Handwritten letter from Gertrude Starkey Pitcairn in Philadelphia to Dr. G. R. Starkey. Gertrude wishes Starkey could have been at Church with them this morning; Mr. Mercer preached the most beautiful and moving sermon she has ever heard. She feels that a new spiritual and intellectual plane has opened to her over the past few months. She has a new and intense desire to have more love in her heart for her fellow beings and to be led by the Lord to be as useful in the world as she can be. She has felt neither sudden guilt nor great exaltation, but rather a feeling of humility and “a sense of the slow patient work that is before me which can be accomplished only by constant seeking of the Divine help.” She believes that if she had been pushed earlier, when her mother was worried about her lack of interest in spiritual things, this new spiritual state would have been delayed. She reports that despite taking Dr. Rane’s medicine, practicing deep breathing, eating oatmeal, taking salt baths, and going to bed early, she has been physically unwell since Starkey left. The rest of the family have been fairly well, excepting their mother’s eyes, poison ivy on Paulie’s hand, and digestion issues with the youngest. Names mentioned: Mr. Mercer (Rev. L. P. Mercer?), Dr. Rane, Paulie (Pauline Starkey Wells) Places mentioned: Detroit