mem, ret 185 440 F24 1909

FABLE

FAIRS

5925646

FABLE (fā'b'l), (Gr. μûlos, moo'thos; Lat.fabula) parable.

Fable is a form of narrative in which plants and animals, or even lifeless objects, are represented as endowed with some of the attributes of man, as the gift of speech and rational action. Sometimes the fable is designed to teach moral and practical truths, and sometimes only to interest and entertain. Neander, Life of Christ, thus distinguishes between the parable and fable: "The parable is distinguished from the fable by this, that in the latter qualities or acts of a higher class of beings may be attributed to a lower, e. g., those of men to brutes; while in the former the lower sphere is kept perfectly distinct from that which it seems to illustrate. The beings and powers thus introduced always follow the law of their nature, but their acts, according to this law, are used to figure those of a higher race."

To illustrate: What the fable relates is not real and cannot occur, as trees speaking (Judg. ix: 8); while that which the parable relates may and does take place, as the sower sowing seed in soil of various degrees of productiveness (Matt. xiii: 3). The fable was often used in ancient heathen as in modern Christian literature. In the Bible there is only one fable (Judg. ix:7-15), where Jotham represents the trees as seeking a king and asking, one by one, the olive and others to reign over them, till the bramble finally consents. This is often erroneously called a parable.

Fables are referred to in the New Testament as inventions, falsehoods (2 Pet. 1:16); and in 1 Tim. 1:4, etc., as "cunningly devised " or foolish systems and opinions, etc.

FACE (fās), (Heb. ", paw-neem').

(1) Face, in Scripture, is often used to denote presence in the general sense, and, when applied to the Almighty, denotes such a complete manifestation of the divine presence, by sound or sight, as was equivalent, in the vividness of the impression, to the seeing of a fellow-creature 'face to face.' The 'face of God' therefore denotes in Scripture any thing or manner by which God is wont to manifest himself to man. Thus, when it is said that Adam and Eve hid themselves from 'the face of Jehovah,' we understand that they hid themselves from his presence, however manifested; for pawneem not only signifies presence, as well as (literally) face, but is the very word for presence, however manifested. There is no other word to denote presence in the Hebrew language. Whenever presence' occurs in our translation, the word in the original is the same which is rendered 'face' in other places.

(2) It was a very ancient and common opinion that our mortal frame could not survive the more sensible manifestations of the Divine presence, or 'see God face to face and live' (Gen. xxxii:30), hence, in this passage, the gratitude and astonishment of Jacob that he still lived after God had manifested himself to him more sensibly than by dreams and visions. This impression was confirmed to Moses, who was told, 'Thou canst not see my face: no man can see my face and live' (Exod. xxxiii:20); which clearly signifies that no one can in this present state of being endure the view of that glory which

belongs to Him (1 Cor. xiii:12; 1 Pet. iii:12; Rev. xxii:4).

(3) The physical manifestations of the Divine presence appear to have been made through the Angel of whom it is said "My name is in him" (Exod. xxiii:21; xiv:19). We are to bear in mind that God is usually represented to us in Scripture under a human form; and it is indeed difficult for even more spiritualized minds than those of the Hebrews to conceive of Him apart from the form and attributes of the highest nature actually known to us. The Scripture sanctions this concession to the weakness of our intellect, and hence arise the anthropomorphous phrases which speak of the face, the eyes, the arm of God. The appearances of the angels in the Old Testament times were generally in the human form (Judg. xiii:6, etc); and from this cause alone it would have been natural, in the imagination, to transfer the form of the messengers to Him by whom they were sent. (See ANTHROPOMORPHISM.)

(4) God's "face" is used to express his favor and love, and the gracious displays thereof; this is always meant when his face is said to "shine," or it is represented as a mercy to behold and enjoy it or a misery to be deprived of it (2 Chron. Xxx:9; Ps. xxxi:16; lxxx:7; Dan. ix:17).

