[Footnote C: Ibid, verses 7-10.]
[Footnote D: See Seventy's Year Book IV, Lesson XXI.]
[Footnote E: See Lesson IV this treatise, topic 3 Immanence and Manifestation.]
5. Inter-Changeability of Words: It would be well to remember also in this connection, and it may prevent some confusion in the minds of those who read the scriptures, that by metonymy the words "Spirit," "Holy Spirit," "Spirit of God," "Spirit of Christ," and even "God"-are sometimes used when the "Holy Ghost" is meant. In other words, these terms above given are used inter-changeably. And sometimes the influence of the Spirit or his powers or even his operations are spoken of as the Holy Ghost himself, and hence confusion in thought, and perhaps also in what is written in some of our books. This merely by way of parenthesis.
6. The Case of Cornelius: There is an exception, however, to this order of things in the New Testament: the case of Cornelius, the devout Gentile,[A] and for this exception there was a special reason. It seems that the apostles applied the narrow and contracted views of the Jews to the Gospel. They thought it was to be confined to the house of Israel—to those of the circumcision. They appeared slow to understand that in Jesus Christ all the nations and peoples of the earth were to be blessed, the Gentiles as well as the Jews. Consequently, when the time had come to send the Gospel to the Gentiles, the Lord opened the way by sending an angel to Cornelius to tell him that his prayers and alms had come up for a memorial before the Lord, and to direct him to send men to Joppa for Peter, who would tell him what he ought to do.[B] He at once obeyed the heavenly injunction.
[Footnote A: Some also note the case of Paul as an exception to the rule, but I think this an error. It is true Ananias, on entering the house where Paul was, put his hands on him and said: "The Lord, even Jesus that appeared unto thee in the way as thou earnest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately," the historian tells us, "there fell from his eyes as it had been scales; and he received sight forthwith, and arose and was baptized." (Acts ix:17, 18.) But in all this I see nothing to warrant the assumption that he received the Holy Ghost prior to his baptism.]
[Footnote B: Acts x:1-8.]
Meantime the Lord prepared Peter to go to the Gentiles. In vision he beheld a great net lowered down from heaven, filled with all manner of beasts, and a voice cried unto him, "Rise, Peter, kill, and eat." But Peter said, "Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean," "What God hath cleansed, that call thou not common," said the voice.[A] This was done thrice, and before he had wholly concluded what the vision could mean, the messengers from Cornelius were at the gate—and the Spirit told him to go with them, for the Lord had sent them.
[Footnote A: Acts x:9-17.]
That Peter understood the import of this vision to be that the Gospel was for all mankind, for all races and nations, is evident from the fact that when on the following day he went with the messengers to the house of Cornelius, he said to him: