W. E. Penn

“ If a man has His name written on his forehead, and he goes into a ball room, theater, opera, or a drinking saloon, does he not, by that act, hide the name of Jesus Christ? Can a Christian be a witness for God in the ball room, theater, opera, or drinking saloon? ”

“ If common honesty compels fathers, husbands and brothers to admit these things to be true, will you ever again permit your wives, your daughters or your sisters to be found at one of these places, however decent the people may be, while they are under your control? If you do, after your attention has been called to the hideous deformity of the dance, God, man and your own conscience will condemn you. Whatsoever of evil or crime may be committed, unyielding justice, unmixed with mercy, will certainly hold you responsible. ”

“ How many husbands have in the same way and for the same cause had all the baser, brutish passions aroused to such an extent as to have their reasoning faculties dethroned, and have been driven by the raging devils within to commit many of the greatest, most shameful and most disgraceful crimes that ever blackened the records of a criminal court? How many have cursed and abused their wives while on the way home from the ball room? How many, after their arrival at home, have used their superior physical strength in abusing their wives in a most shameful and disgraceful manner? ”

“ If I am wrong, I rejoice to know that I am in the best company on earth, for the whole religious world, with a few exceptions, regards dancing as an enemy to good morals, and as destructive to all spirituality, because it is productive of so much evil and NO GOOD. Who upon all the earth has the opportunity of knowing the true inwardness of dancing like the Catholic priests and bishops? ”

“ I know an advocate of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, who often dances all night, most gracefully, and in the morning she turneth up her little nose, just as gracefully as the elephant turneth up his snout when Peck's bad boy has thrown him a piece of tobacco, at the awful drinking saloon and saloon keepers. The private parlor dance is the beginning, the first depot on the great air-line route from this world to the city of destruction ”

“ It is a pandora box, out of which ten thousand troubles, trials, difficulties, sins and crimes will come. I claim that the love of dancing is the most fruitful source of disobedience to parents to be found beneath the sun, because it becomes a ruling passion. If anything will cause a child to disobey its parents, it is to forbid them going to a ball or dance when their heart is set upon it. ”

“ One of the handsomest and most accomplished girls I ever knew, at the age of eighteen, ignorantly killed herself in this way. I know through physicians of many others who have wrecked their health in the same way. Let the invalids among the women tell their physicians the truth, and then let the physicians and the graves speak out, and the world would be horror-stricken at the awful report. Whiskey has slain its thousands, but the ball, the hop, the dance, its tens of thousands. ”

“ When the ball closes, the young men take the girls to their homes. In a little while the girls—darling angels—are in the land of dreams, but they certainly never dream that they have been "sowing the seeds of eternal shame, sowing the seeds of a maddened brain." They never dream that they are responsible for all the sins and crimes that flow from the ball room, BUT THEY CERTAINLY ARE, because if they would not go to these places, there never would be another ball or hop or dance upon the face of all the earth. ”

“ Various inquiries have been made as to how Major Penn, a lawyer in a lucrative practice, and with all the attractions of wealth and of fame before him, and in a quiet, lovely and elegant home, with a wife who has ever been as a guardian angel to his pathway, was led to change his vocation to that of a wandering Evangelist, and how it is that he now stands before the world beside Knapp, and Earle, and Moody, and other world-renowned Evangelists of the 19th century, in leading multitudes to Christ as a Savior? ”

“ How many of all these cruel wrongs and outrages are never known except by the parties themselves? How many fathers and mothers have neglected their children by leaving them in incompetent and unsafe hands, while they spent the night in the ball room? ”

“ There are many men worse at heart than gamblers and saloon keepers. If they and their families were treated by the Christian people with more kindness, and less like they were outcasts, hundreds and thousands of them would become Christians. I do not claim that all who attend dancing parties, balls, and hops are ruined, but I do claim that all who attend such places take part in the eternal disgrace and ruin of others. ”

“ For weeks before the ball comes off—and here let it be understood that I mean the ball to cover hops, dancing parties and all manner of dancing—the young people are wild with excitement; they are almost wholly incapable of any kind of business. All manner of domestic affairs are almost entirely neglected by the girls and young wives. The bright anticipation of great pleasure in the near future, turns some of their little shallow brains up-side-down, and they are often seen in a sort of deep reverie, wearing a blank gaze, having very much the appearance of poor unfortunate idiots. ”

“ Some trees are not comely to look upon, but the fruit very good and wholesome. So it is not the tree, but the fruit, to which we must look. Some fruit may be very bad but not dangerous to society, because of the very small quantity on the market, and because it is not good to the taste, but little, if any, of it is used. But this is not the case with dancing, for there is a large quantity of it on hand all the time, and a great deal of it is used, because it is palatable to the natural taste of men and women. The demand is always far greater than the supply. ”

“ It is often the case that an engagement exists, or there is grave suspicion of its existence. A dancing party or ball is in prospect. The same preparation must be made by rich and poor. One young man who chanced to be born of rich or well-to-do parents, and one young lady the same, order their outfits, and they are paid for not unfrequently out of the usurious interest wrung from the fathers and mothers of the poorer young men and girls. Now the poorer and less able to purchase the necessary all outfits, which are always costly, must go. They must go, because they love the dance. ”

“ If the father, mother, husband, brother or teacher speaks to them, unless it be on the subject of the ball, they grin like a baboon and snap like a mad dog. If we run on at the rate we are now going, it will not be a great while until it may be found to be cheaper to build a few asylums for the sane, and let the idiots and lunatics run at large. ”