- The Cities -

     Satan put his interpretation upon events, and they [the rulers] think as he would have them, that the calamities which fill the land are a result of Sunday-breaking. Thinking to appease the wrath of God, these influential men make laws enforcing Sunday observance. They think that by exalting this false rest day higher and still higher, compelling obedience to the Sunday law, the spurious sabbath, they are doing God service. Those who honor God by observing the true Sabbath are looked upon as disloyal to God, when it is really themselves who are disloyal, because they are trampling underfoot the Sabbath originated in Eden.

     The Lord expects his people to have faith in the living God who made all things. The chosen people of God will be proved and tried before they are pronounced good and faithful servants, worthy to inherit eternal life with its endowment of heavenly merits. The Lord brought Israel out of bondage, desolating the fertile land of Egypt to accomplish his purpose, to teach them the first and highest lesson--that God was their God, the only true and living God, and that in Him they must trust....

     The Lord God of Israel is to execute judgment upon the gods of this world as [He did] upon the gods of Egypt. With fire and flood, plagues and earthquakes, He will spoil the whole land. Then his redeemed people will exalt His name and make it glorious in the earth. Shall not those who are living in the last remnant of earth's history become intelligent in regard to God's lessons?

     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.

     There are troublous times before us, and while we can, we should place our work upon a proper basis, leaving the large cities, and securing land in the country. Especially is it essential that our sanitariums be established in the country.

     I saw also that costly buildings in the cities, supposed to be fireproof, would be consumed....Yet God has not executed His wrath without mercy. His hand is stretched out still. His message must be given in Greater New York. The people must be shown how it is possible for God, by a touch of His hand, to destroy the property they have gathered together against the last great day.

     A little longer will the voice of mercy be heard. A little longer will the gracious invitation be given, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink" [John 7:37]. God sends His warning message to the cities everywhere....

     John writes, "And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power: and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities" [Revelation 18:1-5].

     These words of this scripture are to be fulfilled. Soon the last test is to come to all the inhabitants of the earth. At that time prompt decisions will be made. Those who have been convicted under the presentation of the Word, will range themselves under the bloodstained banner of Prince Emmanuel. They will see and understand as never before that they have missed many opportunities for doing the good they ought to have done. They will realize that they have not worked as zealously as they should to seek and save the lost, to snatch them, as it were, out of the fire.

     The outlook in our world is indeed alarming. God is withdrawing His Spirit from the wicked cities, which have become as Sodom and Gomorrah. The inhabitants of these cities have been tested and tried. We have reached a time when God is about to punish the presumptuous wrongdoers who refuse to keep His commandments and disregard His message of warning. He who bears long with evildoers gives everyone an opportunity to seek Him and humble their hearts before Him. Everyone has opportunity to come to Christ and be converted that He may heal them. But there will come a time when mercy will no longer be offered. Costly mansions, marvels of architectural skill, will be destroyed without a moments's notice, when the Lord sees that their owners have passed the boundaries of forgiveness. The destruction by fire of the stately buildings, supposed to be fireproof, is an illustration of how in a short time earth's architecture will lie in ruins.

     "And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, he said, As for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And they asked him, saying, Master, but when shall these things be? and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass? And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them. But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by. Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake" [Luke 21:5-12].

     Many of these judgments came upon Jerusalem. But it was not alone of Jerusalem that Christ spoke. He looked down the ages past the destruction of Jerusalem to the time when at the end of this earth's history the great and final visitation of God's wrath will be seen.

     The twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew gives an outline of what is to come upon the world. We are living amid the perils of the last days. Those who are perishing in sin must be warned. The Lord calls upon everyone to whom He has entrusted the talent of means to act as His helping hand by giving their money for the advancement of His work. Our money is a treasure lent us by the Lord, and it is to be invested in the work of giving to the world the last message of mercy....Remember that those who spend in self-gratification the money that should be used to open doors for gospel work, suffer an eternal loss....He who looks at earthly things as the chief good; he who spends his life in efforts to gain worldly riches, is indeed making a poor investment. Too late he will see that in which he has trusted crumbling into dust.

