Encourage the patients to be much in the open air. Devise plans to keep them out of doors, where, through nature, they can commune with God. Locate sanitariums on extensive tracts of land, where, in the cultivation of the soil, patients can have opportunity for healthful, outdoor exercise. Such exercise, combined with hygienic treatment, will work miracles in restoring and invigorating the diseased body and refreshing the worn and weary mind. Amid conditions so favorable the patients will not require so much care as if confined in a sanitarium in the city. Nor will they in the country be so much inclined to discontentment and repining. They will be ready to learn lessons in regard to the love of God, ready to acknowledge that He who cares so wonderfully for the birds and the flowers will care for the creatures formed in His own image. Thus opportunity is given physicians and helpers to reach souls, uplifting the God of nature before those who are seeking restoration to health. (7T 78.1) MC VC

In the night season I was given a view of a sanitarium in the country. The institution was not large, but it was complete. It was surrounded by beautiful trees and shrubbery, beyond which were orchards and groves. Connected with the place were gardens, in which the lady patients, when they chose, could cultivate flowers of every description, each patient selecting a special plot for which to care. Outdoor exercise in these gardens was prescribed as a part of the regular treatment. (7T 78.2) MC VC

Scene after scene passed before me. In one scene a number of suffering patients had just come to one of our country sanitariums. In another I saw the same company; but, oh, how transformed their appearance! Disease had gone, the skin was clear, the countenance joyful; body and mind seemed animated with new life. (7T 78.3) MC VC

I was also instructed that as those who have been sick are restored to health in our country sanitariums and return to their homes, they will be living object lessons, and many others will be favorably impressed by the transformation that has taken place in them. Many of the sick and suffering will turn from the cities to the country, refusing to conform to the habits, customs, and fashions of city life; they will seek to regain health in some one of our country sanitariums. Thus, though we are removed from the cities twenty or thirty miles, we shall be able to reach the people, and those who desire health will have opportunity to regain it under conditions most favorable. (7T 79.1) MC VC

God will work wonders for us if we will in faith co-operate with Him. Let us, then, pursue a sensible course, that our efforts may be blessed of heaven and crowned with success. (7T 79.2) MC VC

Why should not the young men and the young women who are seeking to obtain a knowledge of how to care for the sick have most liberally the advantage of nature’s wonderful resources? Why should they not be most diligently taught to value and to use these resources? (7T 79.3) MC VC

In the location of sanitariums our physicians have missed the mark. They have not used the provisions of nature as they may. God desires that the places chosen for sanitarium work be beautiful, that the patients be surrounded with everything that delights the senses. May God help us to do our utmost to utilize the life-giving power of sunshine and fresh air. When we as a people closely follow the Lord’s plan in our sanitarium work, nature’s resources will be appreciated. (7T 79.4) MC VC