Fairs, however, although not directly referred to hy the above Heb. term, were doubtless ancientl}' com- mon, as now, in the East. Dr. Thomson (^Land and Book, ii, 152 sq.) thus describes the scene at these Ori- ental mercantile gatherings : " On Monday of each week a great fair is held at the khans, when, for a few hours, the scene is very lively and picturesque. These gatherings afford an excellent opportunity to observe Syrian manners, customs, and costumes, and to be- come acquainted with the character and quality of her productions. Thousands of people assemble from all parts of the country either to sell, trade, or purchase. Cotton is brought in bales from Nablus ; barley-, and wheat, and sesamum, and Indian corn from the Hu- leh, the Ilauran, and Esdraelon. From Gilead and Bashan, and the surrounding districts, come horses and donkeys, cattle and flocks, with cheese, milk, oil, honey, and similar articles. Then there are mis- cellaneous ai'ticles, such as chickens and eggs, figs, raisins, apples, melons, grapes, and all sorts of fruits and vegetables in their season. The peddlers open their packages of tempting fabrics; the jeweller is there with his trinkets ; the tailor with his readj-made garments; the shoemaker with his stock, from rough, hairy sandals to yellow and red morocco boots ; the farrier is there with his tools, nails, and flat iron shoes, and drives a prosperous business for a few hours ; and so does the saddler, with his coarse sacks and his gay- ly-tvimmed cloths. And tlius it is with all the arts and occupations known to this peo])le. The noise is incessant, and at a distance sounds like that ' of many waters.' Every man is crying his wares at the top of his voice, chickens cackle and squall, donkeys braj' and fight, and the dogs bark. Every living thing adds somewhat to the manj'-toned and prodigious up- roar. It is now a miscellaneous comedy in full oper- ation, where everj' actor docs his best, and is supreme- ly gratified with his own performance. The people find many reasons for sustaining these antiquated and verj' curious gatherings. Every man, woman, and child has inherited the ifch for trading, and, of course, all classes meet at this grand bourse to talk over tlio state of the markets, from the price of a cucumber to that of cotton, or of a five-thousand dollar horse from the Hauran. Again, every Arab is a politician, and groups gather around the outskirts of the crowd to discuss the doings of the 'allied powers,' the last fir- man from the sultan, or the new tax demanded by their own pett}' emir. Descending to more ordinary matters, these fairs are great places for gossip and scandal. Friends meet friends, and exchange the
news of weddings, births, and deaths, and all tlie mr.5. tifarious incidents and accidents between those grand extremes of human life. In a word, these fairs sup- plj' the places of many of the appliances of more civil- ized society. They are the daily newspaper, for there is one for every day within a circuit of forty miles. the}' are the exchange and the foncarding office, and the political caucus, and the fiimily gathering, and the grand festa and gala days, and underlying the whole is the ever-present idea and aim of making money." See Bazaar.
Faith (Gr. Tr/crnc, hat. Jidrs, Jiducid) is essentially trust. The various uses of the word (both objective and subjective.) maj' be summed up as follows : 1. An objective bodj^ of truth: "tlie faitli ;" designated by the schoolmen as fides <nue creditttr, the faith which is believed. So the Augsburg Confession speaks of " our holy faith and Christian religion." (This sense does not occur in N. T.) 2. A rule of thought, the Jides pe- nes qiiani credilur : so the Eoman Catholics say such a thing is " of faith" (not found in N. T.). 3. A personal quality, act, or habit of the individual man ; the-Jideg qua credilur; the faith by which we believe. This latter is either (I) the exercise of our natural gifts (natural faith'), or (II) the exercise of natural gifts un- der the influence of the divine Spirit with regard to divine things, and especially with regard to the per- son and work of Christ (the gift of God). This latter is Chi'istian faith, and it includes two elements : (1) the spiritual apprehension of the invisible and eternal (Heb. xi, 1), and, specificalh', (2) trust in Christ as a personal Saviour ; and, as such, in the Christian sys- tem, it is the necessary condition of salvation. It is the instrument or means b}' which the redemption of Christ is appropriated, and, so far as it is man's act, it is the act of the whole man, mind, afi'ections, and will. It is "a saving grace wherebj' we receive and rest upon Christ alone for salvation, as he is freelj' ofiered to us in the Gospel."
I. Natural Faith. — All our knowledge presupposes faith. In this view Goethe said that he was a " believer in the five senses ;" and Fichte, that "man apprehends all reality external to himself through faith alone, a faith that is born with him." In the article Belief (q. V.) it was shown that there is a foundation laid for the exercise of this principle in the primary laws of thought or self-consciousness — in the reason, not of the indi- vidual man, but of humanity. Psychologically, "faith is the faculty of grasping evidence, with a propensit}' to admit it when duly presented to the mind. Just as by sensation and perception we discern certain ob- jects through the medium of the senses, and as by reason we discover some truths, or discern them upon their simple presentation (Chalmers, Institutes of The- ology, bk. iii, cii. vi), without any other warranty than the voice within, so also by faith we discern other truths through the means of tcstimonj^ or by the voice of authority. Attempts to analyze this quality of the human mind have been often made and as often failed. But still the fact remains that, according to the orig- inal constitution of our nature, we are al)le and dis- posed to A'ield to evidence in proportion to its nature and its strength (Hooker, Eccles. Pol. bk. ii, chap, vii, § 5) ; to assent to testimony concerning facts not pi'es- ent and manifest ; and to submit to authority in the announcement or proposition of truths independently of any internal and direct perception of them by our- selves (Van Mildert, Boyle Lect. serm. xvi). In mat- ters of common life, from childhood to old age, we con- tinually act, and are compelled to act, upon this prin- ciple (Barrow, On the Creed, serm. iii ; Hare, Victory of Faith, serm. iv). The child believes its parent or its nurse, and reposes in this belief; and under cer- tain conditions, the man believes the records of past historj', the testimony of ej-c-witnesses, and the af- firmations of trustworthy persons capable of under- standing that which they affirm. And it is not too