I urge our people to make it their lifework to seek for spirituality. Christ is at the door. This is why I say to our people, “Do not consider it a privation when you are called to leave the cities and move out into the country places. Here there await rich blessings for those who will grasp them. By beholding the scenes of nature, the works of the Creator, by studying God’s handiwork, imperceptibly you will be changed into the same image.”—Manuscript 85, 1908.
(2SM 356.1)
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Expect No Miracle to Undo Results of Wrong Course
VC
I look at these flowers, and every time I see them I think of Eden. They are an expression of God’s love for us. Thus He gives us in this world a little taste of Eden. He wants us to delight in the beautiful things of His creation, and to see in them an expression of what He will do for us.
(2SM 356.2)
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He wants us to live where we can have elbow room. His people are not to crowd into the cities. He wants them to take their families out of the cities, that they may better prepare for eternal life. In a little while they will have to leave the cities.
(2SM 356.3)
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These cities are filled with wickedness of every kind—with strikes and murders and suicides. Satan is in them, controlling men in their work of destruction. Under his influence they kill for the sake of killing, and this they will do more and more
(2SM 356.4)
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If we place ourselves under objectionable influences, can we expect God to work a miracle to undo the results of our wrong course?—No, indeed. Get out of the cities as soon as possible, and purchase a little piece of land, where you can have a garden, where your children can watch the flowers growing, and learn from them lessons of simplicity and purity.—The General Conference Bulletin, March 30, 1903.
(2SM 356.5)
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The instruction is still being given, “Move out of the cities. Establish your sanitariums, your schools, and offices away from the centers of population.” Many now will plead to remain in the cities, but the time will come ere-long when all who wish to avoid the sights and sounds of evil will move into the country; for wickedness and corruption will increase to such a degree that the very atmosphere of the cities will seem to be polluted.—Letter 26, 1907.
(2SM 357.1)
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God has sent warning after warning that our schools and publishing houses and sanitariums are to be established out of the city, in places where the youth may be taught most effectively what is truth. Let no one attempt to use the Testimonies to vindicate the establishment of large business interests in the cities. Do not make of no effect the light that has been given upon this subject.
(2SM 357.2)
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Men will arise speaking perverse things, to counterwork the very movements that the Lord is leading His servants to make. But it is time that men and women reasoned from cause to effect. It is too late, too late, to establish large business firms in the cities—too late to call young men and women from the country to the city. Conditions are arising in the cities that will make it very hard for those of our faith to remain in them. It would therefore be a great mistake to invest money in the establishment of business interests in the cities.—Manuscript 76, 1905.
(2SM 357.3)
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As far as possible, our institutions should be located away from the cities. We must have workers for these institutions, and if they are located in the city, that means that families of our people must settle near them. But it is not God’s will that His people shall settle in the cities, where there is constant turmoil and confusion. Their children should be spared this; for the whole system is demoralized by the hurry and rush and noise. The Lord desires His people to move into the country, where they can settle on the land, and raise their own fruit and vegetables, and where their children can be brought in direct contact with the works of God in nature. Take your families away from the cities is my message.
(2SM 357.4)
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The truth must be spoken, whether men will hear, or whether men will forbear. The cities are filled with temptation. We should plan our work in such a way as to keep our young people as far as possible from this contamination.
(2SM 358.1)
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The cities are to be worked from outposts. Said the messenger of God, “Shall not the cities be warned? Yes; not by God’s people living in them, but by their visiting them, to warn them of what is coming upon the earth.”—Letter 182, 1902.
(2SM 358.2)
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Repeatedly the Lord has instructed us that we are to work the cities from outpost centers. In these cities we are to have houses of worship, as memorials for God; but institutions for the publication of our literature, for the healing of the sick, and for the training of workers, are to be established outside the cities. Especially is it important that our youth be shielded from the temptations of city life.
(2SM 358.3)
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It is in harmony with this instruction, that meeting-houses have been purchased and rededicated in Washington and in Nashville, while the publishing houses and the sanitariums at these centers have been established away from the congested heart of the cities, as outpost centers. This is the plan that has been followed in the removal of other publishing houses and sanitariums into the country, and that is now being followed in Great Britain with regard to the London publishing house and also the training school there. We are now given opportunity to advance in the opening providences of God by Helping our brethren in these and many other important centers to establish the work on a firm basis, in order that it may be carried forward solidly.—Special Testimonies, Series B 08:7-8 (1907).
(2SM 358.4)
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The time has come, when, as God opens the way, families should move out of the cities. The children should be taken into the country. The parents should get as suitable a place as their means will allow. Though the dwelling may be small, yet there should be land in connection with it, that may be cultivated.—Manuscript 50, 1903.
(2SM 360.1)
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Parents can secure small homes in the country, with land for cultivation, where they can have orchards and where they can raise vegetables and small fruits to take the place of flesh meat, which is so corrupting to the life blood coursing through the veins. On such places the children will not be surrounded with the corrupting influences of city life. God will help His people to find such homes outside the cities.—Medical Ministry, 310.
(2SM 360.2)
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More and more, as time advances, our people will have to leave the cities. For years we have been instructed that our brethren and sisters, and especially families with children, should plan to leave the cities as the way opens before them to do so. Many will have to labor earnestly to help open the way. But until it is possible for them to leave, so long as they remain, they should be most active in doing missionary work, however limited their sphere of influence may be.—The Review and Herald, September 27, 1906.
(2SM 360.3)
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