In the efforts made for the restoration of the sick to health, use is to be made of the beautiful things of the Lord's creation. Seeing the flowers, plucking the ripe fruit from the trees, hearing the happy songs of the birds, have a peculiarly exhilarating effect on the nervous system. From out-of-door life, men, women, and children will gain the desire to be pure and guileless. By the influence of the quickening, reviving, life-giving properties of nature's great medicinal resources, the functions of the body are strengthened, the intellect awakened, the imagination quickened, the spirits enlivened. The mind is prepared to appreciate the beauties of God's word. MM 231.4
Why should not the young men and women who are seeking to obtain a knowledge of how to care for the sick, have the advantage of nature's wonderful resources? ... MM 232.1
God helping me, I will do my utmost to show the life-giving power of sunshine and fresh air. How much better it is for the sick to be in the open air than within four walls, decorated though these walls may be with many pictures!—Letter 71, 1902. MM 232.2