Perhaps the most tragic and heart-rending cry in the Old Testament is the cry of David when he received the news of the death of his foolish and traitorous son, Absalom. A careful study of the relationship of Israel's great king with his son reveals that Absalom's errancy could in no small measure be laid at David's door. The poignancy of David's cry carries with it the sense of his own personal responsibility: "O my son Absalom, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!" (2 Samuel 18:33).

"Sentence me!" a modern father said to the judge before whom his son stood to receive the sentence for a crime he had committed. "I have been so busy all my life making money, going through the chairs in my lodge, serving on boards and committees, I failed to concern myself with my boy. I alone am to blame." Undoubtedly, many a youth, serving a sentence in prison or reformatory, could point an accusing finger at his father who spent all his spare time on secondary matters to the neglect of his high responsibility of fatherhood.

—Sel.