"Circumcision" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... in Madagascar, at circumcision, the child is measured and sprinkled with water (214. 6), and Ellis, in his history of that island, gives the following details of the ceremony (History of Madagascar, Vol. ...
— The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought • Alexander F. Chamberlain
... mummification. Beginning with a scrutiny of megalithic building and sun-worship,(1) he has subsequently deduced, from evidence of common distribution, the existence of a culture-complex, including in addition to these two elements the varied practices of tattooing, circumcision, ear-piercing, that quaint custom known as couvade, head-deformation, and the prevalence of serpent-cults, myths of petrifaction and the Deluge, and finally of mummification. The last ingredient was added after an examination of Papuan mummies had disclosed their apparent ...
— Legends Of Babylon And Egypt - In Relation To Hebrew Tradition • Leonard W. King
... the Turks was less pernicious than the friendship of the Catalans. [479] The lives and fortunes which they had rescued they considered as their own: the willing or reluctant maid was saved from the race of circumcision for the embraces of a Christian soldier: the exaction of fines and supplies was enforced by licentious rapine and arbitrary executions; and, on the resistance of Magnesia, the great duke besieged a city of the Roman empire. [48] These disorders he excused by the wrongs ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 6 • Edward Gibbon
... would embrace words and images excluded from polite conversation. What would be base, or even obscene, to the obscene, becomes illustrious, spoken in a new connexion of thought. The piety of the Hebrew prophets purges their grossness. The circumcision is an example of the power of poetry to raise the low and offensive. Small and mean things serve as well as great symbols. The meaner the type by which a law is expressed, the more pungent it is, and ...
— Essays, Second Series • Ralph Waldo Emerson
... nature did not fail to come. In December, 1852, and in January, 1853, two Russian boys from among the lower classes disappeared in the city of Saratov, in central Russia. Their bodies were found two or three months later in the Volga, covered with wounds and bearing the traces of circumcision. The latter circumstance led the coroners to believe that the crime had been perpetrated by Jews. Saratov, a city situated outside the Pale of Settlement, harbored at that time a small Jewish settlement consisting ...
— History of the Jews in Russia and Poland. Volume II • S.M. Dubnow
... some beautiful "stories" representing the "Marriage of the Virgin," the "Salutation," the "Adoration of the Magi," the "Circumcision of Christ" and the "Death of ...
— Fra Angelico • J. B. Supino
... Via del Sellag, is rich in pictures: Ruben's "Circumcision," and his "St. Ignatius," healing a man possessed of an evil spirit, and also Guido's "Assumption." It is splendid in colouring and wonderful in the elaboration of detail. These to some may appear too extravagant. The Santa Maria di Carignano, ...
— Fair Italy, the Riviera and Monte Carlo • W. Cope Devereux
... or he that is an adulterer, or he that is a preceptor of Sudras, or he that has betaken himself to the profession of arms, or he that wanders with dogs (for hunting), or he that has been bit by a dog, or he that has wedded before his elder brothers, or he that seems to have undergone circumcision,[405] he that violates the bed of his preceptor, he that is an actor or mime, he that lives by setting up a deity and he that lives by calculating the conjunctions of stars and planets and asterisms[406], are regarded as fit to be excluded from the line. Persons conversant ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 4 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli
... administration. The people were—and indeed still are—passionately attached to their old customs, which even a king rarely ventured to disturb (though Tshaka is said to have abolished among his subjects the rite of circumcision, which is generally practised by the Kafirs); and it was probably as much the unwillingness to have their customs disturbed as the apprehension for their land that made many of the tribes oppose to the advance of the Europeans so obstinate a ...
— Impressions of South Africa • James Bryce
... the Sabbath. What does God say of Abraham? that he "obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes and my laws." (See what he calls them in Exo. xvi: 27, 30.) This, of course, includes the whole. Then Abraham reverenced God's Sabbath. Once more, there is no mention of the circumcision from the days of Joshua till the days of Jeremiah, a period of more than eight hundred years. Will it be believed that Samuel and David, and all those pious worthies with the whole Jewish nation, neglected that essential seal of the ...
— The Seventh Day Sabbath, a Perpetual Sign - 1847 edition • Joseph Bates
... convent of El Carmen, to see the paintings of the Life of the Virgin, supposed to be original works of Murillo, particularly the Ascension and Circumcision; but which are ill-arranged, and have suffered greatly from neglect, many of them being torn. Indeed, in some of them are large holes made by the boys, who insisted that the Jewish priest was the devil. There is a Descent from the Cross, which is reckoned a fine painting; and it is a ...
— Life in Mexico • Frances Calderon De La Barca
... father of circumcision to them who are not of circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had, being yet uncircumcized.—Romans ...
— The World's Great Sermons, Vol. 2 (of 10) • Grenville Kleiser
... than he had before; but would any real Christian, knowing all the circumstances, suppose that Peter had apostatised from the true faith, because he believed that millions would be benefited by Christ more than were comprehended in his former belief? While they who were of the circumcision remained ignorant of the revelation given to Peter, we find they "contended with him, saying, thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them." But when Peter had "rehearsed the matter ...
— A Series of Letters In Defence of Divine Revelation • Hosea Ballou
... In this persuasion certain of the Aztec priests practised complete abscission or entire discerption of the virile parts, and a mutilation of females was not unknown similar to that immemorially a custom in Egypt.[147-2] Such enforced celibacy was, however, neither common nor popular. Circumcision, if it can be proven to have existed among the red race—and though there are plenty of assertions to that effect, they are not satisfactory to an anatomist—was probably a symbolic renunciation of the lusts of the flesh. The same cannot be ...
— The Myths of the New World - A Treatise on the Symbolism and Mythology of the Red Race of America • Daniel G. Brinton
... session a Prelate named Fidus writes to the Fathers, asking them whether infants ought to be baptized before the eighth day succeeding their birth, or on the eighth day, in accordance with the practice of circumcision. The Bishops unanimously subscribe to the following reply: "As to what regards the baptism of infants, ... we all judged that the mercy and grace of God should be denied to no human being from the moment of his birth. If even to the greatest delinquents ...
— The Faith of Our Fathers • James Cardinal Gibbons
... of full age. The Holy Scriptures contain indeed no example of infant-baptism; but then just as little can be proven from them, that it was not practised. Mention of it occurs in the very oldest church-fathers. It took the place of circumcision, which had been commanded in the Old Testament, and strengthened the obligations of Christian parents, whilst it became to the children themselves a pledge and perpetual token of fidelity to Him who lovingly bade little children even to be ...
— The Life and Times of Ulric Zwingli • Johann Hottinger
... being wholly answered, Captain Cook was appointed to the Resolution, and Captain Furneaux to the Adventure, both ships being fully equipped, with instructions to find Cape Circumcision, said to be in latitude 54 deg. S. and about 11 deg. 20' E. longitude from Greenwich. Captain Cook was to endeavour to discover whether this was part of the supposed continent or only the promontory ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Volume 19 - Travel and Adventure • Various
... dream, around this righteous suffering servant of the Eternal, the nations gathered, to be taught of God. The souls to whom He gave power to become the sons of God became the family of the Heavenly Father, in which there was "neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ was all and in all." In this holy brotherhood of the children of the All-Father, we moderns take our places round our elder brother; feeling sure that we have found the spiritual ...
— The Right and Wrong Uses of the Bible • R. Heber Newton
... were Apostles of the circumcision, it seems to me that they staid with their Churches in Judea and Syria till the Romans made war upon their nation, that is, till the twelfth year of Nero; that they then followed the main body of their flying Churches into Asia, and that Peter went thence by Corinth ...
— Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John • Isaac Newton
... clever at analogies, expert in coincidences, a saint infatuated with metaphors and hyperboles. She talks directly with God the Father, and stammers out in ecstasy explanations of the mysteries revealed to her by the Ancient of days. Her books contain one sovereign page on the Circumcision, another magnificent one, entirely made up of antitheses, on the Holy Spirit, others, very strange, on the deification of the human soul, on its union with heaven, and on the part assigned in this operation to the ...
