After Peter went into the house of this devout Gentile and heard of the mercies of God to him, he preached Christ unto him and his household, and as he spake of Jesus and the plan of salvation wrought out for mankind by him, the Holy Ghost was poured out upon them as a witness to Peter that the Gospel was for the Gentiles as well as for the Jews. Then, turning to those that were with him, Peter said: "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."[M] [Footnote M: Acts x: 47, 48.] Notwithstanding the general righteousness of Cornelius, and his acceptance with God, it became necessary that he should be instructed in the Gospel, and taught words whereby he and his house should be saved; and, in connection with other things that they were taught as necessary for their salvation, was baptism. Paul, in writing to the Corinthian saints, uses this expression, which to the world sounds strange and incomprehensible: "Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead?"[N] And if baptism, as some maintain, is not essential to salvation, I would ask, why then was it considered necessary, by the primitive Christians, that there should be such a thing as baptism for the dead?[O] Is it not conclusive, that if it was necessary for some one to be baptized for the dead who had not had the privilege of attending to that ordinance for themselves, that baptism is essential to salvation? [Footnote N: I Cor. xv: 29.] [Footnote O: The subject of salvation for the dead is treated at length in a subsequent chapter, hence I enter into no explanation here.] But now to come to the most positive of all passages in the New Testament upon this subject: Jesus when he commissioned his apostles used this language: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not" [and consequently fails to repent, be baptized or perform any other act of obedience] "shall be damned."[P] Here the matter is before us in the most unequivocal terms; those who believe and are baptized have the sure promise of God that they shall be saved; while those who believe not, and therefore are not baptized, are threatened with condemnation. [Footnote P: Mark xvi: 15, 16] I have thus far, confined my illustrations and arguments--upon the necessity of baptism--to the Jewish scriptures. I have done so, because the young Elders, into whose hands this work will fall, will doubtless be called upon to teach this principle, and support it in the main, upon the authority of what is written in the Bible. But if we turn to the Nephite scriptures, the Book of Mormon, we shall find it sustains the same views in respect to the necessity of baptism, as the Jewish scriptures.