COVENANT OF CIRCUMCISION. After Abram had sojourned in the land of promise twenty-four years the Lord made a covenant with him and changed his name to Abraham (Gen., 12:4, 5; 17:1-5). The Lord proposed to make of him a great nation and to perpetuate the covenant through his offspring (Gen., 17:6, 7). Birth and purchase were the conditions of membership in this covenant (Gen., 12:13). Circumcision was, (a) a visible mark in the flesh; (b) it affected only the males of Abraham's family; (c) the children were circumcised on the eighth day; (d) and the uncircumcised were to be cut off from the covenant (Gen., 17:6-14).

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