— En Route • J.-K. (Joris-Karl) Huysmans
... [Essex-street in the Strand was built on the site of Exeter House.] where he made a very good sermon upon these words:— "That in the fulness of time God sent his Son, made of a woman," &c.; showing, that, by "made under the law," is meant the circumcision, which is solemnized this day. Dined at home in the garret, where my wife dressed the remains of a turkey, and in the doing of it she burned her hand. I staid at home the whole afternoon, looking over my accounts; then went with my wife to my father's, and in going observed the great ...
— The Diary of Samuel Pepys • Samuel Pepys
... this that divine sarcasm alludes 'swallowing a camel and straining at a gnat.'" Their purifications for their Priests, and for having touched a dead body or other unclean thing, according to Mr. Adair, are quite Levitical. He acknowledges however, that they have no traces of circumcision; but he supposes that they lost this rite in their wanderings, as it ceased among the Hebrews, during the forty ...
— Chronicles of Border Warfare • Alexander Scott Withers
... Stephen; St. John; Circumcision; Epiphany; Septuagesima; Lent; Easter and Paschal Times; ...
— The Divine Office • Rev. E. J. Quigley
... Circumcision was a rite in usage among the Egyptians since very remote times. The Mayas also practiced it, if we are to credit Fray Luis de Urreta; yet Cogolludo affirms that in his days the Indians denied observing such custom. The outward sign of utmost reverence seems to have been identical amongst ...
— Vestiges of the Mayas • Augustus Le Plongeon
... 3:1-2. "What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? / Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles ...
— Culture and Anarchy • Matthew Arnold
... should survive the flood, and granted him a sign in the ship, or ark, he built. And by faith in the promise and sign Noah was justified and saved, with his family. Afterward God gave him another promise, and for a sign the rainbow. Again, he gave Abraham a promise, with the sign of circumcision. Circumcision was Abraham's baptism, just as the ark and the flood were that of Noah. So also our baptism is to us circumcision, ark and flood, according to Peter's explanation. 1 Pet 3, 21. Everywhere ...
— Epistle Sermons, Vol. II - Epiphany, Easter and Pentecost • Martin Luther
... Law infants were admitted into covenant with God by circumcision when eight days old. Gen. xvii.10, 14, so, too, when the Jews admitted proselytes into their communion, they not only circumcised all the males, but baptized all, male and ...
— The Church Handy Dictionary • Anonymous
... was only in appearance. You must leave out all about His Baptism, Circumcision, and Crucifixion. They ...
— The Prayer Book Explained • Percival Jackson
... in her own female calling, Choked up with man, and gorged with circumcision. As for Sebastian, we must search the field; And, where we see a mountain of the slain, Send one to climb, and, looking down below, There he shall find him at his manly length, With his face up to heaven, in the red monument, Which his true ...
— The Works Of John Dryden, Vol. 7 (of 18) - The Duke of Guise; Albion and Albanius; Don Sebastian • John Dryden
... records from their times. The histories of the Old and New Testaments could not have been received at the time they were written, if they had not been true, because the priesthoods of Levi and of Christ,—the observance of the Sabbath, the passover, and circumcision,—the ordinances of baptism and the eucharist, are there represented as descending by uninterrupted succession from the time of their respective institution. It would have been as impossible to persuade men in after-ages that they had been circumcised or baptized, had celebrated passovers ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2) • John Roby
... these instances; for, according to learned commentators, it is not the thigh, but the phallus that is meant; such tact having, in the opinion of the Rabbins, been introduced for the purpose of doing honour to circumcision. ...
— Aphrodisiacs and Anti-aphrodisiacs: Three Essays on the Powers of Reproduction • John Davenport
... concurred with the views of the writer, the priests, jealous of admitting a foreigner into their secrets, baffled him as long as they could, referring him from one college to another, and prescribing to him the most rigorous preparatives, not excluding the rite of circumcision. [57] But Pythagoras endured and underwent every thing, till at length their unwillingness was conquered, and his perseverance ...
— Lives of the Necromancers • William Godwin
... Lortet, and Dawson. The grottoes of Palestine proper, at Bethzur, at Gilgal near Jericho, and at Tibneh, have been the subject of keen controversy ever since their discovery. The Abbe Richard desired to identify the flints of Gilgal and Tibneh with the stone knives used by Joshua for the circumcision of the Israelites after the passage of the Jordan (Josh. v- 2-9), some of which might have been ...
— History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 4 (of 12) • G. Maspero
... baptism, our plan shall be fully executed. We must either admit infant baptism, or deny that the Christian covenant includes children, and that the parent is bound to dedicate them to God. Hence the objection brought against infant baptism can, with equal propriety, be urged against circumcision; for the latter is the type of the former. In baptism Christ places Himself in true organic relations to the child, and thus opens up to it the sources from which alone the Christian life can proceed and ...
— The Christian Home • Samuel Philips
... God. A scrupulous keeper of the Law, Judaism would not hear of the compromises that heathendom, lately entered into the bosom of the faith, claimed as its due consideration. It refused to sacrifice a single feature of its simple dogmatism, of its essential ceremonies, such as circumcision and Sabbath rest. Moreover, in the period following close upon the fall of the Temple, a part of the people still nursed the hope of political restoration, a hope repudiating in its totality the proclamation ...
— Jewish History • S. M. Dubnow
... meeting them on the sabbath in the Fischerfeld, showed himself kindly and attentive. I was consequently extremely curious to become acquainted with their ceremonies. I did not desist until I had frequently visited their school, had assisted at a circumcision and a wedding, and formed a notion of the Feast of the Tabernacles. Everywhere I was well received, pleasantly entertained, and invited to come again; for it was through persons of influence that I had ...
— Autobiography • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
... Congenital phymosis. Gonorrhoeal paraphymosis and phymosis. Effect of circumcision. Protrusion of the glans through an ulcerated opening in the prepuce. Congenital hypospadias. Ulcerated perforations of the urethra. Congenital epispadias. Urethral fistula, stricture, and catheterism. Sacculated urethra. Stricture opposite the ...
— Surgical Anatomy • Joseph Maclise
... TEMPLUM DOMINI were some-time canons regulars, and they had an abbot to whom they were obedient; and in this temple was Charlemagne when that the angel brought him the prepuce of our Lord Jesus Christ of his circumcision; and after, King Charles let bring it to Paris into his chapel, and after that he let bring it to Peyteres, and after that ...
— The Travels of Sir John Mandeville • Author Unknown
... also it is possible to turn to a good and true Religion whilst remaining in the bonds of matrimony, for God asks of us no more than the religious heart. And therefore St. Paul says to the Romans: "For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, ...
— The Banquet (Il Convito) • Dante Alighieri
... myself, in these lines, on the standpoint of religious thought, and I wish to remind people of the truth that to be a Christian means to be not a heathen, not simply an Aryan by blood, but to become through baptism, which sacramentally includes also circumcision, a child of Abraham, and, therefore, in a sacramental sense a brother to Abraham's descendants, who, according to the word of the apostle, are not deprived of inheritance, and whom, according to Christ's word, we must bless even if they curse us. Personally, I do not believe that ...
— The Shield • Various
... will never, in all eternity, be abolished, but will remain, either to be fulfilled by the damned, or already fulfilled by the blessed. 48. These pupils of the devil however, seem to think that the Law is temporary only, which ceased under Christ even as circumcision did." (Drews, 336ff.; St. ...
— Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church • Friedrich Bente
... ornamentation of the head Combs Ear disks Neck and breast ornaments Arm and hand ornamentation Knee and ankle adornments Body mutilations General remarks Mutilation of the teeth Mutilation of the ear lobes Depilation Tattooing Circumcision ...
— The Manbos of Mindano - Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume XXIII, First Memoir • John M. Garvan
... Populace labelled with their tickets and furnished with their descriptions; but the three classes are already sharply separated in Mr Arnold's mind, and we can see that only in the Philistine who burns Dagon, and accepts circumcision and culture fully, is there to be any salvation. The anti-clerical and anti-theological animus is already strong; the attitude dantis jura Catonis is arranged; the jura themselves, if not actually graven and tabulated, ...
