Scientific Illustrations Acts 24:26-27 He hoped also that money should have been given him of Paul, that he might loose him: why he sent for him the oftener… Though selfish kindness is a paradox, its existence is a reality. There are people who are really kind towards us and others, but are so from no creditable motive. Father Ripa, in the account of his sojourn near the mouth of the Ganges, tells us of a set of religionists who are very kind to all sorts of animals and insects, which they neither kill nor eat, but, on the contrary, tend them with great care. Indeed to such a pitch do they carry their kindness, that they have hospitals for lice and fleas, and pay liberally by the hour those who will allow the insects to feed on their blood. They are also most kind to sheep and cows. And why all this? Not because they possess disinterested kindness, but because they believe in the transmigration of souls, and that after death they will pass into the body of some animal more or less offensive according to the good or evil actions of their past life. And further, because they believe after death that a great river must be passed which can only be done by holding on fast to the tail of the sheep or cow. So that in this, as in a number of other instances to be met with in civilised society, there is really a complete absence of real unselfishness in the act, which, however, may be kind enough in its way. Here we have the expectation of some future advantage as the actual basis of the act. Numbers of deeds which pass for genuine kindness are the result of a complex mixture of motives, amongst which pure charity is not found. Where is the kindness which lends, which does, and which gives, expecting nothing as reward in return either in this world or the other? (Scientific Illustrations.) Parallel Verses KJV: He hoped also that money should have been given him of Paul, that he might loose him: wherefore he sent for him the oftener, and communed with him. |
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