MEMOIR. xxi 



wickedness yawn at our feet, when the world is so 

 wondrous kind to tired souls, and neuralgic bodies, and 

 itself pleads for concessions to acknowledged weakness ; 

 when unfaith is so like faith, and the devil freely suffers 

 easy acquiescence in high gospel truth, and even holds a 

 magnifying-glass that one may better see the sweetness of 

 the life of the ' Son of Man, ' it is well in these days of 

 sloth, and sin, and doubt, to have one's energies braced by 

 a ' girdle of God ' about one's loins ! It is well, I say, for 

 a man to have a circle of religious exercises that can so 

 hedge him about, so get behind his life, and wind them- 

 selves by long familiarity into his character that they be- 

 come part of his everyday existence bone of his bone." 



Out of his own real knowledge and practice he spoke 

 these words. The " circle of religious exercise, " the girdle 

 of God, had become for him part of his everyday existence. 

 I can think of no better words to express the unwavering 

 consistency of his life. It is no part of my duty to tell in 

 detail what and how much he did, and with what whole- 

 heartedness he did it. 



Turning to outward things, every associate of John 

 Sedding knew his enthusiasm for the cause of the Catholic 

 revival in the English Church. It supplied him with a 

 religion for his whole nature. No trouble seemed too 

 great on behalf of it, though often his zeal entailed upon 

 him some material disadvantage. Again and again I have 

 known him give up precious hours and even days in unre- 

 munerated work, to help some struggling church or mission, 

 or some poor religious community. It was a joy to him to 

 contribute anything to the beauty of the sanctuary or the 

 solemnity of its offices. From the year 1878 to 1881 he 

 was sidesman, from 1882 to 1889 churchwarden of St. 

 Alban's, Holborn, doing his work thoroughly, and with 

 conspicuous kindliness and courtesy. It was one of the 

 thorns to the rose of his new life in the country that it 



