Afterwards, when they of the circumcision complained of Peter 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 upon 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."[J] 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 J: 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 repentance and baptism. In Writing to the Corinthian saints who had received the Holy Ghost, Paul says: "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God?"[K] [Footnote K: I. Cor. v: 19] And again: "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him will God destroy."[L] [Footnote L: I. Cor. iii: 16, 17.] From these passages this much is learned: that the man who receives the Holy Ghost becomes a temple thereof, even the temple of God; and since it is decreed that if a man defiles the temple of God him will God destroy, it may be reasonably inferred that the Holy Ghost dwells not in unholy temples; hence, through faith in God, sincere repentance of all sins, and baptism for the remission of them, man cleanses his temple, his body, that it may be a fit dwelling place for the Holy Ghost. Thus faith, repentance, water baptism, and then the baptism of the Spirit is the order in which these principles stand, both according to the teachings of the scriptures, and the nature of the things themselves: the one leading up logically to the other, which follows in beautiful and harmonious sequence. CHAPTER XXVII. THE HOLY GHOST.--HOW IMPARTED. The manner in which the saints under the teachings of the apostles received the baptism of the Holy Ghost was through the laying on of hands. In proof of this I call attention once more to the labors of Philip in the city of Samaria.