     I cannot give one word of counsel about huddling in the city. I cannot do it myself, and yet it may look very different to others....We know that the end is near, and every city is to be turned upside down in every way. There will be confusion in every city. Everything that can be shaken is to be shaken, and we do not know what will come next. The judgments will be according to the wickedness of the people and the light of truth that they have had. If they have had the truth, according to that light will be the punishment.

     Christ pronounced His woes on the cities that had most of His instruction. That is why I am so afraid of their putting up a great sanitarium building in Battle Creek, or any other place where the truth has been known for years....

     Here [in Los Angeles, proposed building site], you may say, the light has not been shining so long. No, it has not, but still the word has come that sanitariums should be located out of the cities. God has a purpose in that. He told the children of Israel that, when the plagues should come, they must go out of the Egyptians' houses, for if they were found mingled with the Egyptians, they would be destroyed with them. They must be a separate people. So our institutions should have every advantage possible, not as far as grand buildings are concerned, but in location. The buildings are not half as much consequence as the space and grounds around a sanitarium....

     Americans do not know what they are about in Oakland or San Francisco in entertaining all the foreigners that come there. These foreigners are laying their plans what they will do, just as in the case of Hezekiah and the Babylonians. Hezekiah thought it was going to give him influence to show the ambassadors all his treasures and advantages. But they went away, and began to plan what they would do. They would have those advantages for themselves. The work in Battle Creek is after the same order. The leaders in the sanitarium have mingled with unbelievers, admitting them and their councils, more or less. But it is like going to work with their eyes shut. They lack the discernment to see what is going to break upon us at any time. There is a spirit of desperation, of war and bloodshed, and that spirit will increase until the very close of time. Just as soon as the people of God are sealed in their foreheads--it is not any seal or mark that can be seen, but a settling into the truth, both intellectually and spiritually, so they cannot be moved;--just as soon as God's people are sealed and prepared for the shaking, it will come. Indeed, it has begun already. The judgments of God are now upon the land, to give us warning, that we may know what is coming.

     The Lord has at no time guided in large plans that have been laid for buildings in Los Angeles. He has given light as to how we should move, and yet movements have been made that are contrary to the light and instruction given....This place is as Sodom for wickedness....Leave the cities, and like Enoch, come from your retirement to warn the people of the cities....

     As far as possible, our institutions should be located away from the cities. We must have workers for these institutions, and if the institutions are located in the city, that means the 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 demoralized 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 fruits 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 their visiting them to warn them of what is coming upon the earth."

     The work of the people of God is to prepare for the events of the future, which will soon come upon them with blinding force. In the world gigantic monopolies will be formed. Men will bind themselves together in unions that will wrap them in the folds of the enemy. A few men will combine to grasp all the means to be obtained in certain lines of business. Trades unions will be formed, and those who refuse to join these unions will be marked men.

     It is time for us to take our work out of the cities. Our sanitariums should be furnished with facilities for giving the sick the best of care, and they should be properly conducted, but they should be as far as possible from the cities. The whole world is to be tested, and obedience to the law of God is to be the test.

     Unionism has revealed what it is by the spirit that it has manifested. It is controlled by the cruel power of Satan. Those who refuse to join the unions formed are made to feel this power. The principles governing the forming of these unions seem innocent, but men have to pledge themselves to serve the interests of these unions, or else they may have to pay penalty of refusal with their lives.

     These unions are one of the signs of the last days. Men are binding up in bundles ready to be burned. They may be church members, but while they belong to these unions, they cannot possibly keep the commandments of God, for to belong to these unions means to disregard the entire decalogue.

     "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself" [Luke 10:27]. These words sum up the whole duty of men. They mean the consecration of the whole being, body, soul, and spirit, to God's service. How can men obey these words, and at the same time pledge themselves to support that which deprives their neighbor's freedom of action? And how can one obey these words, and form combinations that rob the poorer classes of the advantages that justly belong to them from buying or selling, except under certain conditions?

     How plainly the words of God have predicted this condition of things. John writes, "I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon....And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name" [Revelation 13:11, 16-17].

     The forming of these unions is one of Satan's last efforts. God calls upon His people to get out of the cities isolating themselves from the world. The farther away we move from the cities the better it will be; for they are filled with men who have no sense of honor or true elevation, men who are ambitious for gain, and who to obtain gain will resort to any means.

