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Today, the poor hen-pecked, woman–
ruled, "chicken" of a man - more
mouse than man - is a ridiculous crea–
ture. Today boys grow up more like girls
than he-meo !
All these - and more - are CAUSES
of broken families today. And they are
the BAROMETER of the CRASH of civ–
ilization - the HANDWRITJNG ON THE
W.ALL forecasting a death-sentence on
modero society!
Of course another M.AJOR cause is
"the new morality" which is simply
misnaming cesspool immorality!
When society begins to accept pre–
marital sex relationships, as promiscu–
ous as participants desire, and adultery
is pronounced "good" by psychologists,
and when millions "enj oy" the sport
of husband-and-wife-swapping parties,
marriages are bound to be breaking
down - and society is sounding its
own death knell
!
But put alJ these factors together
with the immaturity, the unprepared–
ness, the inexperience of teen marriages,
and one should have little difficulty
understanding that a teen marriage has
less than a 50-50 chance of surviving!
A BEST AGE for Marriage?
Js there, then, a BEST .AGE for
marriage?
There is!
Sorne time ago I officiated at a
wedding in stately Memorial Hall
at Ambassador College in England.
My next-to-youngest grandson, Richard
David Armstrong II, then age two and
a half, thought the ceremony so very
nice, he said:
"Mommie,
l
want to get married !"
"Well !" answered bis mother, a little
shocked, a little amused, "and whom
do you want to marry ?"
" Karen," replied little Dic ky
promptly.
"But Karen has just been married.
She can't marry anybody else, now."
"Well then," decided Dicky, "1'11
marry Sheila." Sheila is a very nice Icish
colleen, and was then a student in the
college.
"But Sheila is grown up oow, and in
college," protested "Mommie." "What
if she won't have you ?"
"Then 1'11 marry you, Mommie,"
carne the quick decision.
The
PLAIN TRUTH
Marriage Is Not for Children
We may smile at the idea of two-
oc
three-year-olds getting married. It
wotdd
be a bit irregular! Marriage is
not for children ! Marriage is for
AOULTS. Marriage is pretty serious
business!
Marriage entails thc assuming of very
scrious responsibi li ties. Children do not
realize this, of course. Marriage is a lot
more than romance. It is more than day–
dreams about a "Prince Charming," or
Roating around on cloud nineteen, or
being in a lover's arms.
But when do we become adults?
Are not boys and girls adults at
arouod age 14? No. Far from it!
Let's
understand WHY !
Age for Acquiring Knowledge
Human beings know
nothing
at
bi rth. We have to learn, or be taught –
EVERYTHING! Without any knowledge,
oc
with erroneous knowledge, we are
helpless - as newborn babes. But there
are sorne things many fail to learn. One
of these is the right age for marriagc.
Whatever an adult knows, true or
false, has come into his mind since
birth.
It may sound surprising or incredible,
but a person actually learns more during
his first year of l ife than in any succeed–
ing year.
If
a one-year-old baby could
talk plainly with complete and adequate
vocabulary, you'd be completely amazed
at how much he has learned that first
year!
The second year he learos a trifle less
than the first, and the third year a little
less than the second. Gradually, his
capacity for learning decreases year by
year, if only slightly. This is hard to
believe for the simple reason that a two–
year-old
adds
his second-year acquisi–
tion to what he learned the first year,
the third to that, and so through the
years his
total
store of knowledge
increases continually.
But a person past 60 cannot learn
something new in a field new and
strange to him as readily as a young
person of 22 or 23. Does this mean that
a well-educated man of 60 knows less
than a young man of 22? Of coucse not.
Other things being equal, he koows
infinitely more - because he has the
}uly
197 1
accumulated knowledge of all those
years since age 22
added
to what he
knew then - and he has learned much
by
experience.
That is one reason wis–
dom comes with age !
But a two-and-a-half-year-old can–
not delve very deeply into the study
of advanced mathematics, philosophy,
nuclear fission, business administration,
economics, or child rearing. He would
have very di!ferent ideas on thc latter
than he probably will have when he
becomes a parent!
The first five or six years of life are, so
we believe from experience, most profit–
ably spent in learning the basic things
of infant and child learning - how to
walk, talk, eat, run, and play - knowl–
edge about Jots and lots of things. The
little child learns what is an automobi le,
an airplane. He Jearns about animals -
many things.
He may even be taught to count, and
part or all of the alphabet. However,
the kind of knowledge taught in school
(kindergarten excepted) seems most
e!fectively taught beginning age 6. At
this age the child can learn to write, to
read, and to spell simple words. In
sorne countries he begins to learn a sec–
ond language at that age. For the next
ten years he acquires gradually all the
foundational elementary knowledge,
and during the last two of the ten per–
haps a bit of preparatory knowledge for
higher education.
All these years the normal individual
has been learning rapidly. There is a
great deal to know before maturity, and
he is not mature
)'el!
Of course, by age
16, the juvenile may think he
knou•s it
al/.
Many, in their own minds, know
more than Dad or Moro. You see, what
they do not yet know, they don't
know
that they don't know ! But there is still
much to learn.
But by age 16 the average normal
young person of good mind is ready to
begi11
a little more advanced study into
more sol id fields.
When Bodies Mature
But along in these early and mid–
teen-age years, usually 12 to 14, the
physical body suddenly speeds up its
growth and development. The teen-agec
at this point sprouts up much taller
within a single year, with
bodily