her ambition and beauty. From her and
from his father we may assume that Adonijah inherited a tendency to
ambition and self-conceit such as Absalom inherited from the union of
David with Bathsheba. It is one of the laws of life that "like
produces like," Evidence of this constantly appears in the lower
animals, in the speed of the racehorse, in the scent of the hound, and
so forth. This asserts itself in men also. We often notice what we
call a "family likeness." Tricks of manner, and various mental
qualities such as heroism, statesmanship, mathematical or artistic
talent, descend from parents to children, and sometimes reappear for
generations in the same family. This cannot be due to example alone,
because the phenomena is almost as frequent when the parents die during
the child's infancy. Similarly, moral tendencies are transmitted, and
the Bible gives us many examples of the fact. The luxury-loving Isaac,
who must have his savoury food, just as his son, Esau, who would sell
his birthright for a mess of pottage, Rebekah, who, like her brother
Laban is shrewd and cunning, sees her tendency repeated in her son
Jacob, who needed a life of discipline and prayer to set him free from
it.

In more senses than one "the evil which men do lives after them." A
drunkard's son, for example, is often conscious of an inbred craving
which is a veritable disease, so that he is heavily weighted as he
starts out on the race of life. This solemn and suggestive fact that
the future well-being of children depends largely on the character of
parents, should give emphasis to the adjuration in the wedding
service--marriage, therefore, is to be honourable in all, and ought not
to be engaged in rashly, "thoughtlessly, or lightly, but advisedly,
reverently, and in the fear of God." The law of moral heritage makes
parental responsibility a solemn trust, while, in so far as it affects
those who inherit bad or good tendencies, we are sure that the Judge of
all the earth will do right. But it must never be forgotten that even
a bad disposition need never become a dominant habit. It is something
to be resisted and conquered, and, it may be, by the grace of Him who
is faithful, and will not suffer any of us to be tempted above what we
are able to bear. Our tendencies are Divine calls to us to recognise
and guard certain weak places in the citadel of character, for it is
against these that our enemy directs his most persistent and vigor