A LITTLE girl less than six years old is usually still playing with dolls and living a carefree life under the protection of her parents. But one five and a half year old girl in Peru gave birth to a child back in 1933. Said the obstetrician who delivered the baby by cesarean section: By a fantastic trick of nature, her reproductive organs had fully matured.



More recently, ten year olds, one in Mexico and one in Argentina, became mothers. Some authorities in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, were expressing concern that a significant number of unwed mothers are elementary school girls aged 11 and 12. Philadelphia Evening Bulletin

Amazing. is the usual reaction to such accounts. Yet childbirth among children is becoming more and more widespread. In England the number of girls aged twelve to sixteen who mothered illegitimate children increased. Commenting on the same problem here in the United States, an officer of the Medical Society's maternal welfare committee in New Jersey had this to say: A high rate of illegitimate births among teenagers reflects problems of low intelligence, broken homes, low social and economic background, and, to a large extent, ignorance.

Normally young girls become potential mothers at the age of twelve to fourteen. In a healthy moral climate they are generally spared the rigors of parenthood until they have enjoyed in ample measure the innocent happinesses of adolescence. It is true that in earlier ages the time when a patriarchal arrangement existed among the Hebrews, for example young females did produce children. However, that form of society protected against abuses and difficulties attending such births. The young couple did not set up a separate establishment and fend for themselves. They continued under the supervision of elders, and doubtless older women saw to it that the infant, as well as the young mother, received care and training.

But the situation is different today. Now, when young girls become pregnant, they bring upon themselves and their offspring a great deal of hardship. Indeed, very young women usually lack the desirable qualities of a good mother. Often they thoughtlessly abuse their children, let them look out for themselves, and frequently are even glad to be rid of them if someone will take them off their hands. Premature motherhood is a cruel imposition on the child mother. It reveals serious degeneration of conditions and attitudes of modern society.

Pointing to one angle of child corruption, a survey in England produced evidence to show that the number of young girls becoming mothers prematurely began to climb steeply after 1955. That, it was claimed, was when specially designed magazines aimed at the teen age sector of society began to make their appearance, some of them bordering on the pornographic. That, too, was when garment firms began promoting immodest teen age fashions, and when commercial TV began to cater to teen agers with programs heavily loaded with sex.

Delinquent parents also must bear a heavy share of the responsibility for such conditions. They permit children a large measure of freedom for which such youngsters are totally unprepared. They lack the moral courage to lay down rules for the household and enforce them consistently. They fail to set a good example for the younger generation. They shut their eyes to the evil practices on the part of their children, such as smoking tobacco, using drugs, petting and other undue familiarities between the sexes. Animals discipline their young and lovingly protect them through their most vulnerable years. Human parents should do as much, and more.

Today, many believe that more sex education in the schools is the answer to this problem of children giving birth to children. The fact is that proper education on such intimate topics needs to start before the children go to school yes, right in the home. If young folks are taught from a tender age Biblical morals, self control, honesty in dealing with others, they will not so easily become the victims of depraved adults or greedy commercial exploiters.

And speaking of depraved adults, imagine the moral degradation, the beastliness of those males who, in order to gratify their passions, will not hesitate to have sexual relations with little girls. But are such conditions surprising? Not to students of the Bible, for they have noted Jesus? prophetic words regarding these significant times: Because of the increasing of lawlessness the love of the greater number will cool off. (Matt. 24:12) And why this cooling off? Because of rejecting God and his righteous standards as set out in the Bible, and because of accepting the false teachings and philosophies of men.

Readers of the Bible can see that these are the last days of a wicked society, for they recall these words of the Bible writer Paul: In the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here. For men will be lovers of themselves, .?.?. having no natural affection, .?.?. without self control, fierce, without love of goodness, .?.?. lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God. 2'Tim. 3:1 4.

No wonder God's decree is directed against this entire wicked society on earth and its shocking moral conditions, calling for its early destruction. (Zeph. 3:8) No wonder he purposes bringing to their end all of its haters of good, its sadists, its sex perverts, its stonyhearted parents, and its greedy, unscrupulous exploiters of children. It is his loving purpose, soon to be fulfilled, that little children should have the opportunity to traverse safely the juvenile years years that will equip them to live a satisfying adult life everlastingly.