From our present point of view we would also criticize Hodge, Systematic Theology, 1:596—“Because we get our idea of force from mind, it does not follow that mind is the only force. That mind is a cause is no proof that electricity may not be a cause. If matter is force and nothing but force, then matter is nothing, and the external world is simply God. In spite of such argument, men will believe that the external world is a reality—that matter is, and that it is the cause of the effects we attribute to its agency.” New Englander, Sept. 1883:552—“Man in early time used second causes, _i. e._, machines, very little to accomplish his purposes. His usual mode of action was by the direct use of his hands, or his voice, and he naturally ascribed to the gods the same method as his own. His own use of second causes has led man to higher conceptions of the divine action.” Dorner: “If the world had no independence, it would not reflect God, nor would creation mean anything.” But this independence is not absolute. Even man lives, moves and has his being in God (_Acts 17:28_), and whatever has come into being, whether material or spiritual, has life only in Christ (_John 1:3, 4_, marginal reading). Preservation is God’s continuous willing. Bowne, Introd. to Psych. Theory, 305, speaks of “a kind of wholesale willing.” Augustine: “Dei voluntas est rerum natura.” Principal Fairbairn: “Nature is spirit.” Tennyson, The Ancient Sage: “Force is from the heights.” Lord Gifford, quoted in Max Müller, Anthropological Religion, 392—“The human soul is neither self-derived nor self-subsisting. It would vanish if it had not a substance, and its substance is God.” Upton, Hibbert Lectures, 284, 285—“Matter is simply spirit in its lowest form of manifestation. The absolute Cause must be that deeper Self which we find at the heart of our own self-consciousness. By self-differentiation God creates both matter and mind.” (_c_) God’s sovereignty requires a belief in his special preserving agency; since this sovereignty would not be absolute, if anything occurred or existed independent of his will. James Martineau, Seat of Authority, 29, 30—“All cosmic force is will.... This identification of nature with God’s will _would_ be pantheistic only _if_ we turned the proposition round and identified God with _no more_ than the life of the universe. But we do not deny transcendency. Natural forces are God’s will, but God’s will _is_ more than they. He is not the equivalent of the All, but its directing Mind. God is not the rage of the wild beast, nor the sin of man. There are things and beings objective to him.... He puts his power into that which is _other than himself_, and he parts with _other use of it_ by preëngagement to an end. Yet he is the continuous source and supply of power to the system.”