ear of all others," another committee was appointed
"to see that the marriage was orderly performed."

The parties on the day set appeared before the Meeting,[18] and in its
regular course, stood up and said the words of mutual agreement which
made them man and wife. A certificate was used, and to it the guests
signed their names. But no minister had official part in the ceremony.
It was their belief, to which they adhered with logical strictness, that
the divine spirit in each of the parties to a marriage made it sacred,
and that in marrying they spoke the will of the Spirit.

Entire continence was expected of every unmarried person, and the
strictest marital faithfulness of man and wife, because of the
sacredness of personal life. But in a pioneer society, through those
rough early decades, when for long times war was disturbing the serenity
of social life, the conduct of men and women, not mindful of propriety,
was determined by the strong, masterful passions of an out of door
people. Besides, the government of the Meeting was contrary to the
general opinion of the countryside, and the Meeting House members were
immersed in a population whose standards were looser, as well as
sanctioned by authorities not recognized by the Meeting. The result was
that in the first century of the Hill, 1728-1828, there were many
instances of sexual immorality, many accusations of married persons
untrue to their vows, and a resulting attention of the whole community
to this theme which we do not know to-day. Frankness of discussion of
these matters prevailed. The punishments inflicted, the public
confessions demanded, the condemnation of specific and detailed offences
read from the steps of the Meeting Houses, were all as far from present
day approval as the offences themselves from modern experience. The
writer is sure that, comparing the records of the Quaker Community with
his own knowledge of the annals of the Mixed Community, there were more
offences of this kind considered by the Monthly Meeting of Oblong in any
one year, 1728-1828, than were publicly known in a population of the
same extent in the ten years 1890-1900. The commonest of these offences
were simple cases of illicit relations between unmarried persons, or
between persons, one of whom was married; the offence often being
associated in the minds of the accusers with "going to frollicks." In
these, as in all cases, the Meeting received the complaint and appointed
a com