The constitution is to be read in a public and general meeting of the
society at least once in every year.
The system of administration thus prescribed appears to have worked
satisfactorily for more than forty years.
"Do you favor marriage?" I asked some of the older members, trustees,
and managers. They answered "No;" but they exact no penalty nor inflict
any disability upon those who choose to marry. "Marriage," I was told,
"is on the whole unfavorable to community life. It is better to observe
the celibate life. But it is not, in our experience, fatally adverse. It
only makes more trouble; and in either case, whether a community permit
or forbid marriage, it may lose members."
About half of their young people, who have grown up in the society,
become permanent members, and as many young men as girls. They do not
permit members to marry outside of the society; and require those who do
to leave the place. "Men and women need to be trained to live peaceably
and contentedly in a community. Those who have been brought up outside
do not find matters to their taste here."
Baumeler taught that God did not look with pleasure on marriage, but
that he only tolerated it; that in the kingdom of heaven "husband, wife,
and children will not know each other;" "there will be no distinction of
sex there.
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