According to Seddon's brother, "From his youth he had known and confessed the value of religion, and had made frequent efforts to live according to its rules; but never having given himself wholly to God, his better resolutions were again and again overborne by besetting sins." His brother then quotes from an entry in Seddon's 1844 journal which the painter wrote after he had suffered some unspecified "severe affliction": "I thank my God for His merciful goodness to me in His fatherly chastisement. Lord, pardon me, and for Christ's sake keep me from presumptuous confidence. Thou hast said, 'Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth.' O my Father, forsake me not, for Jesus' merits. Pardon me, and lead me to Thee; and should adversity be better for me, let me truly say and feel, 'Thy will be done,' and let me kiss the rod" (Memoir, p. 13).
Last modified 8 June 2007