It is already known how he taught them the Gospel, how they believed it and were baptized; then we are informed that "when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John: who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost (for as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost."[A] [Footnote A: Acts viii: 14-17.] Previous to the labors of Philip among the Samaritans, one Simon Magus, a magician, had given it out that he himself was some great one, and his influence among the people was considerable. But he, too, became converted to the teachings of Philip, and was astonished at the power which attended his administrations, for the sick were healed, the lame were cured, and unclean spirits cast out of those who were possessed of them. Afterwards when the apostles John and Peter came and conferred the Holy Ghost upon those whom Philip had baptized, Simon was present: "And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, saying. Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay my hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money."[B] [Footnote B: Acts viii: 18-20.] Paul, it will be remembered, found a number of men at Ephesus who claimed to have been baptized unto John's baptism, but when Paul questioned them as to the Holy Ghost, they had not heard even that there was such a spirit. So doubting the validity of their baptism, he re-baptized them; after which, "when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came upon them; and they spake with tongues and prophesied."[C] [Footnote C: Acts xix: 1-6.] The same apostle, also, in writing to Timothy, exhorts him to "stir up the gift of God which was in him, and which he had received by the putting on of his [Paul's] hands,"[D] alluding, no doubt, to the time that Paul bestowed the Holy Ghost upon him by the laying on of hands. [Footnote D: II. Tim. i: 6.] That this practice of laying on hands for the bestowal or baptism of the Holy Ghost continued in the primitive Christian Church for a long period--at least for three centuries--is evident from the following testimony: Of the rites and ceremonies of the third century Mosheim says: "The effect of baptism was supposed to be the remission of sins: And it was believed that the bishop, by the imposition of hands and by prayer conferred those gifts of the Holy Spirit which were necessary for living a holy life."[E] [Footnote E: Mosheim's Church History (Murdock), Vol. I, p. 189.]