The baptism of Cornelius and his company, recorded in Chapter x., is the next instance we meet with in Scripture of the administration of this Sacrament of the Christian Church. This case is remarkable as being the first-fruits of the Gentiles unto Christ. Peter—to whom Christ had given “the keys of the kingdom of Heaven,” (Matt. xvi. 19,) that is, the high privilege of opening the door of faith both to the Jews and to the Gentiles,—was sent by God to preach the gospel to this Roman Centurion. His objections, as a Jew, to go unto one of another nation having been removed by a vision, Peter went to the house of Cornelius, where he found him and his kinsmen and near friends assembled together to receive and to hear him. He faithfully preached Christ unto them: and while he spake those important words, “To Him give all the prophets witness, that, through His name, whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins,” “the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.” Under the influence of the Spirit they “spake with tongues, and magnified 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.” (43–47.) In the case of the people of Samaria, the Holy Ghost was not given when they were baptized, but _some time after_;—when the Apostles Peter and John, came down from Jerusalem and laid their hands upon them. In the case of Cornelius and his friends, the same Holy Spirit was given before their baptism, and while Peter was preaching the gospel to them. Thus it was not always _at_ the administration of the Ordinance that the Holy Ghost was given. And though the immediate effect of this gift of the Spirit was manifested in the power to speak with tongues and to prophesy, yet it also enabled and disposed them to “magnify God:” thereby showing, that His ordinary sanctifying operations were included. Well then might Cornelius and they who were with him receive the outward and visible sign of baptism by water, since they had already received the thing signified by it!