206 THE MEANS OF GRACE 



sire for mutual happiness and sanctification, the 

 wish to rear a family according to God's holy 

 will, etc. 



Broadly speaking, it is better to marry young than to 

 wait too long. Most of those who are called to the mar- 

 ried state will find it to their advantage to marry at an 

 age when they are still pliable and enjoy their full 

 physical powers. If a man postpones marriage too long 

 he is apt to lose courage and become unfit for married 

 life. Husband and wife grow accustomed to each other 

 more easily if both are young and tractable and inspired 

 by high ideals. Needless to add, no man should marry 

 until he is able to support a family. 



Persons who are physically underdeveloped or suffer 

 from some hereditary disease or other serious bodily 

 ailment, should not marry. The normal development and 

 good health of the female is of special importance. 

 Marital happiness largely depends on the health of the 

 wife. No girl ought to think of marriage before she is 

 twenty. The husband should be several years older than 

 the wife, and able to exercise self-control. A great deal 

 of misery is caused by people marrying too young. 



The Church discourages, and to a certain extent for- 

 bids, marriage among blood relations, because such 

 unions frequently result in stunted and defective chil- 

 dren. The Mosaic law forbade them as harmful for 

 the offspring of the contracting parties as well as for the 

 nation at large. 14 



To prevent grievous disappointments, which are all too 

 apt to endanger conjugal happiness, the contracting par- 

 ties should be frank with each other in regard to their pe- 

 cuniary means and all other temporal matters of impor- 

 tance. 



14 Lev. XX, 17. 