— Matthew Arnold • George Saintsbury
... mutilations is particularly clear cut and leaves little room for doubt. The noses and ears of oriental women have been pierced for generations without number, yet girls are still born with these parts entire. Circumcision offers another test case. The evidence of laboratory experiments (amputation of tails) shows no inheritance. It may be said without hesitation that mutilations are not heritable, no matter ...
— Applied Eugenics • Paul Popenoe and Roswell Hill Johnson
... Nuu was saved from a similar flood, and with him his three sons and their families. Ten generations later Kanehoalani was commanded by God to introduce circumcision. He went to a far-off country, had a son by a slave woman and one by his wife. He was then commanded, this descendant of Nuu in the tenth generation, to go up on a mountain and perform a sacrifice. He sought a mountain, but none appeared suitable; so he communed with God, who told ...
— Mystic Isles of the South Seas. • Frederick O'Brien
... dispersed among the nations round about them for fear of him. He also commanded that those boys who were not yet circumcised should be circumcised now; and he drove those away that were appointed to hinder such their circumcision. ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 2 • Various
... reminiscences, that his tribe already had some civilization. His father possessed many elephants, and even some horses which were rare in those countries; money was unknown, but trade by barter was carried on regularly and by auction. Stars were worshipped; circumcision was usual. Two white families lived in ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Volume 4, 1919 • Various
... hand, a school of critics which has arisen in the present generation maintains that Irenaeus was mistaken from beginning to end; that, instead of this continuity in the teaching and history of the Church, there had been a violent dislocation; that St John, as an Apostle of the Circumcision, must have had a deep-rooted aversion to the doctrine and work of St Paul; and that Polycarp, as a disciple of St John, must have shared that aversion, and cannot therefore have recognized the authority of ...
— Essays on "Supernatural Religion" • Joseph B. Lightfoot
... chronology regularly, by referring to the index, which supplies the deficiencies of this history from Josephus's Antiquities of the Jews. The first of Maccabees carries on the story till within 195 years of our Lord's circumcision: the second book is the same narrative, written by a different hand, and does not bring the history so forward as the first; so that it may be entirely omitted, unless you have the curiosity to read some particulars of the heroic constancy of ...
— The Young Gentleman and Lady's Monitor, and English Teacher's Assistant • John Hamilton Moore
... in a sedition;(160) as being true types of the Christians in their ancient factiousness;(161) considers Moses to be only on a level with the early Greek legislators;(162) regards Jewish rites like circumcision to be borrowed from Egypt; charges anthropomorphism on Jewish theology,(163) and declines allowing the allegorical interpretation in explanation of it;(164) examines Jewish prophecy, parallels it with heathen oracles,(165) ...
— History of Free Thought in Reference to The Christian Religion • Adam Storey Farrar
... to thee upon an affair, wherein thou shall find thine advantage and whereby thou shalt rise to high rank with the kings of the Jinn and rule them, even as thou rulest mankind; [and to that end I would have thee come with me and be present at the festival of my son's circumcision;[FN196]] for that the Jinn are agreed upon the manifestation of thine affair.' And she answered, 'In ...
— Tales from the Arabic Volumes 1-3 • John Payne
... by his Egyptian handmaid, the ancestor of the Ishmaelite tribes who spread from the frontier of Egypt to Mecca in Central Arabia. It was when Ishmael was thirteen years of age that the covenant was made between God and Abraham which was sealed with the institution of circumcision. Circumcision had been practised in Egypt from the earliest days of its history; henceforth it also distinguished all those who claimed Abraham as their forefather. With circumcision Abraham received the name by which he was henceforth to be known; he ceased ...
— Patriarchal Palestine • Archibald Henry Sayce
... that those who do such things and do not amend their lives shall not be excused by any pretense of sorrow and good purposes; they "shall not inherit the kingdom of God." "In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature"—a creature living by a faith, which worketh by love. It is not simply wishing you were a new creature; not simply wishing for a working faith; ...
— The Christian Foundation, Or, Scientific and Religious Journal, Volume I, No. 8, August, 1880 • Various
... only religion that he needs, send him to a tribunal that damns him. "Tell me," says St. Paul, "ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? The law is not of faith, but the man that doeth them shall live by them. Circumcision verily profiteth if thou keep the law; but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision." If man had been true to all the principles and precepts of natural religion, ...
— Sermons to the Natural Man • William G.T. Shedd
... building. Christ, God's Holy Wisdom, includes all of us, why should we exclude each other? He was sent for the salvation of China and Japan and India as well as for that of the Jews and Greeks. Well, let us quarrel no more about the "circumcision" while a milliard of human beings are still waiting to hear for the first time the name of Jesus Christ—yea, for the first time after two thousand years! Let the present time be the new Pentecost for us all. ...
— The Agony of the Church (1917) • Nikolaj Velimirovic
... heresy that troubled them was the doctrine of the necessity of keeping the law of Moses, the necessity of circumcision, against which doctrine they were therefore zealous, because it was a direct overthrow to the very end and ...
— The Literary Remains Of Samuel Taylor Coleridge • Edited By Henry Nelson Coleridge
... observance: since man abstains from other works on the Sabbath day in order that he may occupy himself with works connected with God's service. For this reason, according to John 7:23, "a man [*Vulg.: 'If a man,' etc.] receives circumcision on the Sabbath day, that the law of Moses may not be broken": and for this reason too we read (Matt. 12:5), that "on the Sabbath days the priests in the temple break the Sabbath," i.e. do corporal works on the Sabbath, "and are without blame." Accordingly, the priests in carrying ...
— Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) • Thomas Aquinas
... 'Adoration of the Magi' the mother wonders with a peasant's wonder at the jewels and gold. Again, the 'Massacre of the Innocents' is one wild, horror-driven rush of pure motherhood, reckless of all in its clutch at its babe. So in the splendour of his 'Circumcision' it is from the naked child that the light streams on the High Priest's brow, on the mighty robe of purple and gold held up by stately forms like a vast banner behind him. The peasant mother to whose poorest hut that first stir of child-life has brought a vision ...
— Stray Studies from England and Italy • John Richard Green
... come? What is that New Wine He would drink with us in His Father's Kingdom? First; real and complete saints of God are to take the place of the fragmentary saints of the Old Dispensation, saints with heads of gold and feet of clay. Souls are to be born again in Baptism, not merely sealed by circumcision, and to be purified before they can contract any actual guilt of their own. And, of these, many shall keep their baptismal innocence and shall go, wearing that white robe, before God Who gave it them. Others again shall lose it, but regain it ...
— Paradoxes of Catholicism • Robert Hugh Benson
... sensitive end. Sometimes the foreskin is bound down too tightly, so that instead of being a protection to the parts, it becomes a source of irritation. Then we say the clitoris is hooded and it is necessary to loosen or cut this fold of skin. The operation is similar to that of circumcision in ...
— Herself - Talks with Women Concerning Themselves • E. B. Lowry
... the bondsman, "sleeps in the cell on your right, as the Jew on that to your left; you serve to keep the child of circumcision separate from the abomination of his tribe. You might have occupied a more honourable place had you accepted of ...
— Ivanhoe - A Romance • Walter Scott
... we are admitted into the Church, and consequently made members of Christ, its Head. The Jews were admitted into the Church by circumcision, so are the ...
— The Story of My Life - Being Reminiscences of Sixty Years' Public Service in Canada • Egerton Ryerson
... to himself, "we reach the climax; pious imbecility can go no further. Among the subjects in sculpture in the ambulatory of the choir there is a group representing the Circumcision, Saint Joseph holding the Infant while the Virgin has a napkin ready and the High Priest is preparing to operate. And there has been a priest so modest, a divine so decorous as to regard this scene as licentious and to paste a piece of paper ...
— The Cathedral • Joris-Karl Huysmans
... on Pisgah purg'd was the sight Of a son of Circumcision, So may be, on this Pisgah height, Bob's purblind, mental vision: Nay, Bobby's mouth may be open'd yet Till for eloquence you hail him, And swear he has the angel met That met ...
— The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. • Robert Burns and Allan Cunningham
... origin and authority of the sabbath. The account of the flood culminates in a covenant embodying the command that man shall not eat of the blood of sacrificial animals; the priestly stories regarding Abraham aim to give the origin of the rite of circumcision. Israel's early experiences in the wilderness furnish the setting for the giving of the law at Sinai. In this way the late editors of these opening books of the Old Testament connect all of Israel's legislation with Moses and aim to establish ...
