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 god 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 amusements by that. Recreation _should_ be a re-creation to every noble 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 Class 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 class 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"?