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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