ail, yet the principle is so well established that it will never be
uprooted, provided we give the moral and educational aid we should
render at this critical hour.

We have come upon a time when we must give to our South American
brothers unstinted support. They have attained political freedom, but
they have not yet gained religious freedom. Nothing can be more
anomalous than a State with political freedom fostering a State
religion that is desperately and unscrupulously intolerant. No genuine
Republic can support a State religion. The two will not live together.
One or the other must go, as the history of France will abundantly
substantiate. One result is inevitable--the people will eventually
repudiate the despotic religion and drift into atheism and infidelity.
Indeed, such a thing is happening in South America today. The better
educated classes are being set hopelessly adrift religiously and the
more ignorant, the common people, are following idolatry. Neither have
the gospel preached to them. The Bible is withheld. Such a state of
affairs is a loud call to us.

If these people are left without a vital, character building religion
they will, because of their volatile natures, degenerate into the
grossest perversions of morality. In such an event the Monroe Doctrine
itself would become a menace. Unless we give these people the gospel it
will be far better to annul the Monroe Doctrine and permit the stronger
nations of Europe to enter for the sake of good government and
morality. We must either carry to our Latin brothers the regenerating,
uplifting, energizing gospel of Jesus, or step out of the way and let
England and Germany interpose their strong arms to prevent one of the
most colossal catastrophes of all time in the moral collapse of the
70,000,000 Latin-Americans. Surely, this must be the time when we, if
we ever intend to do so, must reinforce our Latin brothers. They have
done well, they have made progress, but they have gone about as far as
they can in the struggle upon the moral resources at their command.
Their very progress in education and civilization is widening the
breach between them and their former religious teachers. A new life
must come in, even the power of the gospel. This alone can save
Latin-America from inglorious failure.

We should not deceive ourselves into believing this prevailing religion
has lost its power, even though it is losing its religious hold upon
the better classes. It st