08 -- UPHELD

         In Isaiah forty-first chapter, tenth verse, we read, "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not
dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will up
righteousness." hold thee with the right hand of my One of the most beautiful thoughts brought out in
this text is that we are upheld by the right hand of God. We couldn't think of falling if we realize
that God's hand is beneath us, and that His everlasting arms are so entwined about us that we could
never think of walking in a forbidden path. As long as God's hand is beneath us it would be
impossible for the devil to set a snare and catch us by the foot.

        If all church members could just realize that God's hand was beneath them, not another one
of them would ever be found in the ballroom. And such a thing as happened the other night in a
ballroom in a city where I was holding a meeting would never happen again. A young lady that
was a Sunday school teacher in a large church was waltzing on the ballroom floor, and making one
of the whirls, she fell and the back of her head struck the hardwood floor, and fractured her skull.
She was taken up unconscious between nine and ten o'clock at night and died the next morning at
six, never regaining her consciousness.

        Nobody could possibly believe that that young woman was upheld by the right hand of
God. We will have to admit that the devil set a snare and led her into it and threw her down on the
floor and broke her head in order that he might disgrace the church of Jesus Christ, and put a
Sunday school teacher out of commission, and probably keep her out of heaven forever. At least
the outlook is doubtful. Of course we will hope for the better. We trust that some way God
intervened and saved her soul, but the best construction that can be put on it in this world is that if
she escaped the outer darkness it was merely by the skin of her teeth. It will look to the world like
she died a backslider, and it doesn't look like a woman enjoying the fellowship and companionship
with Jesus would ever dream of breaking her skull on a ballroom floor.

        My sympathy goes out to the pastor that would have to conduct the funeral service over the
dead body of one of his members that had fallen and broken her head in a big ball. We have no
idea what a preacher could say; in fact, there is nothing the poor man could say. I suppose he could
take for a text, "Will not the judge of all the earth do right?" and leave her soul in the hands of God,
and commit her body to the ground. But if he did his duty in trying to preach the funeral he was
almost compelled to warn his people against the dance. That preacher must know that that young
lady had taken her hands out of God's hand, and for the time being turned away from the leadership

of Jesus, the companionship of saints, the protecting power of the Holy Ghost, and yielded to the
subtle temptation of the devil for a big night's carousal in the ballroom.

        The reader will remember that this is not the only ballroom tragedy. We read in an old
Book of a king who gave a ball to a thousand of his lords and concubines. They danced and drank
wine until they were wild and frenzied. Then to defy the God of heaven they sent to the church of
God and brought the golden vessels and drank wine out of them. While the dance was going on we
read that an army had come from a foreign nation, had cut a channel and turned the course of a
river. They went under the walls of the city and captured it during the night, and before the break of
day we read that the king was slain. The dance halls and ballrooms have slain their millions.

        I would judge that the ballroom has done as much to rob the church of Jesus Christ of its
life and glory and unction as any other one institution that the devil has gotten up. I was preaching
in another city when a young lady sang in the choir on Sunday morning, and just before the
preacher preached she sang a beautiful solo. But on the previous Thursday night she danced the
most of the night wearing a mask in a big hall four blocks from where I was preaching. Between
twelve and one o'clock a man came in with big horns and a long wire tail and had his mask so
arranged that he could blow fire out through what looked to be a nose. The young woman screamed
that her hubby had come, and this church solo singer ran into the arms of the devil. As he blew fire
in her face, she screamed and they waltzed together over the big parlor until it was said to have
been the most enjoyable occasion that had been pulled off in the community the whole season. I
preached a few nights after this disgraceful transaction and said that a woman like that would
disgrace a street harlot to keep company with her. Behold, after that I heard that her pastor was
there and heard the sermon I delivered, and I do hope that he was, for maybe the word reached her
that one preacher in town thought she was a disgrace to the cause of Jesus Christ.

         Could any sane man or woman on earth believe that that woman was upheld by the right
hand of God? Could any thinking man believe that His everlasting arms were beneath her? Could
any sane person think she was led by the Holy Ghost? Could any reasonable person believe that
that woman was on good ground? Our old fathers used to pray and thank God that they were on
praying grounds and pleading terms with God. Beloved, can you believe that that young woman
was on such grounds? No, verily. No reasonable person can believe that that is the road that leads
to the city in the skies. No man or woman of ordinary intelligence would think that that young
woman was bringing glory to the name of Jesus, when she was waltzing in the arms of the devil
and screaming and yelling. How different it would have been if she had been upheld with the right
hand of God!

        Beloved, there is no safer place in this world than to keep in God's hands; there is nothing
so dangerous as to get out. Let us have an understanding that we will allow our gracious Heavenly
Father to place His blessed, protecting hand beneath us and uphold us. I will join you at the throne
and meet you at the Marriage Supper and rejoice with you forever, and then while eternity unfolds
we can rejoice together.

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