let us think of each of these, for they are not extinct by any means. we know very little of haggith, but she was probably a dancing girl who made her way to the front by her ambition and beauty.from her and from his father we may assume that adonijah inherited a tendency to ambition and selfconceit 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 childs infancy.similarly, moral tendencies are transmitted, and the bible gives us many examples of the fact.the luxuryloving 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 drunkards 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 wellbeing of children depends largely on the character of parents, should give emphasis to the adjuration in the wedding servicemarriage, 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 vigorous attacks. unhappily, adonijahs natural bias was made the more dangerous by the atmosphere of the court, where flatterers naturally aboundedfor _he was a very goodly man_, physically a repetition of absalom, the adonis of his time.we may also fairly surmise that his parents were guilty of partiality and indulgence in their treatment of him, for david would love him the more as one who revived the memory of his favourite absalom, the idol of the people, distinguished for his noble mien and princely bearing.courtiers, soldiers, and people all flattered adonijah, and joab, the greatest captain of his age, next only to the king, was his partisan, the more so because he neither forgot nor forgave davids reproaches after the death of absalom.even abiathar, who represented the younger and more ambitious branch of the priesthood, joined in the general adulation, until adonijah, intoxicated by vanity, set up his own court in rivalry to that of his father, and when he moved abroad was accompanied by a stately retinue of chariots and horsemen, and fifty foot attendants gorgeously apparelled. no doubt every position in life has its own peculiar temptations.the illfavoured lad, who is the butt at school and the scapegoat at home, is in serious danger of becoming bitter and revengeful, and of growing crooked in character, like a plant in a dark vault, which will have no beauty because it enjoys no sunshine.but, on the other hand, physical beauty, which attracts attention and wins admiration, especially if it is associated with brilliant conversational gifts, and great charm of manner, has befooled both men and women into sin and misery.many a girl has been entrapped into an unhappy marriage; and many a lad, moved by a vaunting ambition which overleaped itself, has fallen never to rise: like icarus, when his waxen wings melted in the sun. there must have been sad laxity of discipline in the home of david.it is said of adonijah that _his father had not displeased him at any time in saying, why hast thou done so_?in other words, adonijah had never been checked and rebuked as he ought to have been, and this foolish indulgence was as fatal to him as it had been to the sons of eli.there are still such homes as davids, although their inmates do well to draw down the veil of secrecy over them with loyal hands, and never blazon abroad the grief and anxiety which rend their hearts.in one home a fair, bright girl mars the beauty of her early womanhood by a flippant disregard of her mothers wishes, and by an exaltation of her own pleasureloving disposition as the one law of her life.in another, a mere child, hasty and uncontrolled in temper, is the dread of the whole household, and at last becomes its tyrant, because every wish is gratified rather than that a scene should be provoked.in yet another a grownup son is callous about his mothers anxiety and his fathers counsels; and gladly ignores his home associations as he drifts away upon the sea of vice, and there becomes a miserable wreck. with each of these it might have been otherwise.if authority had been asserted, and steadily maintained, before bad habits were formed; if firm resolution on the part of the parents had taken the place of indulgent laxity, if, instead of being left to chance, character had been moulded during the time when it was plasticthese might, with gods blessing, have grown up to be wise, purehearted, courageous followers of christwho would not only have sweetened the atmosphere of home, but would have done something to purify and illumine society, as the salt and the light of the world. the sin of which adonijah was guilty, whose sources we have tried to discover, was the assumption of unlawful authority and state, which involved rebellion against his own father. ambition is not always wrong.it is a common inspiration often nerving men to attempt daring and noble deeds.desire for distinction, with capacity for it, may often be regarded as the voice of god summoning to high effort.the world would soon be stagnant without ambition.the scholar working for a prize, the writer or speaker resolving to make a name, the man of business pressing onward past the indolent and the neerdoweel, are not to be condemned, so long as they seek lawful objects by lawful means.those who strenuously and hopefully fulfil the duties of their present sphere will be called higher, either in this world or the next, for god means us to rise by our fidelity where we are, and not by discontent with what we are.ambition may have conscience in it, and this will reveal itself in the steady and minute performance of small duties.any who are content, with tireless hand, to make crooked things straight and rough places plain, will ultimately see glory revealed.but if ambition is not ruled by righteousness, if it is not modified by love and consideration for others, it becomes a sin, and will prove to be the herald of disobedience and death, for it is such ambition which has cursed the world by tyrannies and bloodshed, and dragged down angels from realms of light.this was the ambition which let adonijah exalt himself, and say, i will be _king_. it may be said that his conduct was natural enough, although it was too precipitate, because he would legitimately succeed his father in due course, as his eldest surviving son.but this was not so.the law of primogeniture was not law for israel.the invisible king expressly reserved to himself the right of appointing the ruler of his people, as is evident from deut. xvii. 14 and 15