"Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean. Therefore come I unto you without gainsaying, as soon as I was sent for."[A]

[Footnote A: Acts x:28.]

Cornelius related to him his vision and expressed himself as ready to receive the commandments of God. Then Peter preached to him Christ and him crucified, and that whosoever believed on him should have remission of sins. And "while Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. The answer Peter gave was, "Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord."[A]

[Footnote A: Acts x:44-48.]

Afterwards, when they of the circumcision complained of Peter for going to them who were uncircumcised, he related the whole matter to them, and testified that as he began to speak to Cornelius and his kindred, "the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning. * * * Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God?"[A] When they heard this they held their peace, and the saying went abroad that God had also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.

[Footnote A: Acts xi:15-17.]

The object for deviating from the order in which the principles and ordinances of the Gospel follow each other is obvious—it was that the Jews might have a witness from God that the Gospel was for the Gentiles as well as for their own nation. But according to the scriptures, and, I may say, according to the nature and relationship of these several principles and ordinances of the Gospel to each other, the reception of the Holy Ghost comes after faith, repentance, and baptism.

The Prophet Joseph, in a discourse delivered at Nauvoo, 20th of March, 1842, refers to this case of Cornelius, and offers the suggestion that there is "a difference between the Holy Ghost and the gift of the Holy Ghost." That is to say, judging from the whole tenor of the passage to be quoted—a difference between the special manifestation of the Holy Ghost in the case of Cornelius for a particular purpose, and the permanent possession of the Holy Ghost as a gift from God coupled with a right to the manifestations of his powers following after observance of those laws and ordinances which make the necessary preparation for the constant fellowship of the Holy Ghost with man. Resuming now the quotation:

"There is a difference between the Holy Ghost and the gift of the Holy Ghost. Cornelius received the Holy Ghost before he was baptized, which was the convincing power of God unto him of the truth of the Gospel, but he could not receive the gift of the Holy Ghost until after he was baptized. Had he not taken this sign or ordinance upon him, the Holy Ghost which convinced him of the truth of God, would have left him. Until he obeyed these ordinances and received the gift of the Holy Ghost, by the laying on of hands, according to the order of God, he could not have healed the sick or commanded an evil spirit to come out of a man, and it obey him; for the spirits might say unto him, as they did to the sons of Sceva: "Paul we know, and Jesus we know, but who are ye?"[A]

[Footnote A: History of the Church, Vol. IV, p. 555.]