From the Papers: M. Bettie Bell—“At last the light did shine”

“Press on, dear traveler, press thou on” is the first line of Hymn 288 in the Christian Science Hymnal.¹ The author of those words was M. Bettie Bell (1848–1932), one of Mary Baker Eddy’s most active, loyal students—and one of her most prolific correspondents. While Bell’s name may not be as familiar today as those of other early Christian Science workers, the spirit of persistence and endurance expressed in that hymn typifies both her life and her work for the cause of Christian Science.

Bell was Eddy’s student, completing her Primary class (1885), Normal class (1886), and Obstetrical course (1887). She joined the Christian Scientist Association on July 1, 1885. On December 31, 1892, she joined The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, and was a member until her passing. Bell advertised as a practitioner and teacher in the directory of The Christian Science Journal from 1890 to 1916. She contributed to the early growth of Christian Science in Chicago and was a founding member of First Church of Christ, Scientist, Chicago (1886). But before all of her dedicated service to the cause of Christian Science, Bell experienced extreme hardship. Knowing her story helps us better understand the substance of her correspondence, hymn, and poetry—as well as her unique relationship with Eddy.

Mary Elizabeth Stone, as Bell was originally known, was born in 1848 and raised with nine siblings on a large plantation and horse farm in Paris, Kentucky.² Of her early life, she wrote:

As far back in childhood as I can remember, I had a longing to know about God. Rather than play and romp as other children, I found happiness in reading the Bible…. Fear of death was continually held before me … because of a delicate appearance and frequent illness…. A happy childhood was followed by a social young-ladyhood, and yet there was an unsatisfied desire for something better, higher; something that the world would not give.”³

That persistent search for higher truth became one of the defining features of Bell’s life.

In 1867, at age 19, she married Frank D. Bell. Originally from New York, he had recently moved to Lexington, Kentucky, to become a partner in Appleton, Lancaster & Co., a wholesale and retail dry goods business. In an 1886 letter to Eddy relating some of her earlier life experiences, Bell wrote that “it was conceded by all to be the happiest marriage ever was known.”⁴ Although she hoped marriage and the establishment of her own home would quell her constant inner yearnings, this was not to be.⁵ Rather, her life was soon beset by tragedy and loss. Between 1868 and 1873 she had four children, but two of them died in infancy. Then in 1876 Bell, her husband, and their two remaining children all fell gravely ill. Only she survived. “I loved my family as do few mothers—indeed my great sin was idolatry,” she recalled. “[B]ut the sudden appearance of the illusion of scarlet fever, in one short week robbed me of all I had! In Lexington’s beautiful cemetery, five mounds mark the resting place of what were my idols in the flesh.”⁶ In addition she became partially deaf.

Well-meaning friends and family claimed Bell’s losses were God’s will, but she rebelled against that idea. Amid her grief, as she had done from early childhood, she turned to the Scriptures:

They almost crazed me with their modes and means of comfort – charging God with the horrors of mortal error! To be alone that I might search the Scripture to find out whether God did it, was all I asked. It seemed I must have died had I not heard the sweet whisperings: “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest… I will never leave thee nor forsake thee… If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.” These words from the fountain of Life would still the grief. Could the Father who put such words into the mouth of His beloved Son, be the cruel God to rob me of all my loved ones?⁷

Bolstered by these ideas, she pressed on.

A year and a half later, in 1877, Bell married her brother-in-law James Hamilton Bell. Also a New York native, he was a former schoolteacher who had served in the Union army in the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865, rising to the rank of major. After the war he moved to Chicago and in 1872 went into partnership as Bell, Conrad & Co., a successful coffee, tea, and spice importing and distribution business. Although one might wonder whether he married her out of a sense of duty—such as a Levirate marriage in some cultural traditions—it does not seem that was the case. Bell’s November 7, 1886, letter to Eddy explained how that second marriage came about:

I entered upon my widowhood. Time waned- many suitors came with offerings of affection and this elder Brother watched every movement of my life[.] with determination & perseverance he finally claimed me – since which time I have yielded every thing and sacrificed all to the demands of his exacting but impetuous and honest love….⁸

Bell moved to Chicago, where she and her new husband had two daughters within a few years—Elsie N. Bell (1879–1965) and Daisy M. Bell (1881–1948).

To outward appearance Bell’s circumstances seemed to have settled. However, she continued to struggle with both her health and her faith, and her search for a higher peace and wellness went on. On January 17, 1885, in the first of what would be over 140 letters to Eddy, she explained this:

My case was a most serious complication and I exhausted all the means and skill that the M.D’s of various professions could suggest to me and even went faithfully to the “Swedish Movement Cure” Seven long, tedious, suffering months until despair had marked me for its victim And growing thoroughly discouraged, I gave myself up to what seemed to be the inevitable and a wail went out of my heart, “Do with thine hand maiden as it seemeth good in thy sight oh! God, and let me know no will but Thine.”⁹

Furthermore, although she had two more children, she confessed that she loved them “with fear and anxiety.”¹⁰ At this low point, her husband learned that a family friend was benefiting from Christian Science treatment given by Ellen Brown Linscott, one of Eddy’s students in Chicago, and he urged Bell to try it.¹¹