     The same state of things exists today that existed before the flood, and the nearer we get to the large cities, the worse the evil is. My message is, Do not build up sanitariums in the cities. The laws of the land will become more and more oppressive, as in the days of Noah.

     How long will the Lord suffer oppression of the poor that rich men may hoard wealth? These men are heaping together treasures for the last days. Their money is placed where it does no one any good. To add to their millions, they rob the poor, and the cries of the starving are no more to them than the barking of a dog. But the Lord marks every act of oppression. No cry of suffering is unheard by Him. Those who today are scheming to obtain more land more money, putting in operation plans that mean to the poor starvation, will in the last great day stand face to face with their deeds of oppression and injustice.

     Those who claim to be the children of God are in no case to bind up with the labor unions that are formed or that shall be formed. This the Lord forbids. Cannot those who study the prophecies see and understand what is before us? The transgressor of the law of God have taken sides with their leader, the general of rebellion. He understands how to devise his satanic schemes and through who to work for the carrying out of them. He is striving to lead every soul to take sides with him, and under the influence of his temptations, thousands are binding themselves up in bundles, ready to be consumed by the fires of the last day. Those who yield to his temptation become in their turn tempters, standing among the ablest of his helpers.

     In the time of the harvest the Lord will say to His reapers, "Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn" [Matthew 13:30]. God has a people on the earth who will see the evil of every phase of oppression, and will refuse to unite with the enemy in carrying out his plans....

     God helps us to walk and work as men and woman on the border of the eternal world. Soon an awful surprise will come upon the inhabitants of the earth. Suddenly, and with power and great glory, Christ will come.

     It is time for our people to take their families from the cities into more retired localities, else many of the youth, and many of those older in years, who put their trust in their own capabilities, will be ensnared and taken by the enemy.

     The Lord desires you to be of good courage. He has a work for you to do in evangelistic lines, a work demanding more distinctly spiritual efforts than the work in which you have been engaged. The greatest and most important work in which we can engage is the preparation of a people to stand in the day of God, upon which we are just entering. May the Lord help you, my brother, to devote your God-given capabilities to winning souls to Christ. Rest in God, and walk humbly with Him. You will need much of the rich grace of the Saviour, and a deep, settled conviction that the work of the people of God is to prepare for the events of the future, which will soon come upon them with blinding force.

     Men will bind themselves together in unions that will wrap them in the folds of the enemy. A few men will combine to grasp all the means to be obtained in certain lines of business. Trades unions will be formed, and those who refuse to join these unions will be marked men.

     It is time for us to take our work out of the cities. Our sanitariums should be furnished with facilities for giving the sick the best of care, and they should be properly conducted; but they should be as far as possible from the cities. The whole world is to be tested, and obedience to the law of God is to be the test.

     Unionism has revealed what it is by the spirit that it has manifested. It is controlled by the cruel power of Satan. Those who refuse to join the unions formed are made to feel this power. The principles governing the forming of these unions seem innocent, but men have to pledge themselves to serve the interests of these unions, or else they may have to pay the penalty of refusal with their lives.

     These unions are one of the signs of the last days. Men are binding up in bundles ready to be burned. They may be church members, but while they belong to these unions, they cannot possibly keep the commandments of God; for to belong to these unions means to disregard the entire decalogue.

     "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself" (Luke 10:27). These words sum up the whole duty of man. They mean the consecration of the whole being, body, soul, and spirit, to God's service. How can men obey these words, and at the same time pledge themselves to support that which deprives their neighbors of freedom of action? And how can men obey these words, and form combinations that rob the poorer classes of the advantages which justly belong to them, preventing them from buying or selling, except under certain conditions! How plainly the words of God have predicted this condition of things. John writes, "I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon....And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive the mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name" [Revelation 13:11, 16].

     God calls upon His people to get out of the cities, isolating themselves from the world. The time will come when they will have to do this. God will care for those who love Him and keep His commandments.