— The Makers and Teachers of Judaism • Charles Foster Kent
... Head. Port Darwin. Continue Exploration. Mosquitoes and Sandflies. Nature of the Country. Its parched appearance. Large ant's nest. Return to Shoal Bay. Visit from the Natives. Remarks. Their teeth perfect. Rite of Circumcision. Observations on the Migrations of the Natives. Theory of an Inland Sea. Central Desert. Salt water drunk by Natives. Modes of procuring water. Survey the harbour. Natives on a raft. Anecdote. Bynoe Harbour. Well. Brilliant Meteors. Natives on ...
— Discoveries in Australia, Volume 2 • John Lort Stokes
... says, '"frequently, nay almost always, is taken for the five senses."' In another passage, Keble deals with an even more recondite question. He quotes the teaching of St. Barnabas that 'Abraham, who first gave men circumcision, did thereby perform a spiritual and typical action, looking forward to the Son'. St. Barnabas's argument is as follows: Abraham circumcised of his house men to the number Of 318. Why 318? Observe first the 18, then the300. ...
— Eminent Victorians • Lytton Strachey
... God, in his angels, in his scriptures, in his prophets, in the resurrection and final judgment, and lastly, in God's absolute decrees. The points relating to practice, are prayer with washings, &c., alms, fasting, pilgrimages, and circumcision. ...
— Narrative of a Voyage to India; of a Shipwreck on board the Lady Castlereagh; and a Description of New South Wales • W. B. Cramp
... of the preceding, produced a great many works; the subjects religious, all nobly treated; had Giorgione and Titian for pupils; among his best works, the "Circumcision," "Feast of the Gods," "Blood of the Redeemer"; did much to promote ...
— The Nuttall Encyclopaedia - Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge • Edited by Rev. James Wood
... climate and a particular state of the Jewish nation, rather a dress or clothing of the religion than forming a constituent part of it, a system of discipline of life and manners rather than an essential part of doctrine. The rites of circumcision and ablution were necessary to the health and perhaps even to the existence of a people living on the hottest part of the shores of the Mediterranean. And in the sacrifices made of the first fruits and of the chosen of the flock, we may see a design ...
— Consolations in Travel - or, the Last Days of a Philosopher • Humphrey Davy
... "There's yet less doubt that those who are of Age to answer for themselves would soon learn the Principles of our Faith, and might be taught the Obligation of the Vow they made in Baptism, and there's little Doubt but Abraham instructed his Heathen Servants who were of Age to learn, the Nature of Circumcision before he circumcised them; nor can we conclude much less from God's own noble Testimony of him, 'I know him that he will command his Children and his Household, and they shall keep the Way of the Lord.'"[3] ...
— The Education Of The Negro Prior To 1861 • Carter Godwin Woodson
... bawle you!" cries Harry Martin, "you have brought us to this condition, (58) You must be canting and be plagued, with your Barebones petition, (59) And take in that bull-headed, splay-footed member of the circumcision, That bacon-faced Jew, Corbet, (60) that son of perdition!" ...
— Cavalier Songs and Ballads of England from 1642 to 1684 • Charles Mackay
... completion was the signal for the exhibition of God's grace to both alike. The work of Christ was not for the children of Abraham, but for the children of Adam. "As in Adam all died, so in Christ shall all be made alive." The Gentiles did not need to undergo circumcision and to keep the law in order to obtain salvation; for the law was no part of salvation; it belonged entirely to the preliminary demonstration of man's failure; and, when it had accomplished this service, it was ready to vanish away. The only human condition of obtaining God's righteousness is faith; ...
— The Life of St. Paul • James Stalker
... head-dresses. In a sketch for a "Baptism of Christ" tall angels hold the garments in the early traditional way; on one side two play the lute and the violin, while the two on the other side have a trumpet and an organ. He has sketches for the Ascension, Resurrection, Circumcision, and Entombment, repeated over and over again with variations, and one of S. Bernardino preaching in Venice (where he was in 1427). Jacopo delights even more in fanciful and mythological than in sacred subjects. A tournament with spectators, a Faun riding a lion, a "Triumph of Bacchus" with ...
— The Venetian School of Painting • Evelyn March Phillipps
... existence was disturbed and terminated by an untoward event. The renowned and holy Sheikh made a feast to celebrate the circumcision of his sons. That the merriment of the auspicious occasion and the entertainment of the guests might be increased, Sherif, according to the lax practice of the time, granted a dispensation from any sins committed during the festivities, and proclaimed ...
— The River War • Winston S. Churchill
... ideas of nature and Christianity. We see them in the transformation of the chrysalis, in the buried seed bursting into the bud and blossom of the spring, in the transformation of the winding sheet of winter to the many tinted robes of spring. We see it all through the Bible in the symbol of circumcision, with its significance of death and life, in the passage of the Red Sea and the Jordan leading out and leading in, and in the Cross of Calvary and the open grave of the Easter morning. We see it in every deep spiritual life. Every true life is death-born, and the deeper ...
— Days of Heaven Upon Earth • Rev. A. B. Simpson
... also indulge in obscene dances and feasts. Warner says (97) that at the ceremony of circumcision virtue is polluted while yet in its embryo. "A really pure girl is unknown among the raw Kaffirs," writes Hol. "All demoraln sense of purity and shame is lost." While superstition forbids the marrying of first cousins as incestuous, real "incest in ...
— Primitive Love and Love-Stories • Henry Theophilus Finck
... aid us in justification. Using Abraham as an example, he argues that Abraham was so justified without works that even the highest work, which had been commanded by God, over and above all others, namely circumcision, did not aid him in justification. Instead, Abraham was justified without circumcision and without any works, but by faith, as he says in Chapter 4: "If Abraham is justified by works, he may boast, but not before God." However, when all works are so completely rejected—which must ...
— An Open Letter on Translating • Gary Mann
... infant baptism as a divine ordinance, instituted in the room of circumcision, and think it absurd to suppose that infants, who, all agree, are admissible to the kingdom of God in heaven, should, nevertheless, be incapable of being admitted into his visible church ...
— The Book of Religions • John Hayward
... of human beings, as moral, intellectual, immortal, fallen creatures, and in violating their relations as parents and children, and husbands and wives. And God not only connived at this appalling iniquity, but, in the covenant of circumcision made with Abraham, expressly mentions it, and confirms the patriarch in it, speaking of those 'bought with his money,' and requiring him to circumcise them. Why, at the very first blush, every Christian will cry out against this statement. To this, however, ...
— Cotton is King and The Pro-Slavery Arguments • Various
... remarkably breaks the flow of the narrative, as proof that his great principle of justification by faith was really the one only law by which, in all ages, men had found acceptance with God. Long before law or circumcision, faith had been counted for righteousness. The whole Mosaic system was a parenthesis; and even in it, whoever had been accepted had been so because of his trust, not because of his works. The whole of the subsequent divine dealings with Israel rested on this act of faith, and on the relation to ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers • Alexander Maclaren
... other religious documents, persons qualified to slay animals for food in conformity with the Jewish law, readers of prayers in the Synagogue, readers of the Pentateuch to the congregation, operators of circumcision, students who devote themselves to the study of Hebrew theology, and teachers of religion. The body of people just mentioned, your Excellency will give me leave to say, I regard as the very soul of the congregation, for it is religion alone that makes a man true ...
— Diaries of Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore, Volume I • Sir Moses Montefiore
... observing the most civilized and enlightened societies studying to find out beauties in defects, and creating them where nature had intended perfection. The Chinese would no doubt be equally surprized at, and consider as egregiously absurd, the custom of circumcision, as practiced by a great portion of Asiatic nations; nor have we any reason to think they would not condemn the refinement of docks and crops among our horses as an absurd custom, not less ridiculous in their eyes, ...
