither fright nor warning have stayed her course since then. A ceaseless thirst for excitement, an endless round of unsatisfying pleasure--so called,--a weary, old, disappointed look on the young face; broken engagements, forgotten promises, a wasted life,--this is what it has all come to. ”Hard upon dancing”? yes, I certainly have reason. Do I not find it right in the way of some of my Bible Cla.s.s who might else become Christians? do I not know how it tarnishes the Christian profession of others? Do not the careless young men in the cla.s.s boast that they can get the Church members to go with them anywhere--for a dance? Or how would you like to have a young girl come to you, frightened at things she had permitted at a ball the night before, entreating to know if you thought them ”_very_ bad”?

Examine it, test it for yourself; only be honest. Can you dance ”in armour”? crowned and s.h.i.+elded and s.h.i.+ning with ”the hope of salvation,”

with ”righteousness” and ”faith”? Are your shoes ”peace”? peace of heart, of conscience. Is your belt the girdle of ”truth”? Can you ”shew your colours” in the throng? _Dare_ you? Are they not rather trailing in the dust, or quietly pocketed, or left at home? Think honestly, and answer to yourself how it is. As in feasting, so here: you cannot dance all night with people, and next day warn them against ”the world, and the things of the world,” and even hope to be listened to. ”I am as good as most Church members,”--ah how often we teachers and talkers meet that rebuff! And how well the Lord knew when he said:

”He that is not with me, is against me.”

”Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?”

[16]

”A time to dance.”--Yes: whenever, and wherever, you can do it as the whole-souled servant of Christ. And how about dancing at home, among ourselves, as people say?--Without going any further, one thing forbids it all. If you dance anywhere,--you, a professing Christian,--in the eyes of the world you dance _everywhere_. The world allows no middle ground for Christians. ”I saw her dancing,”--and n.o.body stops to inquire when, or with whom, or how. So that there is nothing for you but this:

”Avoid it, pa.s.s not by it, turn from it, and pa.s.s away.” [17]

[1] Eccle. iii. 1.

[2] Eccle. iii. 4.

[3] Ps. cxlix. 3.