     Brother and Sister Burden, we must now put on the whole armor of righteousness. We must be as true as steel to principle, standing steadfastly against every species of corruption. It is this steadfast adherence to principle that is to distinguish those who bear the seal of the living God from those who have the mark of the beast.

     I write you this that in a guarded but decided way you may advise our people to keep out of the cities. But the cities must be worked; yes, and our people have been asleep, while Satan has been sowing his tares.

     I have said little in regard to moving the food factory from Cooranbong to Sydney or even to Wahroonga, because I do not see what advantage there would be in doing this. The farther away we are from the cities, the better it will be; for they are filled with men who have no sense of honor or true elevation, men who are ambitious for gain, and who to obtain gain will resort to any means.

     Even some among those who profess to believe the truth will through following wrong principles become greedy for advantage. There are those in our institutions who have for so long worked for selfish ends that they cannot be trusted. They have no sense of honor, or truth, or holiness, or righteousness. Selfishness and greed have expelled from the heart the sanctifying principles of the truth. They have lost all sense of distinction between right and wrong. And because they are in responsible positions--as if position made the man--they say, "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we" [Jeremiah 7:4],--holy because we are handling holy things. But the fact that they occupy an exalted position of trust only makes their guilt a hundred-fold greater.

     Those who love God and keep His commandments will not grasp for the highest wages. But there are those who strive to add to their wages without stopping to ask themselves whether in so doing they are not robbing a fellow worker whose lines have not fallen to him in pleasant places. Those who reason from this selfish standpoint will receive punishment with the open sinner, only they will be punished more severely, because they had opportunities and light that the open sinner had not.

     There are many who will so outrage conscience and the law of God that in their hearts the pure, holy principles of truth will be corrupted. Between righteousness and truth and unrighteousness and fraud they will see no difference. Their judgment is perverted, and the position of trust they occupy is made a means of doing dishonest transactions, when they think that they can do this without detection.

     In every city in this land there are those who know not the truth. There are many new fields, in which we must plow the ground and sow the seed. God says to us: "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins" [Isaiah 58:1]. We are to make known to the men and women of the world what God's test is that, if they will, they may refuse to receive the seal of the papacy....

     The powers of darkness will assail us, but we have a God who is above all. He can take care of His people. He can make a refuge for His people wherever they are. What He wants us to do is to stand where He can reveal His glory through us, that it may be known that there is a God in Israel, and that in behalf of His people He will manifest His power.

     I look at these flowers, and every time I see them, I think of Eden. They are an expression of God's love for us. Thus He gives us in this world a little taste of Eden. He wants us to delight in the beautiful things of His creation, and to see in them an expression of what He will do for us. He wants us to live where we can have elbow room. His people are not to crowd into the cities. He wants them to take their families out of the cities, that they may better prepare for eternal life. These cities are filled with wickedness of every kind--with strikes and murders and suicides. Satan is in them, controlling men in their work of destruction. Under his influence they kill for the sake of killing, and this they will do more and more.

     Every mind is controlled, either by the power of Satan or the power of God. If God controls our minds, what shall we be?--Christian gentlemen and Christian ladies. God can fill our lives with His peace and gladness and joy. He wants His joy to be in us, that our joy may be full.

     If we place ourselves under objectionable influences, can we expect God to work a miracle to undo the results of our wrong course? No, indeed! 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 the lessons of simplicity and purity. "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these" [Matthew 6:28, 29]. Parents, point your children to the beautiful things of God's creation, and from these things teach them of His love for them. Point them to the lovely flowers--the roses and the lilies and the pinks--and then point them to the living God.

     Our question is to be: What can I do to proclaim the third angel's message? Christ came to this world to give this message to His servants to give to the churches. It is to be proclaimed to every nation and kindred and tongue and people. How are we to give it? If we cannot gain entrance to the churches, we must give the message in our camp meetings. The distribution of our literature is another means by which the message is to be proclaimed. Let the workers scatter broadcast tracts and leaflets and books containing the message for this time. We need men who will stand with unswerving faith in Israel's God. We need colporteurs, who will go forth to circulate our publications everywhere....

     Are we standing on the platform of eternal truth? Are we giving the message that is to prepare a people to stand in the day of trial before us? God is calling upon everyone of us to stand in his lot and place. He is calling upon us to plant the standard of truth in places that have not heard the message.