— Travels in China, Containing Descriptions, Observations, and Comparisons, Made and Collected in the Course of a Short Residence at the Imperial Palace of Yuen-Min-Yuen, and on a Subsequent Journey thr • John Barrow
... ritual, he will not allow that the disputes are unimportant. The vital question of self-government is at stake. From this point of view, a 'mere ceremony' may mean a great deal. St. Paul, who said 'Circumcision is nothing,' also said, 'If ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing,'[47] This is quite consistent with his hearty disapproval of the introduction of purely ...
— Outspoken Essays • William Ralph Inge
... examined by a physician. The cause of the bed-wetting is frequently discovered to be produced by anatomical abnormalities which render circumcision imperative. In these cases no method of treatment will ...
— The Eugenic Marriage, Volume IV. (of IV.) - A Personal Guide to the New Science of Better Living and Better Babies • Grant Hague
... or be joined, to the church, which then consisted of the body of the Jews (Exo 12:43-49). The stranger then must first be circumcised, and consequently profess faith in the Messiah to come, which was signified by his going from his circumcision directly to the passover, and so orderly to other privileges, specially to this of the mercy-seat which the high priest was to go but once a ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan
... transmitting from the dead to the living the qualities of the former, is close kin to, and, in my opinion, is probably derived from, a worship of the generative principle. When we take into consideration the fact that circumcision, extensio clitoridis, and other phallic rites are exceedingly common and prevalent among these negroes, this opinion has ...
— Religion and Lust - or, The Psychical Correlation of Religious Emotion and Sexual Desire • James Weir
... Zipporah; her son had not been circumcised; so with woman's quick intuition and natural courage to save the life of her husband, she skillfully performed the necessary operation, and the travellers went on their way rejoicing. The word circumcision seems to have a very elastic meaning "uncircumcised lips" is used to describe that want of power to speak fluently, from which Moses suffered and which he so ...
— The Woman's Bible. • Elizabeth Cady Stanton
... of this year arrived the President Doctor Quexata; it was on a day 2 Hunahpu that that ruler arrived here, coming from Mexico. They were celebrating the feast of the circumcision. The governor Cerrado was here when he arrived. When the Doctor Quexata had almost arrived, the President Cerrado died. There was but little between them. Then the Doctor Quexata died. He did not condemn any one, because he had no ...
— The Annals of the Cakchiquels • Daniel G. Brinton
... Resident to the Regent, and then an order from the Regent to the Waidono; and when after a week's delay I arrived with my baggage and men at Modjo-agong, I found them all in the midst of a five days' feast, to celebrate the circumcision of the Waidono's younger brother and cousin, and had a small room in an on outhouse given me to stay in. The courtyard and the great open reception-shed were full of natives coming and going and making preparations for a feast which was to take place at midnight, to which ...
— The Malay Archipelago - Volume I. (of II.) • Alfred Russel Wallace
... misturn more," said the messenger. "The morrow after Holy Innocents a second fit of the palsy took him as he stood at the altar at mass, and they bare him home to die. And the eve of the Circumcision [December 31st, 1384], two days thereafter, the good man was commanded ...
— The White Rose of Langley - A Story of the Olden Time • Emily Sarah Holt
... Paul words it, "a new creation." Speaking of the Cross of Christ, he says, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature[7]." It is a new character, and it is one; it is ever one and the same. It is not one in Apostles, and another in the Christian of this day; not one in the high, another in the low; one in rich, another in poor; one in Englishman, ...
— Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VII (of 8) • John Henry Newman
... either. We also found about a dozen pieces of wood, some six feet long and three to seven inches wide, and carved and trimmed up. All around were stones put up in the forked trees. I believe it is the place where the rite of circumcision is performed. Barometer 28.84; thermometer ...
— Explorations in Australia • John Forrest
... case of primeval man, who was practically unprotected by clothing, but in the present condition of civilized races the prepuce is certainly an unnecessary appendage, and there are several good reasons why the prepuce should be removed. This operation [circumcision] is not, in any sense, to be looked upon as a mutilation, but simply a hygienic measure made advisable, if not necessary, by the unnatural conditions under which we are ...
— The Biology, Physiology and Sociology of Reproduction - Also Sexual Hygiene with Special Reference to the Male • Winfield S. Hall
... The circumcision and the naming of Christ have many times been painted to express the first of the sorrows of the Virgin, being the first of the pangs which her Son was to suffer on earth. But the Presentation in the Temple has been selected with better taste for the same purpose; ...
— Legends of the Madonna • Mrs. Jameson
... follows—there are doves, but there is neither dog nor knife. Still Simeon, who has the infant Saviour in his arms, is looking at him in a way which can only mean that, knife or no knife, the matter is not going to end here. At Varallo they have now got a dreadful knife for the Circumcision chapel. They had none last winter. What they have now got would do very well to kill a bullock with, but could not be used professionally with safety for any animal smaller than a rhinoceros. I imagine that some one was sent to Novara to buy a knife, ...
— Essays on Life, Art and Science • Samuel Butler
... introduced to our notice on the memorable occasion which has been already mentioned, when the parents of Jesus took him after his circumcision to Jerusalem, to "present him to the Lord." Then it was that Simeon broke forth in eloquent and prophetic congratulations, expressive at once of his own triumph over death, in consequence of having witnessed the accomplishment of those prophecies ...
— Female Scripture Biographies, Vol. II • Francis Augustus Cox
... we were in haste, and could not stay To score the men we killed; but there they lie: Best send our women out to take the tale; There's circumcision in abundance for them. [Turns ...
— The Works of John Dryden, Vol. 6 (of 18) - Limberham; Oedipus; Troilus and Cressida; The Spanish Friar • John Dryden
... summoned to court where their success is the contradiction and confusion of the story they attempt to tell. The book of Acts is a combination pamphlet put together by the followers of Peter and Paul as an attempt to compromise between the one who was the Apostle to the Circumcision and the other who was ...
— Why I Preach the Second Coming • Isaac Massey Haldeman
... What are the seven dolors of the Blessed Virgin? A. The seven dolors of the Blessed Virgin are the chief sorrowful events in the life of Our Blessed Lady. They are (1) The Circumcision of Our Lord—when she saw His blood shed for the first time; (2) her flight into Egypt—to save the life of the Infant Jesus, when Herod sought to kill Him; (3) the three days she lost her Son in Jerusalem; (4) when she saw Him carrying ...
— Baltimore Catechism No. 3 (of 4) • Anonymous
... our commander sailed from the Cape of Good Hope, and proceeded on his voyage, in search of a southern continent. Having gotten clear of the land, he directed his course for Cape Circumcision; and, judging that cold weather would soon approach, he ordered slops to be served to such of the people as were in want of them, and gave to each man the fear-nought jacket and trowsers allowed by the admiralty. On the 29th, the wind, ...
— Narrative of the Voyages Round The World, • A. Kippis
... metaphorical The institution of thy whole worship in the old law was a continual allegory; types and figures overspread all, and figures flowed into figures, and poured themselves out into farther figures; circumcision carried a figure of baptism, and baptism carries a figure of that purity which we shall have in perfection in the new Jerusalem. Neither didst thou speak and work in this language only in the time of thy prophets; but since thou spokest ...
— Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions - Together with Death's Duel • John Donne
... round you, and that not a step can be made in advance without the torch of proof. That course only can be beneficial which we select with clear judgment. To repeat the words of {163} the creed, to perform circumcision, or to be prostrate on the ground from the dread of kingly power, can avail nothing ...
— Rulers of India: Akbar • George Bruce Malleson
... priesthood has laid the people under no tax for a nuptial benediction, there are two operations which it has appropriated, and from which it derives considerable advantages. One is tattowing, and the other circumcision, though neither of them have any connection with religion. The tattowing has been described already. Circumcision has been adopted merely from motives of cleanliness; it cannot indeed properly be called circumcision, because ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 13 • Robert Kerr
... have still another elegy with some of the most haunting lines Jeremiah has given us, on war or pestilence, or both. And there follow eight lines, verses 23-24, on a very different, a spiritual, theme, and then 25-26 another prose passage, on the futility of physical circumcision if the heart be not circumcised. If these be Jeremiah's, and there is no sign in them to the contrary, they form further evidence of his originality as ...
