1. WILLIAM GRIMSHAW, 1708-63
by Rev. H. R. Moshe Radcliff, Th.L.
WILLIAM GRIMSHAW was born on the 3rd September, 1708, in Blackburn, Lancashire. He was educated first of all in his home town, and then at Christ’s College, Cambridge. His early years were spent without Christ in the vain pleasures of sin. He was much given to swearing and drinking. He was ordained into the ministry of the Church of England in 1731, while still unconverted and was appointed to Rochdale, but later that year he was induced to the charge of Todmorden. In 1734 he married a widow, and a son and daughter were born to them. However the joys of married life only lasted five years when his wife died.
He was still in darkness all that time, and a blind leader of the blind. When a woman, Mary Schofield, came to him in distress he advised her: “Put away gloomy thoughts; go into merry company; divert yourself; and all will be well at the last.” The year 1734 marked, however, the time of his spiritual awakening, and he came under concern for his soul. It was in that year that he gave up his loose and worldly habits, and began the habit which he continued throughout the rest of his life, that is, to ply the Throne of grace four times a day. At that time, however, he had no knowledge of the One who alone can forgive sin, and could lift the burden of guilt from his shoulders. His preaching also assumed a new note and he called upon his people to think of eternity, but at the same time he was not able to show them the way to escape from the wrath to come. To another person who came to him in great concern he had painfully to admit “I am in the same state myself, but to despair of the mercies of God would be worse than all.”
His bereavement had caused him great anguish of soul and now more than ever he sought peace for his soul, and this he did on his knees with an open Bible. Another means that the Lord was to use were two books, Brooks on “Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices” and Owen on “Justification”, both of which he had received while he was in Rochdale. At length in 1742, eight years after his first awakening he entered into the liberty of the Gospel.
He was now most earnest in the ministry trying to catch up for lost time. He sought out those to whom he had given vain counsel and preached, both in private and public, the twin themes of the grace of God and the guilt of man. Many years later he would refer to his conversion to one of his closest friends and a faithful minister of the Gospel, the Rev Henry Venn. He said, “I was now willing to renounce myself any degree of fancied merit and ability and to embrace Christ as my all in all. Oh what light and comfort did I enjoy in my soul, and what a taste of the pardoning love of God.”
In the year of his conversion he moved to Hanworth in the West Riding of Yorkshire where he was to remain for the rest of his life. This was a lonely village, extremely backward but above all very low in spiritual things. Few would attend Church, but there was never any lack of those who would attend the ale houses. Fair time was an open season for riot and drunken orgies, and every funeral was an occasion for debauchery. Grimshaw summed up the state of things when he remarked that half a days ride would not even find one godly soul. But the Lord had His hand upon His servant, and Grimshaw was able to return rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him. At his arrival there were only about a dozen professing people. Some years later the number had increased to two thousand.
Various anecdotes have sprung up around Grimshaw’s ministry. When he heard that some boys spend Sabbath morning playing cards, he disguised himself as an old woman and came into their midst quite unexpectedly. He then peeled off his disguise and while the youngsters were frozen still in surprise he knelt down in their presence and poured out his heart to God. This once and for all broke the custom. He also set himself to put an end to horse racing. Having failed in appealing to the promoters to abandon the races, he made it known that he would no longer talk with man about it but with the Most High alone. When the next race meeting was due there was such torrential rain that it was impossible to hold it, and there was never again another race meeting in that village. Another anecdote shows his zeal against Sabbath desecration. An old by-law required the Churchwardens to leave the Church prior to the sermon and search the ale houses for loiterers. Grimshaw would give out Psalm 119 in order to give himself enough time to do it himself.
At that time there were many parishes without a resident minister. A minister would accept the charge of a parish for the income that it would yield to him, but he would not feed the flock of Christ. This inspired Grimshaw to go beyond the bounds of his own parish and preach in the fields. Some weeks he would preach as often as twenty to thirty times. This broke the written letter of the law of England and it is therefore surprising that he was not stopped by the Archbishop. He was, however, opposed by many of the clergy who accused him before the Archbishop who told him that “it would be better for him to inculcate the morality of Socrates than to cant about the New Birth.” When on one occasion he was rebuked by the Archbishop for his itinerating he answered that his congregation had increased from a mere dozen at his arrival to two thousand in summer and about three hundred in the winter months.
Grimshaw first met the Wesley brothers in 1742 and joined them in their itinerating. Their visit to his Church was attended with much Divine blessing. The crowd was so large that only about one third could be accommodated in the Church. Seven years later he met George Whitefield who preached at that time to six thousand people. It is believed that he seldom preached to a more attentive congregation. Another friendship that Grimshaw learned to value was that of Lady Huntington, the friend of Reformed and Puritan truths.
In 1763 a ‘putrid fever’ broke out in Haworth and believing that his own house was not immune, Grimshaw continued to visit the sick and dying, so that he soon himself succumbed to the disease. While lying on his death bed he was particularly happy in Christ. To one who stood by he said: “I am quite exhausted, but I shall soon be at home with the Lord, a poor miserable sinner redeemed by His blood”. To another he said: “Never have I had such a visit from God since I knew Him”. He finally died with these words: “Here goes an unprofitable servant”.
There are three things for which Grimshaw’s ministry was outstanding and point at least to some extent to his success. First, he was a man of prayer, both in the pulpit and out of it. His prayers from the pulpit sounded as though he would storm the gates of heaven. Secondly, he was a faithful visitor of his people. No weather would deter him from going out among his people; there was no hamlet too distant or any home too poor. He loved to enter their homes and plead the Redeemer’s Cause. Finally, he was a faithful preacher of the unchanging Gospel both to congregations numbering thousands and to a handful of people gathered in a hamlet, and when he did so he had a fervent passion for their souls as though he were ever saying: “I am determined to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ and Him crucified”.
Henry Venn preached his funeral sermon on the text that so aptly summed up his life: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Phil. 1:21).