97. Acts viii. The student will observe that the same order of presenting and accepting the gospel is observed in the account given of its introduction into Samaria as was observed in the teaching of John the Baptist and Jesus, and also of Peter, on the day of Pentecost.
101. This case of Cornelius marks an exception--the only one recorded in the New Testament--to that order in the gospel to which attention has been drawn several times in this section; that is, these Gentiles received the Holy Ghost before baptism in water. The object of the deviation from the rule is obvious. It was that the Jews might have a witness from God that the gospel was for the Gentiles as well as for the house of Israel. 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, the one leading up logically to the other, which follows in beautiful and harmonious sequence.
109. Mormon ix:12, 13. Other evidences from the Nephite scriptures will be found in Alma xi:40-44. III Nephi xxvii:13-15. II Nephi ii. Mosiah xv:18-27. Alma xxxiv:7-17. Alma xiii:1-26.
110. See "The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors," by Kersey Graves.
119. Doc. and Cov., sec. xix:16-18. See also Mosiah iii:20, 21. "The Gospel," Roberts, page 29.
126. The injunction placed upon those who accept the faith of the gospel is that they add to their faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity. For if these things be in you, and abound they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (II Peter i:5-8.)--"The Gospel," page 37.
In Part I, our narrative was confined mainly to those propitious circumstances which made for the successful introduction of the gospel and the founding of the church of Christ. In Part II, we are to deal with those adverse events which led finally to the subversion of the Christian religion. We commence with the
1. Persecution of the Christians by the Jews.--The Messiah forewarned his disciples that they would be persecuted by the world, pointed out the reasons for it, and comforted them by reminding them that the world had hated him before it hated them; that the servant was not greater than his lord; and for that matter all the prophets which were before them had been persecuted by the generations in which they lived, and that, for the reason that they were not of the world, therefore the world hated and destroyed them.[1]