It is used also to denote wrath, and the providential display thereof (Ps. xxxiv:16).

(5) Christ's "face" denotes: (1) His person and office as the image of the invisible God (2 Cor. iv:6). (2) His gracious, glorious, or terrible appearances (Rev. xx:11).

FACES, BREAD OF (fās'ěz, brěd ŏv), is the shewbread which was always in the presence of God. (See SHekinah.)

FAIN (fan), (Gr. ¿ñɩovμéw, ep-ee-thoo-meh'o, from Ovμéw, to breathe hard), to have earnest longings, hence to set the heart upon, desire (Luke xv:16).

It thus properly means glad or gladly, as John xii:21; Tyndale, "We wolde fayne se Jesus." But the commonest meaning has always been 'glad under the circumstances,' and that is its meaning in A. V.; Job xxvii:22 'he would fain flee out of his hand.' (Hastings' Bib. Dict.)

FAIR (får), (Heb., tawhore, Zech. iii:5), pure; clean in a physical, ceremonial or moral

sense.

It also is used for beautiful (Acts vii:20) and for plausible (Gal. vi:12).

FAIR HAVENS (fâr ha'v'nz), (Gr. Kalol Auéves, kal-oy' lee-men'es, good harbors), a harbor or roadstead of Crete, the unsafeness of which to winter in occasioned that attempt to make for Phenice, on the other side of the island, which led to the eventual loss of the vessel in which Paul sailed for Rome (Acts xxvii :8).

As the name of Kaloi Limenes is still preserved, there is no difficulty in fixing the situation to a small bay a little to the northeast of Cape Leon, the present Cape Matala. (Smith, Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul, 2d Ed., pp. 80 ff.; Conybeare and Howson, Life and Epistles of St. Paul, ii:320).

FAIRS (fârz), (Heb., iz-zeh-bow-neem', Ezek. xxvii:12, 33).

FAITH

This word is found only in Ezekiel, and does not mean fairs, but wares, as the R. V. renders it, and as the A. V. has it in verse 33.

FAITH (fath), (Gr. Tloris, pis' tis), belief, trustespecially in a higher power.

(1) General. Faith in every language, spoken by Christian, Jew, or Mohammedan, seems everywhere to convey the fundamental ideas of 'fixedness, stability, steadfastness, reliability.' What the ultimate conception is which underlies these ideas remains somewhat doubtful, but it would appear to be rather that of 'holding' than that of 'supporting' (although this last is the sense adopted in Orf. Heb. Lex.)

(2) Old Testament. The extreme rarity of the noun 'faith' in the Old Testament may prepare us to note that even the verb 'to believe' is far from common in it. In a religious application it occurs in only some thirteen Old Testament books, and less than a score and a half times. But the prin

was a religion of faith in a far more specific sense than this, and that not merely because faith was more consciously its foundation, but because its very essence consisted in faith, and this faith was the same radical self-commitment to God, not merely as the highest good of the holy soul, but as the gracious Savior of the sinner, which meets us as the characteristic feature of the religion of the New Testament. Between the faith of the two Testaments there exists, indeed, no further difference than that which the progress of the historical working out of redemption brought with it.

(3) New Testament. The word in the New Testament denotes: (1) The truth of the gospel of Christ and the kingdom of God (Acts vi:7; xxiv:24; Rom. i:5; Gal. i:23; Phil. i:27; 1 Tim. iii:9; Jude, ver. 3), "the faith which was once delivered to the saints," for the truth and faithfulness of God (Rom. iii:3), and for the persuasion

ciple is there designated by other terms, such as to "look" to God (Is. xlv:22), to "wait on" him (Ps. xxvii :14), and to "trust" in him (Nah. i:7).

Abraham is "the father of the faithful," because unbounded trust in God was the very essence of his piety. (Comp. Rom. iv:1). Paul derives the theme of his Epistle to the Romans from the passage of Habakkuk: "The just shall live by faith" (Rom. i:17; comp. Hab. ii:4). The Epistle to the Hebrews gives a bright catalogue of the heroes of faith under the old dispensation (xi: I ff).

