The instruction is still being given, Move out of the cities. Establish your sanitariums, your schools, and offices away from the centres of population. Many now will plead to remain in the cities, but the time will come erelong when all who wish to avoid the sights and sounds of evil will move into the country; for wickedness and

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corruption will increase to such a degree that the very atmosphere of the cities will seem to be polluted.-- Letter 26, 1907.

To Avoid Temptation and Corruption

Some have wondered why our office of publication should be moved from Oakland to Mountain View. God has been calling upon His people to leave the cities. The youth who are connected with our institutions should not be exposed to the temptations and the corruption to be found in the large cities. Mountain View has seemed to be a favourable location for the printing office.-- Manuscript 148, 1905.

Stormy Times Are Before Us

This disaster [the burning of the Review and Herald building] may make a decided change in affairs. I hope that our brethren will heed the lesson that God is trying to teach them, and that they will not rebuild the publishing house in Battle Creek. God means that we shall not locate in the cities; for there are very stormy times before us.-- Letter 2, 1903.

Where the Youth May Be Taught Most Effectively

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.

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.

Working the Cities From Outposts

As far as possible, our institutions should be located away from the cities. We must have workers for these institutions, and if they are

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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 demoralised 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.

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.

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.

In Easy Access to the Cities

Let men of sound judgement be appointed, not to publish abroad their intentions, but to search for such properties in the rural districts, in easy access to the cities, suitable for small training schools for workers, and where facilities may also be provided for treating the sick and weary souls who know not the truth. Look for such places just out from the large cities, where suitable buildings may be secured, either as a gift from the owners, or purchased at a reasonable price by the gifts of our people. Do not erect buildings in the noisy cities.--Medical Ministry, pp. 308, 309. (1909)

Lessons From Enoch and Lot

As God's commandment-keeping people, we must leave the cities. As did Enoch, we must work in the cities but not dwell in them.-- Evangelism, pp. 78, 79. (1899)

When iniquity abounds in a nation, there is always to be heard some voice giving warning and instruction, as the voice of Lot was heard in Sodom. Yet Lot could have preserved his family from many evils, had he not made his home in this wicked, polluted city. All that Lot and his family did in Sodom could have been done by them, even if they had lived in a place some distance away from the city. Enoch

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walked with God, and yet he did not live in the midst of any city, polluted with every kind of violence and wickedness, as did Lot in Sodom.-- Evangelism, p. 79. (1903)

Churches, but Not Institutions in the Cities

Repeatedly the Lord has instructed us that we are to work the cities from outpost centres. 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.

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 centres have been established away from the congested heart of the cities, as outpost centres. 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 centres to establish the work on a firm basis, in order that it may be carried forward solidly.-- Special Testimonies, Series B, No. 8, pp. 7, 8. (1907)

We are to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves in our efforts to secure country properties at a low figure, and from these outpost centres we are to work the cities.-- Special Testimonies, Series B, No. 14, p. 7. (1902)

The Message Given by the Lord

"Out of the cities; out of the cities!''--this is the message the Lord has been giving me. The earthquakes will come; the floods will come; and we are not to establish ourselves in the wicked cities, where the enemy is served in every way, and where God is so often forgotten. The Lord desires that we shall have clear spiritual eyesight. We must be quick to discern the peril that would attend the establishment of institutions in these wicked cities. We must make wise plans to warn the cities, and at the same time live where we can shield our

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children and ourselves from the contaminating and demoralising influences so prevalent in these places.-- Life Sketches, pp. 409, 410. (1906)