Before passing on to consider the organisation of the Quaker community into a compact and well regulated church, we must notice their conduct in the question of marriage. "Marriage," said Fox, "is God's ordinance," believing literally the common saying that marriages are made in heaven. But the solemn compact ought to be publicly ratified, and what more fitting than that public worship should attend that celebration. If Fox denied that ministers could marry, if he insisted that the ceremony should consist simply of a mutual pledge publicly given, he was very careful that all should be done in good order. The marriage customs which obtain amongst Quakers to-day represent his views. The young people must show that they are clear of other marriage engagements, and have the consent of their parents or guardians to their union. Sufficient public notice must be given of the coming event, so as to prevent all scandal and disorder. Then the marriage is celebrated during a week-day service. In the early days of the Society the publication of the intended marriage was no easy matter. "Many a joke must have passed through the merry crowd, when, from the market-cross of a country town, the expecting bridegroom proclaimed his forthcoming nuptials--but no arrangements of a loose or evasive character, would have saved the marriages of Friends from the double brand of public opinion and of national law." In 1661 the legality of Quaker marriages was tested in Nottingham before Justice Archer, and the point was forever set at rest. Now let us turn to the work of Fox in the organisation of the Society. That the organisation was principally planned and carried out by him is past all doubt. We will quote two out of numberless authorities. Marsden says-- "To understand Quakerism the reader must comprehend the character of George Fox; for no institution ever carried more thoroughly impressed upon it the features of its chief."--_Marsden's Christian Churches_, p. 424.[5] [5] For this quotation and other valuable matter the writer is indebted to the writings of Alderman Rowntree, of York, whose "Two Lectures on George Fox" and prize essay on "Quakerism, Past and Present" are standard works on Quakerism. T. Hancock says, in his prize essay on the causes of the decline of Quakerism-- "The master spirit and chief builder of Quakerism was undoubtedly George Fox.... When we come to the second period, to the modelling of the Quaker constitution and discipline to the Society of Friends, to Quakerism as an _ism_, the hand of George Fox is still more evident."--_The Peculium_, pp. 68, 69.