instea.d of from the Ethiopians, as appears to contrary, the Biblicn.l narrative expressly be the judgmcnt of Kalisch. Against tho mentions that its observanoe by the pe.tri- idea thn t circumcision was a national and arch and his household was due to a Divine nni,e=I observance among the Egyptians command, and was connected with a religious in tho time of Abraham, it has been urged significance which was altogether foreign to that the male servants of the patriarch, some the Egyptians and others by whom that rite of whom were Egyptians (ch. xii. 16), were was practised. . Among the reasons for its not circnmcisecl till Abraham was commanded ndoption by the heathen nations of antiquity to perform the rite; that Ishmael, the son of have been assigned, among the Ethiopians, a 11.Il Egyptian mother, remained uncircumcised prophylactic design to ward off cettain pain- till the same time ; and that the daughter of ful, and often inclll'ltble, disorders i among Pharaoh recognised Moses as a Hebrew child, the Egyptians, a regard· to clee.nliness ; and -rrhich, it is supposed, she could not have perhaps among the priesthood of the latter l1one had circumcision been generally prac. country a semi•religious idea (the deification tised among her O"rrn people. On the other of the generative powers) was associated with hand, it is contended that the absence of a practice which was commonly regarded as details as to how the rite should be performed enhancing productivity; but the import of the seems to imply that already circumcision was ceremony aS enjoined upon the. father of the familiar to Abraham ; and by somo modern faithful was as widely as possible' removed from Egyptologists it is asserted that an examina• every one of the~o _ideas, being ~onnected wi.t~ t:ion of ancient mummies and scnlptures, in spiritual conceptions of. which the heathen rrhich circumcision is e. distinctive mark be- world was entirely ignorant. That a heathen tween the Egyptians and their enemies, cnstom should have b~en adopted ·by Jehovah shows that the ceremony must have been in nnd elevated to the :ra11k and connected with :ise not among the priests only, but through• the spintual significance of a. religious sign out the nation generally so early as the time will not occur as e. difficulty to ·thos11 who :,f the fonrth dynasty, i. e. 2400 B.c., or con- remember that the rainbow, a. well-known siderably earlier than the time of Abraham. natural phenomenon, was selected as the sign Still (2) though it should be held as indubit• for Noah's covenant, and that Christian bap- ably established that circumcision was a pre- tism is a similar transformation of a previ- ,alcnt cnstom among the Egyptians in the ously existing ceremony by which Gentile time of .Abraham, it would not follow that proselytes were admitted to the Hebrew the Hebre-rrs adopted it from them. On ihe Church.
HOMILETICS. Vers. 15-27.-The covenant completed. I. THE ADMISSION OF SARAI. 1. The changed name. As on entering withm the covenant the name of A_bram was changed to Abraham, so, to signalise the receptio~ of hi~ ap~use, Sarai was tranaf~rm~d into Sarah (vide Exposition), the trans_fonna~wn hav1!1g m her ca_ae the earn!/. s1gmficance as it had in Abraham's. In partwular 1t proclaimed that, like Abraham, Sarah was now a justified and regenerated believer in the Divine promise .. N. B. There is only one gate of entrance to Christ's Church, !i.z., faith or conversion. 2. Tlie' gu'f,rctn~eed blessing. What is here affirmed of Sarai LB that she should not only be received into the Church 1 but made a sharer of Abraham's blessing, i. e. become entitled to all the gracious pr ovisions of the covenant. The blessing of Abraham belongs to· all who are possessed of Abraham's faith. Christ's salvation is the common property of believers. And to all it is certain, as it w11s to Sarai. The "yea" concerning Sarai has now become for Christ's people " yea and amen." .3. Tlte promised son. This was the first intimation that Sarai was to be the mother of the seed. The Eternal never hastens. God's disclosures of his own plans are ever slow, gradual, progress- ive, and mostly regulated by _the faith .o~ the recipients. Wh~n ~he_ fu~ess of th,e time arrives he is able to be rmnute, e:xphc1t, emphatic, as he was m mt1matrng Isaac a birth: (1) by tl1e time-a year hence, and (2) by the name-Isaac. 4. The rejoic-ing /t,usband. The laugh of gladness which escaped the patriarch, though partly owing C'H. XVU. 115--27.] THE BOOK OF GENESIS.