[Footnote E: 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 camest, 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 F: 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 not thou common," said the voice.[G] 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 G: 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: "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."[H] [Footnote H: 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 that 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. Then answered Peter, 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."[I] [Footnote I: Acts x: 44-48.]