578 Perverted Scripture 
have to work twice as hard as would be necessary if fuel 
were plentiful, or the planter would lose his crop. 
The mill gangs generally work until 4 P.M., when the 
cattle are turned loose for an hour or two in the pasture, 
and both the field and mill gangs go home, but a relay 
must be put on to carry fuel, for it often takes hours to boil 
off the juice expressed by a good steam-engine going from 
6 A.M. to 4 P.M. 
The boiling is continued till all the sugar is in the 
coolers, when the coppers are well cleansed, the gutters 
washed out, and the white overseer locks up and goes to 
his house, to snatch an hour’s sleep, before again waking 
up the blacks, which he must do if he means work. 
PERVERTED: SCRIPTURES 
A HE Devil can quote Scripture” saith the proverb, 
and surely man perverts Scripture. Parables, inci- 
dents, and texts are twisted and distorted until they seem 
to sanction principles and conduct utterly antagonistic to 
the design and spirit of Christianity. Sometimes this is 
done with fell intent, but not less often the crime is com- 
mitted almost unconsciously. 
There is no doubt as to the motive for perverting Scrip- 
ture. There is an inexorable law that compels Falsehood 
to render outward homage unto Truth, and tnat obliges 
Vice to manifest an apparent respect for Virtue. 
There cannot be moral responsibility without a living 
conscience. The conscience may be seared, but it cannot 
die. How can it be seared? How can the wrong-doer 
still the ever living, ever restless conscience? There is no 
narcotic more efficacious than a dose of perverted Scrip- 
ture, and therefore it is in great and continued demand. 
We propose to give a few instances in which certain Bible 
texts are commonly and traditionally perverted. 
It would be as easy to number the stars as to tell the ~ 
sum of human misery. Vice, and crime, and sufferings, phy- 
sical, mental and moral, everywhere abound. Isthis abun- 
dant misery inevitable? It is begotten by Poverty and by 
Ignorance, which is indeed the offspring of Poverty. Is 
this poverty the prolific source of human woe, the will of 
