Ellen White quotes.
The Divine Ideal
Although everything God had made was in the perfection of beauty, and there seemed nothing wanting upon the earth which God had created to make Adam and Eve happy, yet He manifested His great love to them by planting a garden especially for them. A portion of their time was to be occupied in the happy employment of dressing the garden, and a portion in receiving the visits of angels, listening to their instruction, and in happy meditation. Their labour was not wearisome, but pleasant and invigorating. This beautiful garden was to be their home, their special residence. 3SG 34 (1864).
What were the conditions chosen by the infinite Father for His Son? A secluded home in the Galilean hills; a household sustained by honest, self-respecting labour; a life of simplicity; daily conflict with difficulty and hardship; self-sacrifice, economy, and patient, gladsome service; the hour of study at His mother’s side, with the open scroll of Scripture; the quiet of dawn or twilight in the green valley; the holy ministries of nature; the study of creation and providence and the soul’s communion with God–these were the conditions and opportunities of the early life of Jesus. MH 365, 366 (1905).
Away From the Cities
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. 2SM 356 (1903).
Out of the cities, is my message at this time. Be assured that the call is for our people to locate miles away from the large cities. One look at San Francisco as it is today would speak to your intelligent minds, showing you the necessity of getting out of the cities.
The Lord calls for His people to locate away from the cities, for in such an hour as ye think not, fire and brimstone will be rained from heaven upon these cities. Proportionate to their sins will be their visitation. When one city is destroyed, let not our people regard this matter as a light affair, and think that they may, if favourable opportunity offers, build themselves homes in that same destroyed city.
Let all who would understand the meaning of these things read the eleventh chapter of Revelation. Read every verse, and learn the things that are yet to take place in the cities. Read also the scenes portrayed in the eighteenth chapter of the same book. MR 1518 (May 10, 1906).
Fathers and mothers who possess a piece of land and a comfortable home are kings and queens. AH 141 (1894).
Cities to Be Worked From Outposts
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. Ev 77, 78 (1899).
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.” 2SM 358 (1902).
For years I have been given special light that we are not to centre our work in the cities. The turmoil and confusion that fill these cities, the conditions brought about by the labour unions and the strikes, would prove a great hindrance to our work. 7T 84 (1902).
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. Ev 78 (1903).
For the present, some will be obliged to labour in Chicago, but these should be preparing working centres in rural districts from which to work the city. The Lord would have His people looking about them and securing humble, inexpensive places as centres for their work. And from time to time larger places will come to their notice, which they will be able to secure at a surprisingly low price. Ev 402 (1906).
Rich Blessings in a Natural Environment
We say again, “Out of the cities.” Do not consider it a great deprivation that you must go into the hills and mountains, but seek for that retirement where you can be alone with God, to learn His will and way.
I urge our people to make it their lifework to seek for spirituality. Christ is at the door. This is why I say to our people, “Do not consider it a privation when you are called to leave the cities and move out into the country places. Here there await rich blessings for those who will grasp them. By beholding the scenes of nature, the works of the Creator, by studying God’s handiwork, imperceptibly you will be changed into the same image.” 2SM 355, 356 (1908).
Character Development Easier in the Country
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. 5T 232 (1882)
Send the children to schools located in the city, where every phase of temptation is waiting to attract and demoralise them, and the work of character building is tenfold harder for both parents and children. FE 326 (1894).
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. AH 136 (1902).
It is time for our people to take their families from the cities into more retired localities, else many of the youth, and many also of those older in years, will be ensnared and taken by the enemy. 8T 101 (1904).
There is not one family in a hundred who will be improved physically, mentally, or spiritually, by residing in the city. Faith, hope, love, happiness, can far better be gained in retired places, where there are fields and hills and trees. Take your children away from the sights and sounds of the city, away from the rattle and din of streetcars and teams, and their minds will become more healthy. It will be found easier to bring home to their hearts the truth of the Word of God. AH 137 (1905).
Better Physical Health in Rural Environment
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. 2SM 357 (1902).
To many of those living in the cities who have not a spot of green grass to set their feet upon, who year after year have looked out upon filthy courts and narrow alleys, brick walls and pavements and skies clouded with dust and smoke–if these could be taken to some farming district, surrounded with the green fields, the woods and hills and brooks, the clear skies and the fresh, pure air of the country, it would seem almost like heaven. MH 191, 192 (1905).
The physical surroundings in the cities are often a peril to health. The constant liability to contact with disease, the prevalence of foul air, impure water, impure food, the crowded, dark, unhealthful dwellings, are some of the many evils to be met. It was not God’s purpose that people should be crowded into cities, huddled together in terraces and tenements. MH 365 (1905).
Raise Your Own Provisions
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, 358 (1902).
Again and again the Lord has instructed that our people are to take their families away from the cities, into the country, where they can raise their own provisions, for in the future the problem of buying andselling will be a very serious one. We should now begin to heed the instruction given us over and over again: Get out of the cities into rural districts, where the houses are not crowded closely together, and where you will be free from the interference of enemies. 2SM 141 (1904).