Note 56 — Chapter XII · Hebraic Circumcision.

Bishop Newton points out the remarkable analogy that marks the Hebrew race as descendants of Isaac and the Arab race as the descendants of Ishmael, from whom sprung the Saracenic people. These are the only two races that have gone on in their purity from their beginning. They intermarry only among themselves and have, alike, the same customs and habits as their fathers. The sculptured faces of the Hebrew on the Babylonian monuments are the same faces that are met in the synagogues of Paris or New York. So with the descendants of Ishmael, in whom there flows partly the blood of the dominant element of ancient Egypt; neither custom, habit, nor physiognomy have changed. In these two races, as observed by Bishop Newton, we have an ocular demonstration of the Divine origin of our faith, if verification of Scripture history is any criterion.—“Clarke’s Commentary,” vol. i, page 111; also, Hosmer’s “Story of the Jews,” page 5.