     It is God's design that our people should locate outside the cities, and from these outposts warn the cities and raise in them memorials for God.

     San Francisco and Oakland are becoming as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the Lord will visit them. Not far hence they will suffer under His judgments.

     God would have restaurants established in the cities. If properly managed, these will become missionary centers. In these restaurants publications should be kept at hand, ready to present to those who patronize the restaurant.

     The question often arises: Should these restaurants be kept open on the Sabbath? The answer is, "No, no." The Sabbath is our mark and sign, and should not become obliterated. I have recently had special light upon this subject. Efforts will be made to keep the restaurants open on Sabbath, but this should not be done.

     Satan will use every opportunity to seduce men from their allegiance to God. He and the angels who fell with him will appear on the earth as men, seeking to deceive. God's angels, also, will appear on the earth as men, and will use every means in their power to defeat the purposes of the enemy. We, too, have a part to act. We shall surely be overcome unless we fight manfully the battles of the Lord.

     It is in order that those who love God and keep His commandments may have as little hindrance as possible in their advancement in the heavenward way that they are warned not to live in the cities. If by our restaurant work souls are not won to the truth, what is gained by entering so largely into this work, which must be done in the cities?

     What terrible scenes will take place when the Lord shall arise to shake terribly the earth. Then the words of Revelation 18:1-3 will be fulfilled. The whole of the eighteenth chapter of Revelation is a warning of what is coming on the earth. But I have no light in particular in regard to what is coming on New York, only that I know that one day the great buildings there will be thrown down by the turning and overturning of God's power. From the light given me, I know that destruction is in the world. One word from the Lord, one touch of His mighty power, and those massive structures will fall. Scenes will take place, the fearfulness of which we cannot imagine....

     The destroying angels are today executing their commission. Death will come in all places. This is why I am so anxious for our cities to be warned. There is a work to be done by canvassing in our cities that has not yet been done.

     Light has been given that the large cities are to become as Sodom and Gomorrah.... Parents should now do everything in their power to redeem their neglect, and place their children where they will be under the very best influences....

     Let children no longer be exposed to the temptations of the cities that are ripe for destruction. The Lord has sent us warning and counsel to get out of the cities. Fathers and mothers, how do you regard the souls of your children? Are you preparing the members of your families for translation into the heavenly courts? Are you preparing them to become members of the royal family? Children of the Heavenly King? [see Mark 8:36]. How will ease, comfort, convenience, compare with the value of the souls of your children?

     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...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....

     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....

     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....The cities will become worse and worse. In them will be strife and bloodshed, and at last they will be visited by earthquakes. Buildings will be thrown down and will be consumed by fire from heaven....

     The cities must be worked. Those who are living in them must be warned of what is before us. Let time and means be wisely spent. See if you cannot do something in the highways and byways of the cities to proclaim the message of present truth. But do not locate your families in the city, and do not establish business interests there. If you do this, you will in the future be expected to conform to the observance of various holidays. Watchers will be set to seek occasion of complaint against the commandment-keeping people of God. Satan will exercise his power and enmity, and oppression will be the result. The larger the city, the greater will be the oppression....

     Though stormy times are before us, much missionary work still remains to be done in the cities....But this does not require the establishment of large business enterprises in them.

     I saw...scenes that would soon take place in Chicago and other large cities....As wickedness increased, and the protecting power of God was withdrawn, there were destructive winds and tempests; buildings were destroyed by fire and shaken down by earthquakes....

     Some time after this, I was shown that the vision of the buildings in Chicago and the draft upon the means of our people to erect them and their destruction, was an object lesson for our people, warning them not to invest largely of their means in property in Chicago or any other city, unless the providence of God should positively open the way and plainly point out duty to build or buy, as necessary, in giving the note of warning. A similar caution was given in regard to building in Los Angeles. Repeatedly I have been instructed that we must not invest means in the erection of expensive buildings in cities....The wickedness of Chicago is as the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah....