— Jeremiah • George Adam Smith
... formalities of both creeds are impartially condemned. "They are good riders who keep aloof from the Veda and Koran."[655] Caste, circumcision and idolatry are reprobated. The Hindu deities and their incarnations are all dead: God was not in any of them.[656] Ram, it would seem, should be understood not as Ramacandra but as a name ...
— Hinduism And Buddhism, Volume II. (of 3) - An Historical Sketch • Charles Eliot
... dispute arising in the churches concerning circumcision, Paul and Barnabas were deputed to go up to Jerusalem, to consult the apostles and elders on the subject. This business being adjusted, they, accompanied with Judas and Silas, returned to Antioch with the general resolution, and continued ...
— An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens • William Carey
... mothers and nurses are wont to demand a concrete cause for the constant crying of a little child, and teething, constipation, the painful passage of water, pain in the head, or colic and indigestion are suggested in turn, and powders, purges, or circumcision demanded. There can be no doubt that nervous unrest is capable of producing prolonged dyspepsia in infancy and childhood—a dyspepsia which, while it obstinately resists all attempts to overcome it by manipulation ...
— The Nervous Child • Hector Charles Cameron
... believe in the sacred character of Fire, and regard it as the mysterious element of the Universe, which typifies the Divinity. They believe, and practice strictly, with the descendants of Abraham, the law of separation, but not the practice of circumcision. With the ancient Phoenicians, they attribute extraordinary powers, to the wisdom and subtlety of the Serpent, and this reptile holds a high place in their mythology. They regard the Tortoise, as the original increment, ...
— Incentives to the Study of the Ancient Period of American History • Henry R. Schoolcraft
... worship on the part of the believer. We read in Phil. iii. 3, R. V., "For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." Prayer is not worship; thanksgiving is not worship. Worship is a definite act of the creature in relation to God. Worship is bowing before God in adoring acknowledgment ...
— The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit • R. A. Torrey
... the footing upon which Abraham was with his servants, that he trusted them with arms. Are slaveholders willing to put swords and pistols into the hands of their slaves? He was as a father among his servants; what are planters and masters generally among theirs? When the institution of circumcision was established, Abraham was commanded thus; "He that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man-child in your generations; he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger which is not of thy seed." And to render this command with regard ...
— The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus • American Anti-Slavery Society
... were unmarried. I was greatly amazed at hearing the name of one of these youngsters. Such Christian names as Trinity, Heart of Jesus, Nativity, John of God, Conception, Ascension, Incarnation, are common enough, but these had scarcely prepared me to meet with a fellow-creature named—well, Circumcision! Besides the people, there were dogs, cats, turkeys, ducks, geese, and fowls without number. Not content with all these domestic birds and beasts, they also kept a horrid, shrieking paroquet, which the ...
— The Purple Land • W. H. Hudson
... fuit, despectissima pars servientium. Tacit. Hist. v. 8. Herodotus, who visited Asia whilst it obeyed the last of those empires, slightly mentions the Syrians of Palestine, who, according to their own confession, had received from Egypt the rite of circumcision. See ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 1 • Edward Gibbon
... combined with, rural events and circumstances, are also designed to commemorate luminous epochs in the national history; the great day of atonement, as a highly important act of reconciliation with God; the circumcision, as an ineffaceable mark of the adoption of Israel; the assiduous study of the Divine law, as the purest source of truth, and repository of the religious idea; the fringes in the garments, the phylacteries or frontlets, ...
— A Guide for the Religious Instruction of Jewish Youth • Isaac Samuele Reggio
... Circumcision and Purification chapel—for both these events seem contemplated in the one that follows—there are doves, but there is neither dog nor knife. Still Simeon, who has the infant Saviour in his arms, is looking at him in a way ...
— The Humour of Homer and Other Essays • Samuel Butler
... and is beaten on the back and soles of his feet with a flail. At every stream he plunges into it, and grovels before every visita. From all the houses as he passes comes the chant of the Passion. (Lieut. Charles Norton Barney, who was an eye-witness of the flagellation—"Circumcision and flagellation among the Filipinos," in the Journal of the Association of Military ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume XVII, 1609-1616 • Various
... the use of fleshmeat and milk at one meal: the hebdomadary symposium of incoordinately abstract, perfervidly concrete mercantile coexreligionist excompatriots: the circumcision of male infants: the supernatural character of Judaic scripture: the ineffability of the tetragrammaton: the sanctity of ...
— Ulysses • James Joyce
... of steadfastness abides in the will of God and the doctrines of Christ is demonstrated in the teachings of Barnabas to the church at Antioch. There was some contention in the church over circumcision, and heavy persecutions from without, and many were being moved from the true faith. Barnabas exhorted that with purpose of heart they cleave to the Lord. Steadfastness is a firm, fixed purpose of the heart to cleave unto God, to attend strictly ...
— How to Live a Holy Life • C. E. Orr
... repentance; the whole need no physician, but they that are sick; wherefore, little children are whole, for they are not capable of committing sin; wherefore the curse of Adam is taken from them in me, that it hath no power over them; and the law of circumcision is ...
— The Book Of Mormon - An Account Written By The Hand Of Mormon Upon Plates Taken - From The Plates Of Nephi • Anonymous
... trousseau; and the sale of the goods brought thirty-five rubles. After a year's time the police came again, looking for the balance of the Czar's dues. They put their seal on everything they found. The bride was in bed with her first baby, a boy. The circumcision was to be next day. The police did not leave a sheet to wrap the child in when he is handed ...
— The Promised Land • Mary Antin
... came to Jerusalem, where he lived some time; and that having a mind to marry the daughter of the high priest, he had himself been circumcised; but that not being able to obtain her, he quarrelled with the Jews and wrote against circumcision, and against the observation of the Sabbath, and against all the legal ordinances.—Author.] [Much abridged from the Exam. Crit. de la Vie de St. Paul, by N.A. ...
— The Writings Of Thomas Paine, Complete - With Index to Volumes I - IV • Thomas Paine
... considerable period, both before and after the Christian era, when great numbers of Greeks, Latins, and Egyptians adopted the Jewish faith; that much alien blood afterward poured into the race through conversions among the barbarians and through the circumcision of the slaves of Jewish masters, and that there is even reason to believe that, in some periods of history, marriages with Christians were not infrequent. It is probable, however, that most alien elements that ...
— Historical and Political Essays • William Edward Hartpole Lecky
... bare her, it was set for a mind of evil things to come on the face of the earth, and great destroying of the people of God. And in the old law there were many figures or minds of things to come. For before Christ, circumcision was commanded by a law; and he that kept not the law was slain. And yet St. Paul saith, "And neither is it circumcision that is openly in the flesh, but he that is circumcised of heart in spirit, not the letter whose praising is not of men, but of God." Peter ...
— The World's Great Sermons, Volume I - Basil to Calvin • Various
... Achan, and the silver of Iscariot, thou root of all evil!' And he rushed on, yelling, 'Down with the circumcision! Down with the blasphemers!'—while the poor girl vanished ...
— Hypatia - or, New Foes with an Old Face • Charles Kingsley
... intended in Revelation (3:14), where Christ is spoken of as the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, and that which Paul means when he says that in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is worth ...
— Orthodoxy: Its Truths And Errors • James Freeman Clarke
... preached by Kabir was of a lofty character. He rejected the divine inspiration of the Vedas and the whole Hindu mythology. He taught that there was no virtue in outward observances such as shaving the head, ceremonial purity and impurity, and circumcision among Muhammadans. He condemned the worship of idols and the use of sect-marks and religious amulets, but in all ordinary matters allowed his followers to conform to usage in order to avoid giving offence. He abolished distinctions ...
— The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India—Volume I (of IV) • R.V. Russell
... the Hebrews in their own dialect." [3] Origen and Eusebius make similar statements. St. Jerome, in A.D. 392, writes: "Matthew, also called Levi, who from being a publican became an apostle, first wrote a Gospel of Christ in Judaea, and in Hebrew letters and words for the benefit of those of the circumcision who believed. Who afterwards translated it into Greek is not quite certain." [4] We naturally inquire what became of ...
— The Books of the New Testament • Leighton Pullan
... in the latitude of 54 deg., could not, in the very height of summer, be wholly covered with snow, that I supposed Bouvet's discovery to be large islands of ice. But after I had seen this land, I no longer hesitated about the existence of Cape Circumcision; nor did I doubt that I should find more land than I should have time to explore. With these ideas I quitted this coast, and directed my course to the E.S.E. for the land we had seen the ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 15 (of 18) • Robert Kerr
... Gabriel, an answering of fools according to their folly. But 'twas not long before it recurred to him to add to his disgust and his disappointment with his new brethren and his new faith. For after he had submitted himself, with his brother, to circumcision, replaced his baptismal name by the Hebrew Uriel, and Vidal's by Joseph, Latinizing at the same time the family name to Acosta, he found himself confronted by a host of minute ordinances far more galling ...
— Dreamers of the Ghetto • I. Zangwill
... Circumcision ("when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child") falls naturally on January 1, the Octave of Christmas. It is not of Roman origin, and was not observed in Rome until it had long been established in the Byzantine and Gallican Churches.{29} In ...
— Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan • Clement A. Miles
... of the maner of their mariages, for offending of honest consciences and chaste ears, I may not commit to writing: their fasting I haue declared before. They vse circumcision vnto children of seuen yeeres of ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of The English Nation v. 4 • Richard Hakluyt
... But in the early days of religion the two things were inseparably bound together; the fury of the Hebrew prophets, for example, is continually proclaiming the extraordinary "wrath" of their God at this or that little dirtiness or irregularity or breach of the sexual tabus. The ceremony of circumcision is clearly indicative of the original nature of the Semitic deity who developed into the Trinitarian God. So far as Christianity dropped this rite, so far Christianity disavowed the old associations. But to this day the representative Christian ...
— God The Invisible King • Herbert George Wells
... being admitted to the privileges of manhood, supposed to be an institution peculiar to the Australians, is found among the Kowraregas, but whether it extends throughout Torres Strait is uncertain. This initiation is not at Cape York and Muralug accompanied by the performance either of circumcision or the knocking out of a tooth, as in many parts of Australia. The boys, usually three or four in number, are chased about in the bush during the day by some of the men decked out with feathers and other ornaments, and at night retire to the men's camp, for, during the whole time of their ...
— Voyage Of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Vol. 2 (of 2) • John MacGillivray
... the violent pressure exerted by the unbelieving Jews, who exhibited toward it an inflexible hatred. Moreover, the rapid advance of the new doctrines through Asia Minor and Greece offered a tempting field for enthusiasm. The first preachers in the Roman empire were Jews; for the first years circumcision and conformity to the law of Moses were insisted on; but the first council determined that point, at Jerusalem, probably about A.D. 49, in the negative. The organization of the Church, originally modelled upon that ...
— History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, Volume I (of 2) - Revised Edition • John William Draper
... saddle a tiny boy in a gold-embroidered orange caftan, in front of whom he held an open book, and behind them a train of white-draped men on showily harnessed mules, followed by musicians in bright dresses. It was only a Circumcision procession on its way to the mosque; but the dust-enveloped rider in his rich dress, clutching the bewildered child to his breast, looked like some Oriental prince trying to escape with his son from the fiery ...
— In Morocco • Edith Wharton
... struggle, and put to death the fanatical leaders who had deceived the people (1535-6). Other writers and preachers questioned the doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation, and advocated many heresies condemned by the early Church, some of them going so far as to insist on the revival of circumcision and the Jewish ...
— History of the Catholic Church from the Renaissance to the French • Rev. James MacCaffrey
... stone and plaster, or bricks and mortar. The Chinese and Indians are not satisfied with one wife, but both nations marry as many as they please, or can maintain. Rice is the common food of the Indians, who eat no wheat; but the Chinese use both indifferently. Circumcision is not practised either by the Chinese or Indians. The Chinese worship idols, before whom, they fall down and make prayers, and they have books which explain the articles of their religion. The Indians ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 1 • Robert Kerr
... the cross, pieces of the cross itself—these and a host of other relics were treasured at varions churches in Europe, and exhibited with unblushing effrontery. Even the prepuce of Jesus, amputated at his circumcision, ...
— Flowers of Freethought - (First Series) • George W. Foote
... granted that the disease has been inherited. It is possible, however, for them to acquire the disease—as, for example, while passing through the maternal passages during birth, through being nursed or kissed by infected women, or through the rite of circumcision. The risk of infection which formerly existed by the arm-to-arm method of vaccination has been abolished by the use ...
— Manual of Surgery - Volume First: General Surgery. Sixth Edition. • Alexis Thomson and Alexander Miles
... respect to his prime gift, Not in reward of meritorious deed, Hath each his several degree assign'd. In early times with their own innocence More was not wanting, than the parents' faith, To save them: those first ages past, behoov'd That circumcision in the males should imp The flight of innocent wings: but since the day Of grace hath come, without baptismal rites In Christ accomplish'd, innocence herself Must linger yet below. Now raise thy view Unto the visage most resembling ...
— The Divine Comedy • Dante
... at last, and it was also the time of the Feast of the Passover, being in the month of Nisan. This was a cause of joy to Israel, for he was eager to triumph over his enemies face to face, and he could not wait eight other days for the Feast of the circumcision. So he set a supper fit for a king: the fore-leg of a sheep and the fore-leg of an ox, the egg roasted in ashes, the balls of Charoseth, the three Mitzvoth, and the wine, And by the time the supper was ready the midwife had been summoned, and ...
— The Scapegoat • Hall Caine
... dancing are heard and seen on every side. As soon as the maidens are received, they are taken by the gree-gree women to a neighboring stream, where they are washed, and undergo an operation which is regarded as a sort of circumcision. Anointed from head to foot with palm-oil, they are next reconducted to their home in the gree-gree bush. Here, under strict watch, they are maintained by their relatives or those who are in treaty for them as wives, until they reach the age of puberty. ...
— Captain Canot - or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver • Brantz Mayer
... 18-24.—"Is any man called being circumcised? let him not become uncircumcised. Is any called in uncircumcision? let him not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God. Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. Art thou called being a servant? care not for it: but if thou mayest be made free use ...
— Sermons Preached at Brighton - Third Series • Frederick W. Robertson
... they had each of them lost two front teeth from the upper jaw. Their hair was short, though not curly; and a fillet of net work, which the youngest man had wrapped round his head, was the sole ornament or clothing seen amongst them. The two old men appeared, to my surprise, to have undergone circumcision; but the posture of the youngest, who remained sitting down, did not allow of observation ...
— A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 2 • Matthew Flinders
... proselytize the Africans: they teach their own children to read the Koran, but them only; it is never translated, and to servants who go to the Mosque it is all dumb show. Some servants imbibe Mohamadan bigotry about eating, but they offer no prayers. Circumcision, to make halel, or fit to slaughter the animals for their master, is the utmost advance any have made. As the Arabs in East Africa never feel themselves called on to propagate the doctrines of Islam, among the ...
— The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume I (of 2), 1866-1868 • David Livingstone
... latter principle. The universal prevalence of the idea of God, and the feeling of obligation to obey and worship God, belong to the first order of facts; the general prevalence of expiatory sacrifices, of the rite of circumcision, and the observance of sacred and holy days, belong to the latter. To the last class of facts the observance of the Christian Sabbath, and the rites of Baptism and the ...
— Christianity and Greek Philosophy • Benjamin Franklin Cocker
... have preferred to use flint instruments for surgical purposes, at any rate for the opening of bodies and for circumcision. Many flint instruments have been found and ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... promise the reader can have in mind. This position is amply supported by after-developments. "While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all them that heard the word. And they of the circumcision that believed were amazed, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Spirit. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter, Can any man forbid the water, that these should not be baptized, who ...
— The Spirit and the Word - A Treatise on the Holy Spirit in the Light of a Rational - Interpretation of the Word of Truth • Zachary Taylor Sweeney
... 12, and xvi. 15, though only the males were circumcised under the Old Testament, is a rule for our baptizing of women as well as men, they being all one in Christ, Gal. iii. 28. So the admitting of infants to the first initiating sacrament of the Old Testament, circumcision, because they with their parents' were accounted within the covenant of grace by God, Gen. xvii., is a rule for us now to admit infants to the first initiating sacrament of the New Testament, baptism, because infants are federally ...
