Manuscript Releases, vol. 12 [Nos. 921-999]

MR No. 926—Ibid.

MR No. 927—Country Living

The Benefits of Country Living—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 in a garden, amid the beautiful sights and sounds of nature, and these sights and sounds He desires men to rejoice in today. The more nearly we can come in harmony with God's original plan, the more favorable will be our position for the recovery and the preservation of health. 12MR 30.1

Our retired location will offer comparative freedom from any of the temptations of city life. Here [A new sanitarium was being developed at wahroonga, about 13 miles from sydney, australia.] are no liquor-selling hotels or dram-shops on every corner to tempt the unfortunate victim of intemperance. And the pure sights and sounds, the clear, invigorating air, and the sense of God's presence pervading all nature, tend to uplift the mind, to soften the heart, and to strengthen the will to resist temptation.—Manuscript 12, 1900, 1-2. (“Who Will Help?” January 31, 1900.) 12MR 30.2

Contrasts Between City and Country Living—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. 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. 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. Every mind is controlled either by the power of Satan or the power of God. If God controls our minds, what shall we be?—Christian gentlemen and Christian ladies. God can fill our lives with His peace and gladness and joy. He wants His joy to be in us, that our joy may be full. 12MR 30.3

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. “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Matthew 6:28, 29). Parents, point your children to the beautiful things of God's creation, and from these things teach them of His love for them. Point them to the lovely flowers—the roses and the lilies and the pinks—and then point them to the living God.—Manuscript 10, 1903, 11, 12. (“Lessons From Sending Out the Spies,” March 28, 1903.) 12MR 31.1

The Time of God's Judgments a Time of Opportunity for the Unwarned—The time of God's destructive judgments is the time of mercy for those who have no opportunity to learn what is truth. Tenderly will the Lord look upon them. His heart of mercy is touched; His hand is still stretched out to save, while the door is closed to those who would not enter. Large numbers will be admitted who in these last days hear the truth for the first time.—Letter 103, 1903, p. 4. (To G. B. Starr and wife, June 3, 1903.) 12MR 32.1

White Estate

Washington, D. C.,

May 20, 1982.