through a spiritual experience that left an abiding mark on
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ANY We are indebted to Mr. Laycock for much light on the beginning and growth of William Grimshaw's religious experience.
He was inducted into the Haworth living in 1742.
Before he came to his moorland parish he had passed through a spiritual experience that left an abiding mark on him.
He had a dream which deeply impressed him.
It led him to consecrate himself to the service of God.
When he came to reside in Haworth he found that a man called William Damey, a Scotch pedlar, was preaching a strange doctrine in the neighbourhood.
It is curious that Grimshaw at that time held the crude opinion that ' Justification by Faith' was a Popish doctrine.
He heard that Darney was preaching it, and he determined to confute him.
He met the Scotchman in secret interviews, and argued with him.
The result that so often occurred at that time happened in his case.
He was convinced that he had been mistaken, and that the pedlar was right.
His religious experience deepened.
The knowledge of the pardon of sins that comes through faith in Christ quickened everything that was good in him.
He acted on his new convictions; stood by Darney when he preached in the open air on the moor, helped him in his services, and rejoiced in his success.
We think this change took place in 1745, for there seems to be an allusion to it in a letter Grimshaw wrote to a friend, which contains a reference to Darney's preaching at Haworth in that year.
We can read much into the sentence:
' The Lord was with him indeed, and I have reason to praise God for it.'
We wish we had more light on the early life of William Darney.
He seems to have left Scotland and to have settled in Yorkshire about the year 1742.
It is suggested that in Scotland he came under the influence of the great revival of religion which is inseparably connected with the name of James Robe, the minister of Kilsyth.
Mr. Robe's constant theme was' the necessity of the new birth.'
Darney undoubtedly experienced that great change.
Wandering southward, he crossed the border and found his way to Yorkshire.
He was a clogger and pedlar by trade, and soon became known to the villagers as 'Scotch Will.'
The fire of the evangelist burnt within him, and as he went about the moorlands selling his wares he was moved by the condition of the people.
Previously, in October, 1741, he had
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begun to preach; then he ceased for a time.
But as he climbed the fells of West Yorkshire the call came again.
He could not resist it.
He preached in all kinds of places, winning here and there little groups of people for Christ.
He saw that they would soon be scattered if they were not united together in Societies.
He learned the lesson that John Wesley had been taught.
Societies were raised up in Yorkshire and Lancashire.
Then came his meeting with William Grimshaw, who, being much impressed by the results of his work, determined to help him.
The effect of that decision was soon evident, and the success of his Societies was gradually secured.
The association of William Grimshaw with Darney had a far-reaching result, which we must now indicate.
In a letter to John Wesley, dated August, 1747, Grimshaw says that about a month before he had met one of Darney's Societies.
In connexion with this statement he mentions an interesting fact.
A few days before writing this letter, in company with John Bennet, he had visited the Societies which Bennet had formed in Lancashire and Cheshire.
Among other places he had gone to Rochdale, Manchester, and Booth Bank.
Parting from Bennet, after a second visit to Manchester, he had visited some of Darney's Societies in Yorkshire and Lancashire.
This excursion made a deep impression on his mind.
Writing to John Wesley, he says:
I am determined, therefore, to add, by the divine assistance, to the care of my own parish, that of so frequent a visitation of Mr. Bennet's,
William Darney's, the Leeds and Birstall Societies, as my own convenience will permit, and their circumstances may respectively seem to require ; all along eyeing the Lord's will and purposes for me.
If I find the Lord's pleasure be that I must launch out farther, I will obey.
. What I purpose concerning surveying the above Societies, as I have great cause to believe it is the Lord's will, from the freedom
I feel thereto in my heart, so I question not but it will be agreeable to your conception of it.
I desire to do nothing but in perfect harmony and concert with you, and therefore beg you will be entirely free, open, and communicative to me.
I bless God, I can discover no other at present, but every way a perfect agreement between our sentiments, principles, &c., of religion and my own; and therefore desire you will
(as I do to you), from'time to time, lay before me such rules, places, proposals, &c., as you conceive mostly conducive to the welfare of the Church, the private benefit of her members, and in the whole to the glory of the Lord.
My pulpit, I hope shall be always at your's and
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your brother's service, and my house, so long as I have ¢ one, your welcome home.?!
While considering the events ofgthe first half of the year 1747, we are struck with the 'pertakce of those which are
© connected with Haworth and its neighbourhood.
When Charles Wesley left Haworth in january, he went away to visit William Darney's Societies ; when John Wesley, in May parted from Grimshaw, he met Darney, who earnestly requested him to examine the Societies he had formed.
Wesley responded to his request.
As we follow his records in his Journal we see that he also visited Bennet's Societies, and his journeys spread over a week.
In the course of his visitation, on May 7, he came to Manchester.
A few young men had taken a room, in which a Society met, and he went to see it.
He had no thought of preaching in Manchester, but was informed that John Nelson had given public notice that he would do so at one o'clock.
He was faint and weary, having ridden at a swift trot, on a sultry day, for several hours.
The little room would not contain a tenth part of the people who had assembled, and so he walked to Salford
Cross.
As he went along the crowd ran before him or walked after him.
His thoughts were busy with the past.
On reaching the Cross he paused for a time, looked around, and asked the people, 'Why do -you look as if you had never seen me before?
Many of you 'have seen me in the neighbouring church, both preaching and administering the Sacrament.' *
Banishing the past, he took for his text the insistent words, "Seek ye the Lord while He may be found.'
There was no disturbance of"any consequence.
At the close of the service a man from Macclesfield, named George Pearson, interviewed him, and pleaded successfully with him for a visit to that town.
In the evening Wesley reached Davyhulme, and was much refreshed both in preaching and meeting the Society.
His notice of the visit to Davyhulme is significant.
He says of the Society:
' Their neighbours here used to disturb them much ; but a Justice of Peace, who feared God, granting them a warrant for the chief of the rioters, from that time they were in peace.'
1 Walker's Methodism tn Halifax, 54, 55.
®See John Wesley and the Religious Societies, 99.