heredity and compelling innocent children to bear the sins of the
guilty parents, and at first thought it might so seem; but God is a
God of justice and also of mercy, and our study of His laws in their
ultimate outcome leads us to know that they are invariably made for
our welfare. Let us see, then, if we cannot find something encouraging
even in this law of heredity. Are the majority of people born straight
or deformed, sick or well, honest or dishonest? You may ask, Are all
of these conditions a matter of heredity? Certainly. The fact that we
are human beings instead of animals, that we have our due proportion
of organs and faculties, that we are not monstrosities or imbeciles,
are all hereditary conditions. We see, then, that the law of heredity
insures to us our full complement of organs and capabilities, as well
as the more pronounced characteristics which we the more readily
recognize as inheritances. The fact is that inheritance of good is so
universal that we fail to think of it.

When the baby is "well-favored" and straight-limbed, no credit is
given to heredity; but if he is in some way out of the ordinary, we
blame the law that has fixed on him some result of parental conduct.

If he possesses a good mentality, it scarcely occurs to us that this
is just as surely heredity as is the transmission of the mental
weakness of some ancestor.

By the Gospel of Heredity I mean this brighter side, this
"Good-tidings" of the law. In the first written Biblical record of the
law, where the statement is made that the sins of the fathers are
visited upon the children to the third and fourth generation, we have
also the statement of the "Good-tidings" that the Lord sheweth mercy
to thousands of them that love him and keep his commandments; and that
means not thousands of individuals, but thousands of generations.
Justice is meted to the third and fourth, but mercy to thousands of
generations.

All through the Scriptures we find this brighter phase of the law
enunciated. Perhaps you would like to study both the law and the
Gospel from the Bible. I will give you some texts and you can find
them for yourself. It would be interesting also for you to read the
lives of men and women of renown, and observe the transmission of
talents and capabilities.

Encouraging as this view of the subject may be, it is by no means the
brightest side of the subject of heredity, for if we have inherited
no special talents, and if we are han