Watching Point 268

268 — WATCH, when you have cranked your automobile engine to the point where it has started, that you quickly let go of the crank. In the days before the self-starter was invented, if you were not quick enough to get out of the way when the engine started, the crank might even break your wrist.

When we have done our part to put divine power into operation in this human dream, we must quickly withdraw, leaving God to care for the situation, as He will. We have our part to perform, to be sure; but when we have finished it, we must trust God to do His, and not continue to grind out arguments through fear.

When you have sharpened your pencil in the sharpener, your work is done. If you continue longer to grind the sharpener, you merely wear the pencil away. Similarly, when you have reached the point of faith, you should know that you have done what God requires of you, and He will do the rest. Mrs. Eddy once said, “We must talk more closely with God, bring Him nearer to us, more like the old style of praying. We must feel and know that God is what we live in, like the atmosphere or the sunlight. It is all about us. We must rest more in God. When we have a patient, do as well as we can, and let God do the healing. If your children need treatment, do not sit up all night and treat, but treat yourself, and go to bed and to sleep.”

At another time Mrs. Eddy wrote, “The length of time in which to treat the sick depends solely on the periods of their waking from the dream of material sense. You can heal them with one treatment if that one wakens them, breaks the dream; and you must treat them until it is broken and then stop.”