     The Lord would have His people warned, for a great work will be done in a short time. I have heard the word of God proclaimed in many localities outside the city of Chicago. There were many voices proclaiming the truth with great power. That which they proclaimed was not fanciful theories, but the warning message. While the solid truth of the Bible came from the lips of men who had no fanciful theories or misleading science to present, there were others who labored with all their power to bring in false theories regarding God and Christ, and miracles were wrought to deceive, if possible, the very elect.

     Men will continue to erect expensive buildings, costing millions of money. Special attention will be called to their architectural beauty and firmness, and solidity with which they are constructed, but the Lord has instructed me that despite the unusual firmness and expensive display, these buildings will share the fate of the temple in Jerusalem. That magnificent structure fell, angels of God were sent to do the work of destruction, so that one stone was not left one upon another that was not thrown down....

     I am bidden to declare the message that cities full of transgression, and sinful in the extreme, will be destroyed by earthquakes, by fire, by flood. All the world will be warned that there is a God who will display His authority as God. His unseen agencies will cause destruction, devastation, and death. All the accumulated riches will be as nothingness. Notwithstanding the scientific care with which men safeguard buildings from destruction, one touch of the great and rightful Ruler will bring to nothingness the idolatrous possessions that have been laid up in a sightly and magnificent display. The devices of men will come to naught.

     The injustice in our world, the masterly power man has taken unto himself, the oppressive, man-made unions that bring confusion and violence and strife, and the manipulation of power to rule men and to acquire means through underhanded deception, these conditions God cannot pass by with silence. Those who are under the influence and teaching of the great deceiver, will find that although God has borne long with their deceptive acuteness, He has not been deceived, and He will reward every transgressor according to his works. He keeps a strict account of every lie framed, and when He takes matters into His hands, He will deal in accordance with every man's secret and hidden devising.

     Bible history is to be repeated. Calamities will come,--calamities most awful, most unexpected; and these destructions will follow one after another. Pleasure excursions will become fearful because of accidents. If there will be a heeding of the warnings that God has given, and if churches will repent, returning to their allegiance, then other cities may be spared for a time. But if men who have been deceived continue in the same way in which they have been walking, disregarding the law of God, and presenting falsehoods before the people, God allows them to suffer calamities, that their senses may be awakened....

     The Lord will show before a world transgressing His holy law, that He is God, and beside Him there is none else. He has borne long with the deceptions of men claiming piety. While he has been provoked by their impieties, He has inflicted less punishment than they deserve.

     The Lord will not suddenly cast off all transgressors or destroy entire nations, but He will punish cities and places where men have given themselves up to the possession of satanic agencies. Strictly will the cities of the nations be dealt with, and yet they will not be visited in the extreme of God's indignation, because some souls will yet break away from the delusions of the enemy, and will repent and be converted, while the masses of the people will be treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath....

     Those who are deceiving souls, will find that it is a most serious matter to have worn out divine patience. God's wrath will fall upon them signally, unexpectedly, fiercely. Though they may then humble themselves ever so much, there will be no further opportunity for repentance. They have persisted in leading souls to ruin. God's law has repeatedly been made void....The wrath of God's signal displeasure is hanging over them, and they will not always be permitted to continue practicing their deceptive methods to draw souls into masked nets. Finally the word will go forth that divine patience has been exhausted.

     In the future cities will certainly feel the terrible results of earthquakes and fires. Cities will be destroyed by flood and by lightnings. 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....Do not establish institutions in the cities, but seek a rural location. The call is, "come out from among them, and be ye separate" [2 Corinthians 6:17]. The very atmosphere of the cities is polluted. Let your schools be established away from the cities, where agricultural and other industries can be carried on.

     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 favorable 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.

     "And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues" [Revelation 18:4]. It will not be to the credit of any who believe the word of the prophecies of this book to ignore the special indications of God and show indifference in regard to this wonderful display of the power of God because of the sins of...[San Francisco, which was] recently destroyed. The Lord forbids that those who have witnessed this great destruction shall make light of the matter and flatter themselves that in the future they will have buildings far in advance of any buildings they have yet had, for, if those who have felt the rebuke of God shall set themselves defiantly to invest their means as they have done, God will exercise His power to counteract their efforts....