To believe in God, in the Old Testament sense, is thus not merely to assent to his word, but with firm and unwavering confidence to rest in security and trustfulness upon Him.

Despite the infrequency of the occurrence on its pages of the terms 'faith,' 'to believe,' the religion of the Old Testament is thus obviously as fundamentally a religion of faith as is that of the New Testament. There is a sense, to be sure, in which all religion presupposes faith (Heb. xi:6), and in this broad sense the religion of Israel, too, necessarily rested on faith. But the religion of Israel

of the mind as to the lawfulness of things indifferent (Rom. xiv :22, 23.)

(2) The act by which we lay hold of and appropriate the truths of the gospel and Jesus Christ, and rely for salvation upon the work done by him in our stead. This is the prevailing sense of the word (Matt. viii:10; John iii:16; Rom. i:16, etc.; and all through John and the Pauline Epistles).

(4) Saving Faith. (1) In the breadth of its idea, faith is thus the going out of the heart from itself and its resting on God in confident trust for all good. But the scriptural revelation has to do with, and is directed to the needs of, not nan in the abstract, but sinful man; and for sinful man this hearty reliance on God necessarily becomes humble trust in him for the fundamental need of the sinner-forgiveness of sins and reception into favor. In response to the revelations of his grace and the provisions of his mercy it commits itself without reserve and with ab negation of all self-dependence to him as its sole and sufficient Savior, and thus, in one act, empties itself of all claim on God and casts itself upon his grace alone for salvation.

FAITHFULNESS

(2) This appears to be the plain scriptural representation of this doctrine; and we may infer from it (a) that the faith by which we are justified is not a mere assent to the doctrines of the gospel, which leaves the heart unmoved and unaffected by a sense of the evil and danger of sin and the desire of salvation, although it supposes this assent; nor (b) is it that more lively and cordial assent to, and belief in, the doctrine of the gospel, touching our sinful and lost condition, which is wrought in the heart by the Spirit of God, and from which springeth repentance, although this must precede it; nor (c) is it only the assent of the mind to the method by which God justifies the ungodly by faith in the sacrifice of his Son, although this is an element of it; but it is (d) a hearty concurrence of the will and affections with this plan of salvation, which implies a renunciation of every other refuge, and an actual trust in the Savior, and personal appropriation of his merit; such a belief of the gospel by the power of the Spirit of God as leads us to come to Christ, to receive Christ, to trust in Christ, and to commit the keeping of our souls into his hands, in humble confidence of his ability and his willingness to save us.

Faith therefore apprehends Christ, and takes actual hold of him and all his benefits. Hence he who believes in Christ has already eternal life (John iii:36).

(3) By faith we "put on" Christ. It is by faith that we are justified, and not by works. The work of salvation was all accomplished when the Savior uttered the words. "It is finished."

The saving power of faith resides thus not in itself, but in the Almighty Savior on whom it rests. It is never on account of its formal nature as a psychic act that faith is conceived in Scripture to be saving-as if this frame of mind or attitude of heart were itself a virtue with claims on God for reward, or at least especially pleasing to him (either in its nature or as an act of obedience), and thus predisposing him to favor, or as if it brought the soul into an attitude of receptivity or of sympathy with God, or opened a channel of communication from him. It is not faith that saves, but faith in Jesus Christ; faith in any other savior, or in this or that philosophy or human conceit (Col. ii:16, 18; 1 Tim. iv:1), or in any other gospel than that of Jesus Christ and him as crucified (Gal. i:8, 9), brings not salvation, but a curse. It is not, strictly speaking, even faith in Christ that saves, but Christ that saves through faith. The saving power resides exclusively, not in the act of faith or the attitude of faith, or the nature of faith, but in the object of faith; and in this the whole biblical representation centers, so that we could not more radically misconceive it than by transferring to faith even the smallest fraction of that saving energy which is attributed in the Scriptures solely to Christ himself.

