{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/a-cheating-preacher",
 "title": "A Cheating Preacher",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ambrose Bierce",
 "poet_slug": "ambrose-bierce",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Black Beetles in Amber",
 "book_slug": "black-beetles-in-amber",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 75,
 "container": "Black Beetles in Amber",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1892,
  "venue": "Black Beetles in Amber (1892)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/blackbeetlesinam00bier"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
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  "repo": "standardebooks/ambrose-bierce_poetry",
  "file": "black-beetles-in-amber.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
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   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12658",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12977",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15599",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof04bierrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof05bierrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof08bierrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/shapesofclay00bier",
   "https://archive.org/details/blackbeetlesinam00bier",
   "https://archive.org/details/literarycalifor05mighgoog",
   "https://archive.org/details/cali07webb"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 29,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 49,
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 },
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Munhall, to have my soul you bravely try,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Although, to save my soul, I can’t say why.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis naught to you, to me however much⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Why, bless it! you might save a million such,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet lose your own; for still the “means of grace”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That you employ to turn us from the place",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By the arch-enemy of souls frequented",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are those which to ensnare us he invented!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I do not say you utter falsehoods⁠—I",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Would scorn to give to ministers the lie:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They cannot fight⁠—their calling has estopped it.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "True, I did not persuade them to adopt it.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But, Munhall, when you say the Devil dwells",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In all the breasts of all the infidels⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Making a lot of individual Hells,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You talk as I should if some world I trod",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where lying is acceptable to God.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I don’t at all object⁠—forbid it Heaven!⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That your discourse you temperately leaven",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With airy reference to wicked souls",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cursing impenitent on glowing coals,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor quarrel with your fancy, blithe and fine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which represents the wickedest as mine.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Each ornament of style my spirit eases:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The subject saddens, but the manner pleases.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But when you “deal damnation round” ’twere sweet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To think hereafter that you did not cheat.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Deal, and let all accept what you allot ’em;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But, blast you! you are dealing from the bottom!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}