     Unbelief has taken possession of men who have been warned in regard to the seducing influence of Satan's working and the methods of his work, yet who have taken no heed. They are of a party that will give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. Where is this party that will depart from the faith?--Consider this: Do not place in charge of your important work, or even of the less important enterprises, those who will lead minds away from the truth which is to decide the destiny of souls....Place not men in positions of Holy office who will not listen to God's counsel concerning His way and His will. There are influences working mightily against the very work God requires to be done.

     The wickedness that is being revealed in the cities of San Francisco and Oakland show that the world is fast becoming as it was before the flood. The union men who have struck for higher wages, by their destruction of property, and their attempts to destroy life, are plainly showing to what a pass men will come who are determined to carry out their own plans regardless of others. Many of the police will not come out and act their part. They are discouraged. What the end will be, the human mind cannot determine.

     The Lord is bringing the perplexities of these social problems to our notice that we may see the evil of seeking to carry out our own way and will. This is an evil that has appeared again and again in our work, and which is appearing now. The natural man needs to be converted; the Spirit of God is needed to operate upon human hearts. Many of our church members are becoming weak because, instead of depending upon God, they are self-sufficient.

     I am instructed to say to our churches, Study the Testimonies. They are written for our admonition and encouragement upon whom the ends of the world are come. If God's people will not study these messages that are sent to them from time to time, they are guilty of rejecting light. Line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, God is sending instruction to His people. Heed the instruction; "follow the light." The Lord has a controversy with His people because in the past they have not heeded His instruction and followed His guidance.

     Christ is soon coming, and Satan knows that his time is short. As we draw near to the close of time, the cities will become more and more corrupt, and more and more objectionable as places for establishing centers of our work. The dangers of travel will increase, confusion and drunkenness will abound. If there can be found places in retired mountain regions where it would be difficult for the evils of the cities to enter, let our people secure such places for our sanitariums and advanced schools....

     Let parents understand that the training of their children is an important work in the saving of souls. In country places abundant useful exercise will be found in doing those things that need to be done, and which will give physical health by developing nerve and muscle. "Out of the cities" is my message for the education of our children....

     It is Satan's purpose to attract men and women to the cities, and to gain this object, he invents every kind of novelty and amusement, every kind of excitement. The cities of the earth today are becoming as were the cities before the flood....

     In the days before the flood, every kind of amusement was invented to lead men and women to forgetfulness and sin. Today, Satan is working with intensity, that the same conditions of evil shall prevail. And the earth is becoming corrupt. Religious liberty will be little respected by professing Christians, for many of them have no understanding of spiritual things....

     We cannot fail to see that the Lord of the world is soon to come. Satan is working upon the minds of men and women, and many seem filled with a desire for amusement and excitement. As it was in the days of Noah, every kind of evil is on the increase. Divorce and marriage is the order of the time.

     At such a time as this, the people who are seeking to keep the commandments of God should look for retired places away from the cities....We are charged with this message: Christ is coming to judge the world for her iniquity, and the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain. Then the great multitude will be without God and without hope in the world.

     One of the marked features of Noah's Day was the intense worldliness that prevailed. Eating and drinking, buying and selling, marrying and giving in marriage, marked classes high and low....

     Who will be warned? 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....

     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.

     I have been given a decided message to bear regarding this matter. I am bidden to say to our people, "Prepare to meet thy God" [Amos 4:12].

     The message that I am bidden to bear to our people at this time is, "Work the cities without delay, for time is short." The Lord has kept this work before us for the last 20 years or more. A little has been done in a few places, but much more might be done. I am carrying a burden day and night, because so little is being accomplished to warn the inhabitants of our great centers of population of the judgments that will fall upon the transgressors of God's law....

     The enemy would rejoice to see the grand, saving truth for this time confined to a few places. He is not inactive. He is instilling in the minds of men his deceptive theories to blind the eyes and confuse their understanding, that the saving truth may not be brought to their knowledge. Soon the Sunday laws will be enforced, and men in positions of trust will be embittered against the little handful of God's commandment-keeping people.

     Satan seems to have been permitted to gain many points of advantage. But the Lord will bring men of understanding from the various churches to combat the enforcement of a law, that the first day of the week shall be honored as a day when no business shall be transacted.