Our noble profession is summoned to a mighty warfare in the present deadly strife between good and evil. If as Christian physicians, believing in a beneficent Creative Power, and imbued with the spirit of the Master, they recognise the Divine unity manifested through the compound nature of all life, they will become the vanguard of that growing army of truth which seeks to know and obey Divine law. APPENDIX I. (PAGE 24) Human procreation possesses a double relation--viz., _first_, a relation to the race; and, _second_, a relation to the individual. In the former character, as the inevitable method of continuing the race, it is a great providential law whose mysteries we by no means comprehend, and which is placed quite beyond the control of the human will; but in the latter, the exercise of this great power of procreation possesses the distinctive mark of self-control, and as an individual act our power and responsibility are great. In this important subject of procreation, no one can speak with scientific precision and lay down absolute rules respecting its complete method of action. It has been wisely said by one of the most skilful and experienced French physicians:[6] ‘No opinions put forth reconcile all facts. We are obliged to confess that there is a mystery in this subject, that our most ingenious theories fail to enlighten.’ In considering this subject in its relation to the individual, the beneficent educational uses of parentage to the individual must be realized, and the irreparable loss that human society would sustain from the absence or serious diminution of the parental relation. Parentage is the most potent and persistent civilizer and educator of our race. There is no other influence that will compare with the deep-seated and unique power of parentage in breaking down the narrow, unsocial barrier of exclusive individual selfishness. Much has always been said and written about maternal love, but there is a very deep significance in the persistence with which the Hebrew Scriptures exalt the power, the supreme beneficence of fatherhood; and there is a profound reason why universal Christendom is taught to address, ‘Our Father, who art in heaven.’ It is a special lesson to men. The mother, by the inevitable facts of her nature, when that nature is not corrupted, is moulded into tenderness and providential watchfulness over the weak and helpless; her nature is a harmonious whole, and, as a beneficent general rule, all women are potential mothers. But Nature does not so inevitably educate men. It is only when his first-born child is laid in his arms that the man awakens fully to the wonder and infinite tenderness of paternity. The character of the childless woman does not suffer from the absence of that beneficent discipline and development which come from parentage as does the character of the man. It is very instructive to observe how unmarried or childless women