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Original Document
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Original Document
Preface to Violet Oakley's "The Holy Experiment," 1922.

THE HOLY EXPERIMENT AS HEREIN SET-forth is a Message of Love to the World from PENNSYLVANIA.

. . .
FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT of the more timid ones of earth let it be called to mind that the safety of PENN'S HOLY EXPERIMENT lay in the fact that it was entirely un-armed. It was however–be it likewise remembered, – invincibly fortified with absolute Justice to all, and lighted by a Faith in GOD and all Mankind.
. . .
LET US THEREFORE NOW CONSIDER CERTAIN historic facts:
THE FRIENDS CAME TO THE WILDERNESS OF PENNSYLVANIA WITHOUT ARMS. They bought the Lands from the real owners. They entered into a Peace with them which remained unbroken during the life-time of William Penn, and for over seventy years. During the conflicts of the White Settlers other than "FRIENDS" with the Indians, although dwelling in the midst of the carnage, the Friends were unharmed with few exceptions; one woman and two men, according to report, who lost their Faith and sought the protection of Forts and Arms.

IN LETTERS WRITTEN IN 1681, at the time the Grant was confirmed, PENN prophetically says: "It is a clear and just thing, and my GOD that has given it to me through many difficulties, will, I believe, bless and make it the SEED OF A NATION." . . . . . . . . .

"For my Country, I eyed the LORD in the obtaining of it, and more was I drawn inward to look to HIM and to owe it to His Hand and Power than to any other, way. I have so obtained it, and desire that I may not be unworthy of His Love, but do that which may answer His kind Providence, and serve His Truth and People; that an EXAMPLE may be set up to the NATIONS; there may be room there, though not here, for such an "HOLY EXPERIMENT."

Credit: Violet Oakley, The Holy Experiment: A Message to the World from Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: Privately Printed by Violet Oakley, 1922).
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