The people of the world look upon a member of the church, that enters
the dance, as let down, degraded, and his profession trailed in the
dust. “Look there,” he exclaims, “that lady is a member of the church.
I saw her immersed, and have seen her commune; she is no better than I
am, and I know I am no Christian.” If the dancing professors could hear
the numerous remarks thus made, in regard to their letting themselves
down, degrading their profession and putting themselves on a level with
the world, or below that level, their faces would burn, if they were
not too much hardened to exercise a lively conscience.
We are only deceiving ourselves, and that too, most woefully, if we
think that the dancers, theater-goers, horse-racers, gamblers and
drunkards, claiming to be members of a church, are on their way to
heaven. Their baptism is all nothing. Their communion is mockery, an
insult to the Majesty of heaven and earth. Their sitting in choirs
and taking into their polluted lips the pure words of praises,
supplications and thanksgiving, in the midst of the pure worship of
saints, is a desecration of the appointments of God.
When we think of saving men, we must not think merely of getting them
into immersion, or into the church, but, in the true sense, we must
turn them to God—turn them from their sins. The love of sin must be
destroyed in them, and the love of God established. They must, in the
full import of the term, be made “new creatures,” conformed to the
image of Christ. We must see in them not simply a desire to see how
near they can be like the world, and not be excluded from the church;
how deep they can dip into the follies of the world, and not be lost;
how near the verge of perdition they can run and not fall in. But they
must “love not the world, nor the things of the world,” make it a
matter of prayer, and study how to live and walk with God; how to have
the continual care and gracious providence of God over them. No man is
a profitable member of the church, that simply escapes being turned
out, any more than he is a good citizen who barely escapes fines,
imprisonment and the gallows, or who does everything and any thing that
the law does not expressly _forbid_. A man may be a bad and worthless
fellow and not be fined nor imprisoned. So a member of the church may
be bad, and not only worthless but injurious to the church, and not be
turned out. There may not be enough spiritual life, moral standing and
respect for the law of God, in the church, to enforce the law of Christ.
May we awake to the state of things, cry aloud and spare not, and never
cease our supplications to heaven till we see an improvement. We are
only deceived in dancers to allow them to remain in the church, and
thus permit them to enjoy the idea that they are Christians.