PERFECTION

Moral conduct may indeed involve observance of pro-hibitions and positive commands, but the morality does not consist in the observance: it must come first, aa the spring of action, and will issue in an obedience very different from that of the current ethical code. It is the disposition that counts: all duty springs from a love to God, working from within outwards, seeking to realize itself in free and bound-less aspiration after His perfection. Hence the character-istic ' thou shalt not' of the Jewish law, with its possibiUty of evasion under seeming compliance, gives place to a posi-tive ' thou shalt' of limitless content, because inspired by a limitless ideal (Mt 6"-" T-' 18»- ^). When the man came to Christ with his eager question about ' eternal life,' though he could claim to have kept all the commandments from his youth, he is bidden, if he would be ' perfect,' strip himself of all worldly possessions and follow Christ; doubtless because only through such sacrifice could he come to discern and attain the moral reahties revealed by simple dependence on God (Mt 19a; of. Mk IOI'-m, Lk 18"-=;). The similar question of the lawyer is met with the same'teaching of love to God aa the one source of that 'doing' in which is life Lk 1028).

In the teaching of St. Paul the moral lite of the Chris-tian is often dwelt upon, and In some passages is sum-marized in glowing ideals (.e.g. Ro 12, 1 Co 13, Gal 522, Eph 3"-", Ph i'-s. Col 1»-^, 1 Th 5"-^). Once the ideal is compressed into a phrase which reminds us of Mt 5", 'Be ye imitators of God' (Eph 5'). There is constant insistence on love as the supreme source and manifestation of the moral life (Ro 12' 13»-i», 1 Co 13); it is the bond which binds all other virtues into 'per-fection' (Col 3"); the motive power is to be found in faith in Christ, and in the energies of the indwelling Spirit of God (Ro 8», 2 Co S", Gal 5"- ", Eph 3^).

But though St. Paul often uses the word 'perfect,' he hardly connects it with the attainment of the moral ideal in the sense of Mt S'^. He avails himself of a meaning of the Greek term as applied to men, 'full- grown,' 'mature,' and uses it to mark advance from the earlier stage of Christian life and experience, at which, in contrast, he describes men as 'babes.' 'To his im-mature Corinthian converts he writes, ' we speak wisdom among the perfect'; complains, 'I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ '; and bids them ' be not children in mind: howbeit in malice be ye babes, but in mind be perfect ' (1 Co 2^ 31 14M'). The same metaphor is used by the author of Hebrews (6"-6')i where 'perfect' and 'per-fection ' connote a Christian manhood which can receive and assimilate advanced Christian teaching. In the later Pauline Epistles the word implies a similar stress on intellectual maturity, possibly with a side glance at the technical meaning of 'fully initiated' into the Greek 'mysteries.' In protest against the Colossian gnosis, arrogated by a few, St. Paul, by unrestricted teaching of the whole gospel to every man, would present every man 'perfect in Christ' (Col !•" 4^"). So, too, the attainment of the ideal corporate unity of all Christians is expressed in the'phrase' unto a perfect (i.e. full-grown) man ' (Eph 4") . It is characteristic of St. Paul's thought that this unity exists (Eph 4»-5), yet is to be attained; similarly, without sense of contradiction, he can write of himself as 'perfect' (Ph 3'^, and in the same context as not 'perfected' (S'^).

The great Christian verities themselves, and also their implication for the lives of all who believe, are conceived by him as equally real, yet his assertion of them is joined with an appeal for their realization {e.g. Ro e'^-^' 6'-"). The facts are there, whatever contradictions may seem to be given to them by the imperfect lives which, if indeed real, they might be supposed to fashion into more complete accord. It follows that he is able without misgiving to set before his converts so lofty an ideal of moral perfection as that contained in the passages already cited, the gulf between ideal and visible attainment being bridged by his faith in the spiritual forces at work (Ro 7"- «, 1 Co 1»- », Eph 3«», Ph 1« 2" 4"; cf. 1 P 16). Any doctrine, therefore, of Christian 'perfection' must reckon at once with St. Paul's sense of its reality, and at

PERGAMUM

the same time of the present difference between real and actual.

The idea of perfection appears also in Ja 1', 'that ye may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing' (cf. 3^). In Hebrews special stress is laid upon the 'perfecting' of Christ by His humiliation and suffering, not in moral excellence but in fitness for His work of redeeming man (210 59 728); through his sacrifice the 'perfection' unattainable under the old covenant (7"-" 9') is secured for the believer (lO"; cf. IV 12^3 1321).

The idea of perfection in the sense of complete adjust-ment and equipment (from a different Gr. root) occurs in 1 Co 1", 2 Co 13", 2 Ti 3". S. W. Green.

PEEFUMEB. — The Oriental liking for odoriferous substances has always rendered the function of the perfumer an important one. The materials used in Bible times were gums, resins, roots, barks, leaves; and these were variously combined according to the skill and fancy of the perfumer. In Neh 3* we read of a guild of perfumers. 'Perfumers' ought in every in-stance to be substituted for AV apothecaries as well as for confectionaries of 1 S 8". Cf. art. Apothecary.

FERGA. — An inland city of Pamphylia about 12 miles from Attalia on the coast, but possessing a river harbour of its own on the Cestrus 5 miles away. Its walls date from the 3rd century b.c. It was the chief native city of Pamphylia, and never seems to have come much under Greek influence, but it had a coinage of its own from the 2nd cent. b.c. to a.d. 276. 'Artemis of Perga ' was the chief object of worship, and she resembled ' Diana of the Ephesians " in her rites and images, being sometimes represented like the Greek Artemis as goddess of the chase, but more often by a pillar of stone, the top of which was rounded or roughly carved to represent a head. Her worship was more Asiatic than Greek. Her temple probably possessed the right of sanctuary.

St. Paul passed through Perga twice on his first missionary journey. See Pamphylia. But Chris-tianity did not take root there easily. Perga is not mentioned in early martyrologies. When the Empire became Christian, it was the seat of a metropolitan bishop, but after the blow suffered by the Byzantine Empire at the battle of Manzikert, a.d. 1071, Perga seems to have fallen into the hands of the Turks. In A.D. 1084 we find Attalia made a metropolitan bishopric, and it is the only bishopric in Pamphylia now. The modem name of the site of Perga is Murtana.

A. E. HiLLAHD.

FEBGAHTHVI, or FERGAHTTS, was an ancient city of Mysia, the seat of an independent kingdom from about B.C. 280 to B.C. 133, and the capital of the Roman prov-ince of Asia from b.c. 133 until the 2nd cent. a.d. It lay in the Caicus valley about 15 miles from the sea, and its acropolis rose between two tributary streams 3 miles N. of the Caicus. As the capital of a kingdom, Pergamus had acquired a somewhat factitious impor-tance. It stood on no great trade route, and under the Romans it slowly lost all but the official pre-eminence in the province. Its kings had been champions of Greek civilization and arts, and it still remained a centre of conservative culture. But Ephesus was now the centre of trade, and it was at Ephesus that West and East met together, creating a medley of all philosophies and all religions. At Pergamus there were splendid temples of Zeus and Athene, where these gods were worshipped in the ordinary Greek way, but others also of Dionysos and Asklepios.

The only allusion to Pergamus in the NT is In the Apocalypse, where (1" 2") it is included among the seven churches of Asia. The message to it speaks of Pergamus as the place 'where Satan's seat is.' While it is possible that this refers to it as the chief seat of heathen worship in general, it is more probable that it refers to the worship of Rome and Augustus, partici-pation in which had become a test of loyalty, and

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