“Where is the harm in professing Chris tians dancing, going to the theater and play ing cards, provided they are careful as to where and zvhen and with whom they dance, what plays they attend and do not gamble qr play cards for prizes? To fully answer this question would re quire a book, but enough can be said with in the limits allotted to us in this magazine to satisfy anyone who really desires to do the will of God and to get for themselves the -best that there is for them in Jesus Christ. Of course, many professing Chris tians who ask this question are not so eager to know and do the will of God as they are to justify themselves in indulgence of self and do not desire for themselves any fuller Christian life than just enough to keep them out of hell. But we know the one who asked the question this time and do not doubt that it was asked in all sin cerity. 1. The first harm there is in a professing Christian’s dancing, going to the theater and playing cards under any circumstances, is that these things and like things shut out any one who indulges in them from the life of full blessing that God has provided for us in Christ. No one can indulge in these things and know the radiant Christian life. In a very wide experience with all classes of society in America, England and all parts' of the world we have never known one single person who indulged in these things who knew the radiant life.. We have known countless persons who have been in dulging in some or all of these things and who have given them up and who have thereby entered into the life of' victory, power and radiant joy. The Christian who pesists in these things will lose something immeasurably better. If you wish the best,
these things must be utterly given up (2 Cor. 6:17; 7:1 R. V.). 2. The second harm that there is in a ■professing Christian’s dancing, going to the theater and playing cards, is that indulgence in thèse things robs anyone who indulges in them of influence for good with some one. There is no question of this. No one who indulges in these things has the power for God among those who know them well th a t' they would have if they gave them up out of love to Christ. Worldlings may praise professing Christians who do these things to their face for their liberality and breadth of view but they laugh at them behind their backs for their sham religion that does so little for them that they cannot get along ' without the worldling’s sources of satisfac tion. When a worldling gets into a place where he really needs help he goes to the out and out Christian, whom very likely he has called “narrow,” for it. We wish we had space for illustrations from actual life -v ' to prove this. 3. The third harm that there is in a pro- ■fessing Christian’s dancing, going to the theater and playing cards, is that the one who does has a positively vicious and soul- destroying influence on others. The “inno cent” dancing of many a professed Chris tian has led another girl to dance, whose dancing has ultimately led her to the-house of shame, and led a young man to dance whose dancing has led him to various forms of personal, impurity. The writer recently in a series of meetings in a university city spoke against the dance. Two of the pro fessors, fine men, church officers, took excep tion in a kindly and courteous way to 'what the writer had said, saying that their uni- - versity dances were of a different character. A student, who professed to be a Christian
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker