17) of the household which his father had accumulated. Thus, it seems clear that, within ten years[14] of the Descent into Egypt, the number of servants who looked up to Jacob as their head and master, must have been very large indeed. Now we maintain that, according to the narrative before us, these servants were _a part of the chosen people of God_, and _sharers in His Covenant_ with Abraham. This assertion is easily proved. They had all received the rite of circumcision, and circumcision was the mark of the chosen people; it was the _sign_ of God's Covenant. "This is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you, and thy seed after thee; every male child among you shall be circumcised. And you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a _sign_ of the Covenant between me and you. And the son of eight days shall be circumcised among you, every male child in your generations, _he that is born in the house or bought with money of any stranger, that is not of thy seed_. _He that is born in thy house and he that is bought with thy money_ must needs be circumcised" (_Gen._, xvii. 10-13). It is clear, therefore, that Abraham and his posterity were commanded to circumcise not only their _children_, but their _servants_ and their _servants' children_, who thus became sharers in the promises of God. Is it not likely then that, when Jacob came down into Egypt, he took with him not only his lineal descendants, but also his servants and their families? Let it be remembered that he was invited by his son, Joseph, whom God had made "as a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and ruler throughout all the land of Egypt" (_Gen._, xlv. 8): that Pharaoh himself had promised, that to Jacob and his household he would give "the good of the land of Egypt", and that they should "eat the fat of the land" (_Gen._, xlv. 18). Are we to suppose that when the venerable patriarch heard this joyful intelligence, he took with him _his flock_, and _his herds_, and _all his possessions_, but left behind his faithful servants with their wives and children? Would he, in his old age, when prosperity smiled upon him, desert those trusty followers who had come with him from a distant country, and had clung to him in all his varied fortunes? Would he abandon now those men of loyal heart whom he had known from a boy, and who had grown up with himself in his father's house? He knew that they were the chosen people of God: would he have come down into Egypt with his children to "eat the fat of the land", and have left them to perish of hunger in the land of Canaan?