(4) But a living faith will be accompanied by works, as much as a rose must diffuse perfume, and a good tree bring forth good fruit. As our Lord said, "Thy faith hath made thee whole," so Paul says, "By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God" (Eph. ii:8).

But "faith without works is dead" (James ii: 26). Faith is operative in love (Gal. v:6).

B. B. Warfield, Hastings' Bib. Dict.; Schaff, Bib. Dict. See works on systematic theology. FAITHFULNESS (fath'ful-nes), (Heb. em-oo-naw', faithfulness, stability).

(1) Faithfulness is a divine attribute, and denotes the certainty of the accomplishment of all that the Divine Being has declared, in the promises which he has made to his people. (1) In respect to temporal blessings (1 Tim. iv:8; Ps. lxxxiv:11; Is. xxxiii:16). (2) To spiritual blessings (1 Cor. i:9): In supporting them in temptation (1 Cor. x:13); encouraging them under persecution (1 Pet. iv:12, 13; Is. xli:10); sanctifying afflictions (Heb. xii:4-12); directing them in difficulties (1 Thess. v:24); enabling them to persevere (Jer. xxxi:40); bringing them to glory (I John ii:25). (Buck, Theolog. Dict.)

(2) Faithfulness is also used regarding men: "He was a faithful man" (Hebrew, trustworthy, reliable (Neh. vii:2); “who then is that faithful (trusty) and wise steward?" (Luke xii:42, etc.) "The Faithful" was the general and favorite name in the early Church to denote baptized persons and specifically applied to them, as distinguished from the clergy, catechumens, penitents, and sinners.

FAITHLESS (fath'les), (Gr. &ñiσтos, ap'is-tos, Matt. xvii:17; John xx:27), disbelieving, or without Christian faith, with special reference to the heathen.

FAITH, RULE OF (fāth, rul Ŏv). In the early Church the summary of doctrines taught to catechumens, and to which they were obliged to subscribe before baptism. It was afterward applied to the Apostles' Creed.

(1) Protestant Doctrine. One of the chief doctrinal elements of the Reformation was the sufficiency of the Scriptures for faith and salvation.

(2) Roman Catholic. The teaching of the Roman Catholic Church is contained in the Catechism of the Council of Trent, which, in the Preface, declares that "all the doctrines of Christianity in which the faithful are to be instructed are derived from the word of God, which includes Scriptures and tradition."

FAITH, THE CHRISTIAN. To those who receive the light, in the sense of not refusing it, revelation is one whole, and all its glorious system of truth is received and surely believed. To them it is both objectively and subjectively the faith; and, inasmuch as Christianity has brought it in all fullness into the world, it is to them the Christian faith. This phrase has therefore a larger meaning. It signifies that it is not their philosophy simply, the glory of their reason, the tradition they have derived from their fathers, but the rich inheritance which the Holy Spirit has given to that one supreme faculty of their souls, the faith which is the evidence of things not seen. It is a body of truth which, as reason did not give it, so reason cannot take it away. It is a region in which they walk by faith, which their faith habitually visits, in which their faith lives, and moves, and has its being" (Pope, Compend. Christian Theol., p. 45). (Quoted in Barnes' Bib. Cyc.)

FALCON (fa'k'n).

A diurnal bird of prey other than a vulture. The family includes among its genera falcons strictly so called, hawks, kites, eagles. The word is used in R. V. to render the Hebrew 'Ayyah (Job xxviii:7; in A. V. vulture), an unclean bird (Lev. xi:14; Deut. xiv:13; in A. V. kite). Several varieties are mentioned by Tristram as occurring in Palestine; the hobby hawk (Falco subbuteo), the red-legged hobby (F. vespertinus), the Eleanora falcon (F. eleanoræ). (See VULTURE.)