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Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXIII, Issue 15922, 7 May 1912, Page 6

NEW TESTAMENT CHUECHMANSHIP. Extraot from a Sermon preached at the Anglican Church Congress, Swansea, October 6,1909. By the Right Rov J. W. Biggie, D.D., Lord Bishop of Carlisle. " The Church, -which is His Body." AGAIN, the morals of tho Gospel aro simple morals appealing to tho universal conscience of man. Their foundation is the bed-rock of love. To lovo God with all our heart, all our mind, all our soul, ell our strength, and our fellow-men, of every raco and decree, as ourselves—this is the sum and substance, tho royal law, of Christian morals. Mercy, justice, truth; these aro the touchstones _ of ail genuine Christian integrity. Ecclesiastical morals are often of a quite different type, of an altogether different mould, freni these. Sometimes they aro of no more worth than the washing of cuds and platters, the external whitening of sepulchres. Sometimes, indeed, they are worse, than worthless; as. lor instance, when they 'run right contrary to ouch fundamental tonchings ot our. Lord as that which declares that what goes into the belly of a man is far less defiling than what proceeds from his heart and mouth. I have nothing to say against tho practico of Fasting Communion for those who find in fasting a disciplinary preparation, a physical means of spiritual invigoration, but to olevato fasting to the sphere of morals, to say that a communion received with a true penitent lioart. a lively faith, a thankful spirit, cannot be as valid, as blessed, after a meal as before, at mid-day or evening as in the early brcakfastless morning, is to belittlo, to materialise, and de-spiritualiso the Grand and Blessed Supper of the Lord. It is to make the gold of the altar greater than the altar which sanctificth tho gold. L