Vol.13 No.5

The Country Advantage
In today’s immoral world, where should a Christian family live?
By Ellen G. White

The gospel is a wonderful simplifier of life’s problems. Its instruction, heeded, would make plain many a perplexity and save us from many an error. It teaches us to estimate things at their true value and to give the most effort to the things of greatest worth—the things that will endure.

This lesson is needed by those upon whom rests the responsibility of selecting a home. Let them remember that the home on earth is to be a symbol of and a preparation for the home in heaven. As the location for a home is sought, let this purpose direct the choice. Be not controlled by the desire for wealth, the dictates of fashion, or the customs of society. Consider what will tend most to simplicity, purity, health, and real worth.

The world over, cities are becoming hotbeds of vice. On every hand are the sights and sounds of evil. Every day brings the record of violence—robberies, murders, suicides, and crimes unnamable.

Life in the cities is false and artificial. The intense passion for money getting, the whirl of excitement and pleasure seeking, the thirst for display, the luxury and extravagance, all are forces that, with the great masses of mankind, are turning the mind from life’s true purpose. They are opening the door to a thousand evils. Upon the youth they have almost irresistible power.

DANGERS OF CITY LIFE

One of the most subtle and dangerous temptations that assail children and youth in the cities is the love of pleasure. Holidays are numerous; games and horse racing draw thousands, and the whirl of excitement and pleasure attracts them away from the sober duties of life. Money that should have been saved for better use is frittered away for amusements. Serious troubles are before us; and for many families, removal from the cities will become a necessity.

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. In the beginning He placed our first parents amidst the beautiful sights and sounds He desires us to rejoice in today. The more nearly we come into harmony with God’s original plan, the more favorable will be our position to secure health of body, and mind, and soul.

AVOID LUXURIOUS LIVING

An expensive dwelling, elaborate furnishings, display, luxury, and ease, do not furnish the conditions essential to a happy, useful life. Jesus came to this earth to accomplish the greatest work ever accomplished among men. 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 labor; 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.

So with the great majority of the best and noblest of men. Read the history of Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, and Elisha. Study the lives of men who have most worthily filled positions of trust and responsibility.

Many of these were reared in country homes. They knew little of luxury. They did not spend their youth in amusement. Many were forced to struggle with poverty and hardship. They early learned to work, and their active life in the open air gave vigor and elasticity to all their faculties.

Forced to depend upon their own resources, they learned to combat difficulties and surmount obstacles. They gained courage, perseverance; they learned self-reliance and self-control.

When called to their lifework, they brought to it physical and mental power, buoyancy of spirit, the ability to plan and execute, and steadfastness in resisting evil, that made them a positive power for good in the world.

Better than any other inheritance of wealth you can give to your children will be the gift of a healthy body, a sound mind, and a noble character. Go where, apart from the distractions and dissipations of city life, you can give your children your companionship, where you can teach them to learn of God through His works, and train them for lives of integrity and usefulness.

SIMPLICITY

Our artificial habits deprive us of many blessings and much enjoyment, and unfit us for living the most useful lives. Elaborate and expensive furnishings are a waste not only of the money, but of that which is a thousandfold more precious. They bring into the home a heavy burden of care and labor and perplexity. This work, and the other artificial habits of the family in its conformity to fashion demand of the housewife unending toil.

In many a home the wife and mother has no time to read, to keep herself well informed, no time to be a companion to her husband, no time to keep in touch with the developing minds of her children. There is no time or place for the precious Savior to be a close, dear companion. Little by little she sinks into a mere household drudge [menial worker].

Let the homemakers resolve to live on a wiser plan. Let it be your first aim to make a pleasant home. Be sure to provide the facilities that will lighten labor and promote health and comfort.

Plan for the entertainment of the guests whom Christ has bidden us welcome, and of whom He says, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.” Matthew 25:40.

Furnish your home with things plain and simple, things that will bear handling, that can be easily kept clean, and that can be replaced without great expense. By exercising taste, you can make a very simple home attractive and inviting, if love and contentment are there.

GOD AND BEAUTY

God loves the beautiful. He has clothed the earth and heavens with beauty. He desires us to surround our homes with the beauty of natural things.

Nearly all dwellers in the country, however poor, could have about their homes a bit of grassy lawn, a few shade trees, flowering shrubbery, or fragrant blossoms. [These things] will bring into the home life a softening, refining influence, strengthening the love of nature, and drawing the members of the household nearer to one another and nearer to God.

* Ellen G. White (1827-1915) was a Christian author and speaker whose writings have been translated worldwide. A wife and mother of four (one of whom died as an infant, another as a teenager), she wrote extensively about principles for Christian families. Adapted from The Ministry of Healing, “Choice and Preparation of the Home.” To order, call 1-800-774-3566.