Another line of phraseology, taken from human growth, sheds much light on our subject. The perfect (τέλειοι) are the mature, full-grown in con- trast to babes and children (νήπιοι, παιδία). ‘ Every one that partaketh of milk isa babe. Solid food is for perfect’ (men), He 5 ‘Wherefore let us go on to perfection’ (τελειότης), 61. “Βα not children in mind: in malice be babes, in mind be perfect’ (τέλειοι), 1 Co 14”, also 2° 34. All this explains ‘unto a perfect (full-grown) man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, that we may be no longer children,’ Eph 4%, St. John has ‘little children, fathers, young men,’ 1 Jn 2315, «The τέλειος is one who has attained his moral end, that for which he was intended, namely to be a man in Christ’ (Trench, NZ’ Syn. p. 74). ‘In this sense St. Paul claimed to be τέλειος, even while almost in the same breath he disclaimed the being reredew- μένος, Ph 315? (12,)γἨ, The apostle’s disclaimer intimates that there is no state of perfectness which excludes the ibility of advance; the full-grown man is still in process of growth. St. James also has the idea of perfection, 1" 33.
It is encouraging to remember that this high teaching of Scripture has always been kept before the mind of the Church. Here again St. Paul is our leader, ‘Forgetting the things which are be- hind, I press on toward the goal,’ Ph 3%. The question of the possibility of Christian perfection in the present life was raised by Augustine and answered in the affirmative. To doubt it, he said, would be to limit the power of Divine grace. But he doubts, or rather denies, that there have been perfect Christians, assigning as reasons the weak- ness of human nature, the danger of pride, the need of discipline (see quotations in Pope, Compend. of Theol. iii. p. 70). e medizval and Roman Catholic Church holds not only the possibility but the fact in the case of ‘saints,’ canonization being the Church’s seal on the perfect life. The use of the term ‘saints’ to denote a special class of Christians is Eke rg iba as in Scripture the term is applied to Christians, Ro 17 and elsewhere.
he motive of the monastic system in its long history and multitudinous forms has been to secure favourable conditions for living a perfect Christian life, supposed to be impossible in ordinary circum- stances. ‘If thou wilt be perfect, sell all that
PERFUME
thou hast’ (Mt 19%), has been [6.1 to dictate th¢ condition of such a life, as it was the voice ever sounding in the ears of Francis of Assisi. What- ever our quieras on the monastic system, the nobility of its original aims must be acknowledged. The great succession of mystics of the ἃ Kempis type in every Church and age has done much to preserve the tradition of a deep spiritual life. The passages of Scripture which are their watchwords (Jn 154, Gal 2, Col 3'*) have been shown to describe true experiences. John Wesley’s doctrine on the subject merely follows in the wake of many teachers and communities whose aim has been the romotion of the highest Christian life. It is a CREE of relative perfection in a very strict sense. His own favourite definition of its nature is expressed in the terms of the two chief com- mandments, which he insists are an ideal intended to be realized in actual life. His doctrine differs only in name from the teaching of all who desire and seek the highest life of holiness. In any case the perfect conformity to the image of the Son, which is God’s etern pulps (Ro 839), wnust ever remain the cherished hope of every believer in Christ. J.S. BANKS.
PERFORM, PERFORMANCE. — These words have lost the idea of finishing, completing, which once belonged to them. Tindale translates Lk 14-29 “Which of you disposed to build a toure sytteth not doune before and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient |to performe it? lest after he hath layde the foundacion, and is not able to performe it, all that beholde it beginne to mocke him.’ And Robinson in More’s Utopia, ii. (Lupton’s ed. p. 170), says, ‘The lacke of the one is performed and fylled up with the aboundaunce of the other.’ This is often the meaning of ‘per- form’ in AV. Thus Is 10% ‘When the Lord hath performed his whole work upon Mount Zion’ (ys2y"3, lit. ‘when he hath cut off,’ the figure being taken from the cutting off of the finished web from the loom; LXX ὅταν συντελέσῃ; Vulg. cum impleverit; Wyc. ‘shall fulfelle, Purvey ‘hath fillid’; Cov. ‘As soone as I have per- furmed’). Lk 2% ‘When they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord’ is not merely ‘when they had done all things,’ but ‘when they had completed’ or (RV) ‘accomplished’ (ὡς ἐτέλεσαν). To ‘perform the doing’ of a thing (as in 2 Co 8") is now tautology, whence RV ‘complete the doing’ (τὸ ποιῆσαι émirehécare). The change in the meaning of ‘ perform’ is due to the supposition that it is made up of per and form, and to form is todo, to make. It has no connexion with form, being derived from Fr. parfournir, to furnish com- pletely, accomplish. Its original and mmper mean- ing is well expressed by Maundeville (Zravels, p. 265), ‘But whan he saughe thet he myghte not dou it, ne bringe it to an ende, he preyed to God of Nature that he wolde parforme that that he had begonne.’ Cf. Ps 20° 21" 572 (Pr. Bk.).