From this time he devoted himself, with the fervour of a Wesley, and something of the fanaticism of a Whitfield, to calling out a religious life among his parishioners.  They had been in the habit of playing at foot-ball on Sunday, using stones for this purpose; and giving and receiving challenges from other parishes.  There were horse-races held on the moors just above the village, which were periodical sources of drunkenness and profligacy.  Scarcely a wedding took place without the rough amusement of foot-races, where the half-naked runners were a scandal to all decent strangers.  The old custom of “arvills,” or funeral feasts, led to frequent pitched battles between the drunken mourners.  Such customs were the outward signs of the kind of people with whom Mr. Grimshaw had to deal.  But, by various means, some of the most practical kind, he wrought a great change in his parish.  In his preaching he was occasionally assisted by Wesley and Whitfield, and at such times the little church proved much too small to hold the throng that poured in from distant villages, or lonely moorland hamlets; and frequently they were obliged to meet in the open air; indeed, there was not room enough in the church even for the communicants.  Mr. Whitfield was once preaching in Haworth, and made use of some such expression, as that he hoped there was no need to say much to this congregation, as they had sat under so pious and godly a minister for so many years; “whereupon Mr. Grimshaw stood up in his place, and said with a loud voice, ’Oh, sir! for God’s sake do not speak so.  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.