We had in East Dennis what was known as the
``Free Religious Group,'' and when some of the
members of my congregation were not wrangling
among themselves, they were usually locking horns
with this group. For years, I was told, one of the
prime diversions of the ``Free Religious'' faction
was to have a dance in our town hall on the night
when we were using it for our annual church fair.
The rules of the church positively prohibited danc-
ing, so the worldly group took peculiar pleasure in
attending the fair, and during the evening in getting
up a dance and whirling about among us, to the
horror of our members. Then they spent the re-
mainder of the year boasting of the achievement.
It came to my ears that they had decided to follow
this pleasing programme at our Christmas church
celebration, so I called the church trustees together
and put the situation to them.
``We must either enforce our discipline,'' I said,
``or give it up. Personally I do not object to danc-
ing, but, as the church has ruled against it, I intend
to uphold the church. To allow these people to
make us ridiculous year after year is impossible.
Let us either tell them that they may dance or that
they may not dance; but whatever we tell them,
let us make them obey our ruling.''
The trustees were shocked at the mere suggestion
of letting them dance.
``Very well,'' I ended. ``Then they shall not
dance.
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