COUNTRY LIVING

As conditions in our world build toward the final events, Seventh-day Adventists recall the Lord's instruction about leaving the cities, with their congestion, corruption, and conflicts. The cities do not provide a wholesome environment for Christian families. CL 3.3

Parents flock with their families to the cities, because they fancy it easier to obtain a livelihood there than in the country. The children, having nothing to do when not in school, obtain a street education. From evil associates, they acquire habits of vice and dissipation. The parents see all this, but it will require a sacrifice to correct their error, and they stay where they are, until Satan gains full control of their children. CL 5.2

Instead of the crowded city, seek some retired situation where your children will be, so far as possible, shielded from temptation, and there train and educate them for usefulness. The prophet Ezekiel thus enumerates the causes that led to Sodom's sin and destruction: “Pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters; neither did she strengthen the hands of the poor and needy.” All who would escape the doom of Sodom, must shun the course that brought God's judgments upon that wicked city.

—Testimonies for the Church 5:232, 233 (1882). CL 5.4

Life in the cities is false and artificial. The intense passion for money getting, the whirl of excitement and pleasure seeking, the thirst for display, the luxury and extravagance, all are forces that, with the great masses of mankind, are turning the mind from life's true purpose. They are opening the door to a thousand evils. Upon the youth they have almost irresistible power. CL 6.1

It was not God's purpose that people should be crowded into cities, huddled together in terraces and tenements. In the beginning He placed our first parents amidst the beautiful sights and sounds He desires us to rejoice in today. The more nearly we come into harmony with God's original plan, the more favorable will be our position to secure health of body, and mind, and soul.

—The Ministry of Healing, 363-365 (1905). CL 6.5

It was not God's purpose that people should be crowded into cities, huddled together in terraces and tenements. In the beginning He placed our first parents amidst the beautiful sights and sounds He desires us to rejoice in today. The more nearly we come into harmony with God's original plan, the more favorable will be our position to secure health of body, and mind, and soul.—The Ministry of Healing, 363-365 (1905). CL 6.5

O that God's people had a sense of the impending destruction of thousands of cities, now almost given to idolatry.—The Review and Herald, September 10, 1903. CL 8.4

We are not to locate ourselves where we will be forced into close relations with those who do not honor God.... A crisis is soon to come in regard to the observance of Sunday.... CL 20.2

The Sunday party is strengthening itself in its false claims, and this will mean oppression to those who determine to keep the Sabbath of the Lord. We are to place ourselves where we can carry out the Sabbath commandment in its fullness. “Six days shalt thou labor,” the Lord declares, “and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work.” And we are to be careful not to place ourselves where it will be hard for ourselves and our children to keep the Sabbath. CL 20.3

They are not to colonize. Jesus said, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Mark 16:15. When the disciples followed their inclination to remain in large numbers in Jerusalem, persecution was permitted to come upon them, and they were scattered to all parts of the inhabited world. CL 21.2

For years messages of warning and entreaty have been coming to our people, urging them to go forth into the Master's great harvest-field, and labor unselfishly for souls. CL 21.3

It is not the purpose of God that His people should colonize, or settle together in large communities. The disciples of Christ are His representatives upon the earth, and God designs that they shall be scattered all over the country, in the towns, cities, and villages, as lights amidst the darkness of the world. They are to be missionaries for God, by their faith and works testifying to the near approach of the coming Saviour. CL 22.1

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.” 17LtMs, Lt 182, 1902, par. 15