Although celibacy was neither enforced nor required, it was considered a virtue. There was no prohibition of marriage or of legalized sexual intercourse, as many writers have erroneously stated, but when two concluded to be joined in wedlock, they were assisted by the society. They conceived with Paul, whose opinion and practice does not find many clerical imitators at the present day, that celibacy was more conducive to a holy life. There are many passages of Scripture to that effect, which they, unlike the ministers of other Protestant denominations, kept in perpetual remembrance. "He that is unmarried, careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord; but he that is married careth for the things of the world, how he may please his wife. There is this difference between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit; but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband. I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, it is good for them if they abide even as I." They likewise, and, in my opinion, truly considered that those who sacrificed conjugal endearments for Christ's sake, were better fitted for, and will enjoy the highest places in glory. Hear the sublime language of the Revelator: "I looked up, and lo, a Lamb stood on Mount Zion, and with him an hundred and forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder; and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps; and they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts and the elders; and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. These are they that are not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God and the Lamb." This idea was fondly cherished, and continually inculcated. It formed the foundation of the monastic institution at Ephrata, whose support and prosperity was entirely dependent on its being properly appreciated. It formed the subject of many an eloquent harangue, the theme of many a pleasant song, the object around which the holiest memories gathered, and with which the sweetest associations were combined. It was sedulously kept before them by their ministers and teachers in its most favourable light, and all the scripture susceptible of this application, which was not a little, was brought to excite their enthusiasm, and to inspire them with faithfulness and perseverance. It promised capabilities for the divine life which others could not possess, and held out to their enraptured imaginations the brighter rewards of heaven.