Country Living - Chronoligically (2016)
A Chronological Compilation of the Book Country Living By Ellen G. White
Compiled by Graham Wheeler (2016)
The original edition of this article was published in 1946, Copyright by “The Ellen G White Publications”. It contained a compilation of quotations from the writings of Ellen G. White on country living principles. This edition takes the quotes appearing in this original publication and places them in the order that they were written, according to the dates quoted in the original edition. This returning to the chronological order was first done by D. Westbrook entitled “Country Living - Revised” (CLR). This Revised version highlights that the council given to God’s people to leave the cities became more urgent over time. In this edition the text is additionally reformatted to be best suited for publication as a booklet. In addition a few corrections and edits were also included. Quoting from the forward of CLR:
“Another disturbing fact arises from this study: In 1885, Ellen G. White pointed to the assumption of power on the part of the US, to enforce Sunday worship as the signal for leaving the cities. A look at history reveals that indeed, in
1888 such an attempt was made. Later statements indicate that Ellen White recognized that this signal had come - ”The Protestant world have set up an idol sabbath in the place where God’s Sabbath should be, and they are treading in the footsteps of the Papacy. For this reason I see the necessity of the people of God moving out of the cities into retired country [places,] where they may cultivate the land and raise their own produce." (Letter 90, 1897). Mrs White compared the push for Sunday legislation with the siege of Jerusalem by the Roman armies. That was the signal to the Christians inside to flee the city. However, they could not flee until the armies retreated. When the armies later returned it was then too late to leave Jerusalem. The national Sunday law issue subsided, and God’s people have had more than a century to act on His counsel.”
With Pope Francis being (1) the most active pope in history, (2) issuing the Papal encyclical on climate change Laudato si (24 May 2015), (3) commencing the collaboration with unions similar to just before the Blair bill, and (4) with the historical addresses in the fall of 2015, we clearly hear the “rumblings of the returning Roman armies.” Interestingly the Vatican flag at the UN offices in New York was raised just 3 prior to the pope speaking in congress 1. In his address to the UN in New York he greeted “in my own name” 2 (John 5:43). Surely a Sunday Law, as called for in Laudato si3, will surely be the issue pushed forward. Is this perhaps our last call to act? Just as with CLR, this edition intends to find no fault with the original publishers, nor with the publisher of CLR, but merely to provide a format more suitable for booklet printing, and provide the quotes in the order written to highlight the increasing urgency of the message. The order of the quotes is largely based on the dates appearing in the original publication CL, however an effort has been made to include original references and to sort based on the earliest date of publication and thus the order is slightly different than in CLR (i.e. Letter 26). In addition a few quotes, and historical notes (1886, 1888, 1890 etc.), have been added, which did not appear in the original CL text.