I pray you do not flatter them. I fear the
greater part of them are going to hell with their eyes open.'" But if
they were so bound, it was not for want of exertion on Mr. Grimshaw's
part to prevent them. He used to preach twenty or thirty times a week in
private houses. If he perceived any one inattentive to his prayers, he
would stop and rebuke the offender, and not go on till he saw every one
on their knees. He was very earnest in enforcing the strict observance
of Sunday; and would not even allow his parishioners to walk in the
fields between services. He sometimes gave out a very long Psalm
(tradition says the 119th), and while it was being sung, he left the
reading-desk, and taking a horsewhip went into the public-houses, and
flogged the loiterers into church. They were swift who could escape the
lash of the parson by sneaking out the back way. He had strong health
and an active body, and rode far and wide over the hills, "awakening"
those who had previously had no sense of religion. To save time, and be
no charge to the families at whose houses he held his prayer-meetings, he
carried his provisions with him; all the food he took in the day on such
occasions consisting simply of a piece of bread and butter, or dry bread
and a raw onion.
The horse-races were justly objectionable to Mr.
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