But according to God's ordinance dating from the state of innocency, and sanctioned by Christ at the wedding feast at Cana, marriage is the rule for all classes of men, ministers as well as laymen. For ministers are men, and do not cease to be men by becoming ministers. The Reformation has changed the moral ideal, and elevated domestic and social life. The daily duties and trials of domestic and social life are a better school of moral discipline than monkish celibacy and poverty. Female virtues and graces are necessary to supplement and round out the character of man.
Exceptions there are, but they prove the rule.
The social standing of woman is a true test of Christian civilization. He was seen at times rocking the cradle while reading a book. Calvin was likewise free from the obligation of vows, but the severest and most abstemious among the Reformers. Zwingli unfortunately broke his vow at Einsiedeln, while still a priest, and in receipt of a pension from the Pope. He afterwards married a worthy patrician widow with three children, Anna Reinhard von Knonau, who bore him two sons and two daughters, and lived to lament his tragic death on the field of battle, finding, like him, her only comfort in the Lord Jesus and the word of God.