[Brigham Young Sermon] The Twelve went immediately and found the house well filled with fathers in Israel and their wives. I told them that this meeting was for the purpose of showing to the world that this people can be made what God designed them. Nothing will infringe more upon the traditions of some men than to dance. Infidels dance, also the wicked, the vain, foolish, giddy and those that know not God. There is no harm in dancing. The Lord said he wanted His saints to praise him in all things. It was enjoined on Miriam and the daughters of Israel to dance and celebrate the name of the Almighty, and to praise Him on the destruction of Pharaoh and his host. For some weeks past I could not wake up at any time of the night but I heard the axes at work. Some were building for the destitute and the widow; and now my feelings are, dance all night, if you desire to do so, for there is no harm in it. The prayer of the wicked is an abomination in the sight of God, but it is not sin for a saint to pray; where there is no evil intended there is no sin. I enjoined upon the bishops that they gather the widow, the poor and the fatherless together and remember them in the festivities of Israel. -- Winter Quarters, Nebraska [Manuscript History of Brigham Young, 1847- 1850. William S. Harwell, ed. CollierÂ's Publishing, 1997.:29]
[source: The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009)]
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