— The Divine Right of Church Government • Sundry Ministers Of Christ Within The City Of London
... must have been young, because in a panel containing the Circumcision of Our Lord, together with some saints, wrought likewise by him in the year 1388 in S. Agostino, in the same territory, on the left hand as one enters the church through the principal door, it is seen that he had a much ...
— Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects - Vol 2, Berna to Michelozzo Michelozzi • Giorgio Vasari
... the herte/ that all benefites come of God/ euen out of the goodnesse of his mercie and not deseruinge of oure dedes/ is the only sacrifice that pleaseth God. And to beleue that god only is the sauer/ is the thynge that all the Iewes vowed in theyr circumcision/ as we in oure baptim. Which vowe Ionas now tawght with experience/ promiseth to paye. For those outwarde sacrifices of bestes/ vn to which Ionas had haply asscribed to moch before/ were but feble & childish thinges & not ordeyned/ that the workes of them selues shuld be a seruice vn to ...
— The prophete Ionas with an introduccion • William Tyndale
... those eastern parts, even the name of Socotora would not be mentioned. It is not certainly known what religion they profess, so monstrous is their belief. They hold from the Saracens the worship of Mahomet, from the Jews the use of circumcision and sacrifices, and yet give themselves the name of Christians. The males bear the name of some or other of the apostles, the most part of the women are called Mary, and yet they have no knowledge of baptism. They adore the cross, and hang it ...
— The Works of John Dryden, Volume XVI. (of 18) - The Life of St. Francis Xavier • John Dryden
... "golden mean," and that it delights to range in flights limited only by the ne plus ultra of Nature herself. He picked up miscellaneous information about magic, white and black, Yoga [68], local manners and customs such as circumcision, both female and male, and other subjects, all of which he utilised when he came to write his Notes and Terminal Essay to The Arabian Nights, particularly the articles on Al Islam and woman. Then, too, ...
— The Life of Sir Richard Burton • Thomas Wright
... own ungovernable curiosity, or merely out of frolic, I cannot affirm,) a party of them came into my hut, and gave me plainly to understand that the object of their visit was to ascertain, by actual inspection, whether the rite of circumcision extended to the Nazarenes (Christians) as well as to the followers of Mahomet. The reader will easily judge of my surprise at this unexpected declaration; and in order to avoid the proposed scrutiny, I thought it best to treat ...
— Life and Travels of Mungo Park in Central Africa • Mungo Park
... 10-xiii., which was manifested even in a striking military success (xiv.). Despite this favour, however, he grew despondent, as he had no child. But there came to him the promise of a son, confirmed by a covenant (xv.), the symbol of which was to be circumcision (xvii.); and Abraham trusted God, unlike his wife, whose faith was not equal to the strain, and who sought the fulfilment of the promise in foolish ways of her own,[2] xvi., xviii. 1-15. Then follows the story of Abraham's earnest but ineffectual intercession for the wicked cities of ...
— Introduction to the Old Testament • John Edgar McFadyen
... sedulous instructions to virtue." Yet this truly comic paper does not probably know that it is comic, any more than the kleptomaniac knows that he steals, or than John Milton knew he was a humorist when he wrote a hymn upon the circumcision, and spent his honeymoon in composing a treatise on divorce. No more again did Goethe know how exquisitely humorous he was when he wrote, in his Wilhelm Meister, that a beautiful tear glistened in Theresa's right eye, and then went on to explain that it glistened in her ...
— Life and Habit • Samuel Butler
... table of the Lord and look each other in the face and say 'Brother' and for the moment forget the difference of bond and free. Think of what a revolution it must have been when Jew and Gentile could sit down together at the table of the Lord, and forget circumcision and uncircumcision, and feel that they were all one in Jesus Christ. And as for the third of the great clefts—that, alas! which made so much of the tragedy and the wickedness of ancient life—viz. the separation between the sexes—think ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture: Romans Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V) • Alexander Maclaren
... whether there was a single house that could be used as a residence." The land was annexed to Syria, and ceased to be a Jewish country. Hadrian became emperor in A.D. 117, and issued an edict forbidding the Jews to practice circumcision, read the law, or to observe the Sabbath. These things greatly distressed the Jews, and in A.D. 132 they rallied to the standard of Bar Cochba, who has been styled "the last and greatest of the false Messiahs." The Romans were overthrown, Bar Cochba proclaimed himself ...
— A Trip Abroad • Don Carlos Janes
... will make use of something that may be at a distance from a moral precept, and therewith bring souls under the law. Thus he did with some of old; he did not make the Galatians fall from Christ by virtue of one of the ten words, but by something that was aloof off; by circumcision, days, and months, that were Levitical ceremonies; for he knows it is no matter, nor in what Testament he found it, if he can therewith hide Christ from the soul—'Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan
... certainly more advanced than the Euahlayi. The Arunta have eight, not four, intermarrying classes. In the matter of rites and ceremonies, too, they are, in the opinion of Messrs. Spencer and Gillen, more advanced than, say, the Euahlayi. They practise universal 'subincision' of the males, and circumcision, in place of the more primitive knocking out of the front teeth. Their ceremonies are very prolonged: in Messrs. Spencer and Gillen's experience, rites lasted for four months during a great tribal gathering. ...
— The Euahlayi Tribe - A Study of Aboriginal Life in Australia • K. Langloh Parker
... relation between God and Abraham's seed. 'I have known him, that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and judgment' (Gen. xviii. 19). Of this Covenant, the outward sign was the rite of circumcision. Renewed with Moses, and followed in traditional opinion by the Ten Commandments, the Sinaitic Covenant was a further link in the bond between God and His people. Of this Mosaic Covenant the outward sign was the Sabbath. ...
— Judaism • Israel Abrahams
... We practised circumcision like the Jews, and made offerings and feasts on that occasion in the same manner as they did. Like them also, our children were named from some event, some circumstance, or fancied foreboding at the time of their birth. I was named Olaudah, which, in our language, signifies ...
— The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African - Written By Himself • Olaudah Equiano
... been inherited. Adhesions due to inflammation and pits from the small-pox (and formerly many consecutive generations must have been thus pitted) are not inherited. With respect to Jews, I have been assured by three medical men of the Jewish faith that circumcision, which has been practised for so many ages, has produced no inherited effect; Blumenbach, on the other hand, asserts[61] that in Germany Jews are often born in a condition rendering circumcision difficult, ...
— The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, Volume II (of 2) • Charles Darwin
... Persons of the Natives. Diseases. General Character. Love of Pleasure. Language. Surgery and Physic. Articles of Food. Effects of drinking Ava. Times and Manner of Eating. Connexions with the Females. Circumcision. System of Religion. Notions about the Soul and a future Life. Various Superstitions. Traditions about the Creation. An historical Legend. Honours paid to the King. Distinction of Ranks. Punishment of Crimes. Peculiarities of the neighbouring Islands. Names of their Gods. ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 16 • Robert Kerr
... from birth that the rite of circumcision could be dispensed with. He was thus one of the thirteen men born perfect in a way.[51] Adam begot him in his likeness and image, different from Cain, who had not been in his likeness and image. Thus Seth became, in a genuine sense, the father of the human race, especially the father ...
— The Legends of the Jews Volume 1 • Louis Ginzberg
... some of the Serpents Kindred would kill some of the Savages Relations, that should destroy him: They have thousands of these foolish Ceremonies and Beliefs, which they are strict Observers of. Moreover, several Customs are found in some Families, which others keep not; {Circumcision.} as for Example, two Families of the Machapunga Indians, use the Jewish Custom of Circumcision, and the rest do not; neither did I ever know any others amongst the Indians, that practis'd any such thing; and perhaps, if ...
— A New Voyage to Carolina • John Lawson
... continued to baptize with water is no evidence to the contrary. They continued their old Jewish customs generally. They pronounced it necessary to abstain from certain meats. They insisted that Paul should adhere to circumcision. They refused to eat with Gentiles. With such Jewish proclivities how could they ...
— Water Baptism • James H. Moon |
