Chapter 1—A Call to Leave the Cities
The Perils of the Cities
Few realize the importance of shunning, so far as possible, all as-
sociations unfriendly to religious life. In choosing their surroundings,
few make their spiritual prosperity the first consideration.
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. The
parents see all this, but it will require a sacrifice to correct their error,
and they stay where they are, until Satan gains full control of their
children.
Better sacrifice any and every worldly consideration than to imperil
the precious souls committed to your care. They will be assailed by
temptations, and should be taught to meet them; but it is your duty
to cut off every influence, to break up every habit, to sunder every
tie, that keeps you from the most free, open, and hearty committal of
yourselves and your family to God.
Instead of the crowded city, seek some retired situation where your
children will be, so far as possible, shielded from temptation, and
there train and educate them for usefulness. The prophet Ezekiel thus
enumerates the causes that led to Sodom’s sin and destruction: “Pride,
fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her
daughters; neither did she strengthen the hands of the poor and needy.”
All who would escape the doom of Sodom, must shun the course that
brought God’s judgments upon that wicked city.—
Testimonies for the
Church 5:232, 233
(1882).
City Living Not God’s Plan
The world over, cities are becoming hotbeds of vice. On every
hand are the sights and sounds of evil. Everywhere are enticements to
sensuality and dissipation. The tide of corruption and crime is contin-
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