Likewise also did God separate the Latin race from continental oppression that it might grow a better manhood in the freer atmosphere of the Western World.  It is true that the Latin movement was not prompted by the same motive that impelled the Anglo-Saxon.  Instead of the love of liberty, he was led out by the lure of gold.  Nevertheless, we must believe the final result will be the same or else disbelieve in the ultimate triumph of the guidance of God.  We should not despair of the success of this providential movement.

In South America is to be witnessed the last stand of the Latin race.  There God has given him one last chance to achieve a religious character which will honor his Lord.  It is the duty of his Northern brother to sympathize with him and to believe in his ability to build up a character worthy of himself and God.  If we cannot bring ourselves to such a belief it is useless for us to expect to be helpful, and it is unfaithful in us to expend money upon a people when we are confident it will be wasted.

We must not forget that these people are the descendants of the Caesars, of Seneca, Napoleon—­the race that ruled the world for fifteen centuries.  They surely have not lost all of their virility.  It must be a case of wasted strength.  We believe that this race has in it the possibility of rejuvenation.  Lavaleye, the great Belgian political economist, very probably spoke the truth when he said that the Latin race is equal to the Anglo-Saxon, the only difference being the gospel which the Protestants preach and live.

We shall be helpful in our effort to give him the proper sympathy if we remember the handicaps under which he has labored.  He was satisfied with his old fossilized religion, which had taught him to believe that despotism is a virtue.  He did not, therefore, come to America for liberty.  The early settlers were the veriest adventurers of whom the gold lust made paragons of cruelty and crime.  They brought with them the intriguing priest who would corrupt the Kingdom of Heaven in order to maintain his power.  There was no intentional break with their old life.  The light that guided them to America was the yellow light of gold and not the white light of righteousness.  The first result was that there developed in the untrammeled West the most unreasoning despotism, the most unblushing robbery and the most shamelessly corrupt priestcraft.  So this whole transplanted mass of the worst intolerance, most insatiable greed and the most corrupt priesthood that Europe has ever produced, had to be taught from the beginning on the new soil, the elements of the higher manhood they so desperately needed.  They had learned no first lesson in Europe, and therefore their first lesson in America was to unlearn the very things that constituted their central life and thought in Europe.