Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right.
A child’s accountability
The Bible recovers lost truths, as well as lost souls. The recovery of lost truth is one means of restoring lost souls. It is like a guide in a wilderness, as food in famine, as light in darkness: it is the restoration of that which is useful and essential. The truth of this passage is a lost truth. That human beings are early accountable, and early assume a decided character, is evident to reflection and observation. Apart from the teaching of Scripture, it is a lost truth that a “child is known by his doings.” “Child” means a son or daughter under parental control.
I. The actions of children become, in process of time, their own doings. Children move before they act, and they live as mere animals before they act spiritually and morally. In process of time the child acts. All its movements become conduct, the result of a determination to behave itself in a particular way.
1. An act which we are justified in describing as right or wrong, and which we can lawfully call the act of an accountable individual, must be performed by a being endowed with the following capacities: He must be able to conceive the act before its performance, mentally to see the thing done before doing it. He must be capable of appreciating motives for and against the action. He must know good and evil. He must have the power of saying, “I will,” and “I will not.” The “doings” of an individual are those acts which he rationally and intentionally performs.
2. A child, in course of a few years, exhibits the capabilities of which we speak.
3. Then it is, whether it comes early or late, that the actions of a child are his “doings.” He now performs the functions of a rational creature.
II. When the actions of children become their doings the children are recognised as accountable.
1. God recognises the child as the author of its own actions: He sees the doings of the child spring from a motive and principle within. He now holds the child guilty for its transgressions of His law. The child is now exposed to punishment; and to escape punishment, a dispensation of mercy to that individual child is necessary. God’s treatment of the child recognises the child’s doings.
2. The god of evil knows, by the doings of children, with whom and with what he has to do. He cannot, as God, search the heart, but he can observe the principles, tastes, and inclinations. He studies the child’s nature that he may know best how to injure it.
3. The angelic inhabitants of heaven recognise children in their ministrations. A child who is an heir of salvation is known to the angels--they minister to him, performing offices of kindness and services of charity, ordained by the God of love.
4. Children are recognised as accountable by their fellow human beings. Children are known to other children, and known to men.
III. From these two facts draw certain inferences.
1. The evils of sin are not escaped by the childhood of the sinner. God does not hold him guiltless because he is a child. But the Supreme Lawgiver does not account the child a man. Sin brings darkness into a child’s mind, and disquiet into a child’s heart, and gloom over a child’s spirit. There are wages paid now, and paid in the spiritual condition of the early sinner, and those wages are death.
2. As a child, he is exerting influence for good or for evil. The measure of the influence is not so considerable as in the case of the adult, but there is influence.
3. All the differences of human character are not traceable to education. Some of these differences may be thus explained, but not all, and not the greatest. The earliest doings of a child do not make manifest his education, but himself.
4. The character of the future man is often indicated by the character of the present child. If the earliest actions of children be observed, they will indicate the character which the child so constituted will form.
5. God does not treat a generation of children en masse, but individually. There is a personality about every child.
6. If a child be known by his doings, one test of character is universally employed by the Judge of all. The decisions of the final judgment are according to that a man hath done, whether good or bad. The child and the man are under one Lawgiver. (E. Martin.)
Fruit
We must be good before we can do good. What fruits will be found on that tree which God’s Holy Spirit has made a living tree?
1. There will be love to God, which will make you try to please Him, and to care for everything which belongs to your heavenly Father, His book, His house, His day.
2. There will be obedience to parents. Obedience to our parents on earth leads up naturally and pleasantly to obedience to our Father which is in heaven.
3. There will be truthfulness. Two great causes of untruthfulness are cowardice and the habit of exaggeration. Do not use overstrained expressions. Speak in a natural, straightforward, simple way.
4. There will be conscientiousness. The conscientious person will do his best, as in God’s sight. He will do his work thoroughly. He will be trustworthy. You may depend upon him. No one can be a Christian unless he is conscientious in his work, and conscientious in all his dealings with others.
5. There will be two things found in you, modesty and temperance. Would you think a pert girl or a saucy boy at all like Christ? By “temperance” I mean self-control, self-restraint. Greediness, the desire to get all you can for yourself, is the opposite of it. Temperance teaches us where to stop--shows us how to keep ourselves within bounds. All these good things are fruits of the Spirit. (G. Calthrop, M. A.)
Children may be known
A young tree is known by its first fruits, a child by his childish things.
1. Children will discover themselves. One may soon see what their temper is, and which way their inclination leads them, according as their constitution is. Children have not learned the art of dissembling and concealing their bent as grown people have.
2. Parents should observe their children, that they may discover their disposition and genius, and both manage and dispose of them accordingly, drive the nail that will go, and draw out that which goes amiss. Wisdom is herein profitable to direct. (Matthew Henry.)
The child’s fortune told
We know persons by sight, or by name, or by description. They are best known by their actions.
I. What is meant by “doings” here?
1. The tempers a child indulges in. These tempers are fretful, or patient, or selfish, or generous.
2. The ill habits he forms. Idle, or industrious, or careless, or careful, or dilatory, or prompt.
3. The company he keeps. The choice of companions is a very important thing.
II. What may be known of a child by his doings? You are making your fortunes now every day. The tempers you are indulging, the habits you are forming, and the company you are keeping are all helping to make them. How careful you should be to find out what is wrong in your tempers and habits, and pray to God to help you to correct it at once. (R. Newton, D. D.)
A child’s doings
This big world of ours is really made up of a multitude of little ones. Every living creature has a world of its own. Every child has. So he can be known by what he does.
1. We are not to be judged merely by our sayings. Many people would like to be judged that way.
2. We are not to be judged only by our appearance.
3. We can only be known by our doings. But who is it knows us thus? In this way our fellow-men know us. In this way, above all, God knows us. If we are to be doing always what we ought to do, we shall need a helper.
(1) Because of our inclinations to do evil.
(2) Because we have so many powerful enemies. Give the story of Telemachus and Mentor, and show that Jesus is our ever-present friend, helper, and guide. (R. Tuck, B. A.)
Christian childhood soon discovers itself
How do we know a Christian boy or girl? Why in the same way that you know a candle has been lighted--by its shining. Do you suppose that people do not know whether you love your mother or not? You need not say to them, “I am very fond of my mother”; they will find it out soon enough for themselves--by the way you speak of your mother; by the way you speak to your mother; by your obedience to her directions; by your thoughtfulness when you think you can help her; by your willingness to be in her company; by your grief when she is grieved, or in trouble or pain. Yes, in a hundred different ways people can discover your affection for your mother. So with your love and devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. But though you need not announce to the world how good you are, the world will find out if you are good, will find out if you love Jesus Christ, when they see that you really--not in pretence, but really--like all that belongs to Him: His book, His house, His day. (G. Calthrop, M. A.)