Bell’s first letter to Eddy went on to explain that, when she turned to Christian Science treatment, her health steadily improved. She was so encouraged that she promptly began using what she was learning from reading Eddy’s Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures to treat the other members of her household through prayer and asked if she might study with Eddy herself:

Now have I done something presuming when I tell you that from your choice books I have learned to treat my family of colds – billious attacks &c – and have just cured my servant of Croup? Am I doing wrong to do this without the teaching and if I can do this, from my own efforts at study may I not hope to be able to do more with your instruction?¹²

Ten months later, in November 1885, she took Eddy’s Primary class at the Massachusetts Metaphysical College in Boston. Returning home, she reported on her progress in a December 6, 1885, letter to Eddy:

I was cordially welcomed in my precious family Thursday morning and found both Babies complaining with belief of remitting fever – They are entirely well this morning and very happy – You can’t know how rejoiced I am with my recent instruction[.] can handle the question of Animal Magnetism with surprising success – don’t know why I was in belief so bewildered and clouded.— truly “the Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want” — many thanks for your patience, charity and tenderness –¹³

Reading this letter, one senses the relief from fear and anxiety for her children that her study of Christian Science was enabling.

A few weeks later, on December 31, 1885, Bell wrote to Eddy again. She shared several healings resulting from her Christian Science practice, mentioned that many friends and family members were imploring her to teach them Christian Science, and requested admission to Eddy’s Normal class. She closed by telling Eddy how her two daughters, then 4 and 6, loved Christian Science, and she described some examples of how they, too, were giving Christian Science treatments.¹⁴ Eddy replied:

Out of the mouth of babes praise is being perfected. Your children are so lovely. You make my eyes flow over with tears when I read the sweet sayings…. Press on, and I will teach you to teach after due time.¹⁵

Perhaps Eddy’s words in that encouraging letter were Bell’s inspiration for composing the poem “Press On,” published three months later in the April 1886 Christian Science Journal.¹⁶ In 1892 it was set to music and included as a hymn in the first edition of the Christian Science Hymnal and has remained in subsequent editions. From childhood, Bell had regularly expressed herself through poetry. In 1906, at the urging of family and friends, she published Old Kentucky Rhymes: A Collection of Early Poems and Sketches.¹⁷ In verses she composed from the age of 11 on, a thread of spiritual insight runs through the 18 poems in the collection, centering on Bell’s tender feelings for family, friends, and home, as well as pondering questions on faith and meaning.

Bell must have “pressed on” in the spirit as well as in the letter, because several months later she was accepted into Eddy’s October 1886 Normal class, for training as a teacher of Christian Science. The following year she took Eddy’s Obstetric class. From there, she went on to teach Christian Science for nearly three decades. In 1886 Bell helped found the Hyde Park Institute of Christian Science in Chicago and was a founding member of First Church of Christ, Scientist, Chicago.¹⁸ She joined The Mother Church (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts) on December 31, 1892, and was listed as a practitioner and teacher in the Journal from 1890 until 1916. She was also a member of the Christian Scientist Association, the National Christian Scientist Association, and the General Association of Teachers. In addition to her daughters and her mother, Bell introduced many of her siblings to Christian Science. Four of them—J. Newton Stone, Sarah A. Cox, Malinda J. Lancaster, and M. Frances Alderson—joined The Mother Church. Stone and Lancaster became Eddy’s students themselves, as well as Journal-listed practitioners.

The fortitude and endurance Bell characterized in overcoming the trials and hardships of her earlier life put her in good stead to weather the inevitable storms that came her way after embarking on her career in Christian Science. For example, although she made rapid strides in establishing her healing and teaching practice and worked energetically and effectively to help grow the Christian Science movement in Chicago, she faced substantial opposition at home. Despite his initial support, Bell’s second husband soon had a change of heart, significantly opposing and obstructing her practice over many years.¹⁹ Also, Bell’s hearing loss presented ongoing challenges in her interactions with other early workers in Chicago and to her advancement to certain leadership positions.^{20 21}

Nevertheless, Bell remained unswervingly loyal to Eddy and in turn received her tender support, both in person and through more than 70 letters she received from her teacher. Several of them expressed a particular interest in Bell’s life and family and indicated a tender empathy for her hardships. For example, on October 29, 1886, Eddy wrote:

My heart goes out to you with a great wave of love and peace Yes darling God will give it to you and you can use to honor him in your present home But I thank Him that you have such a tender brother and a parental roof to go to[.] I had neither when I started in this work all closed their doors upon me But God endowed me with power and peace proportionate[.] He will you[.] Love to your brother, Sister and poor husband[.] I feel he is a noble man and I pity him for as our blessed Master said he knows not what he does[.] Write all about your School²²

Again on April 14, 1888, Eddy sent similar encouragement:

Your trials are many. God is testing you and you are being found faithful Oh. the bliss of being proven right in His sight This darling is what it will do for you. It will enable you to heal instantaneously and teach clearly. He scou[r]geth every son whom he receiveth²³

In other letters, Eddy expressed gratitude to Bell for her genuine support and insightful understanding, such as in this 1889 letter: “Your dear letter full of the evidences of love for God and man is so sweet and comforting to me who seldom have letters with out many painful points to encountre Yes dear I thank my Father for such as you”²⁴ And in this letter from the same year: “Thanks for your true discernment of my movements. It is a great comfort to me that one student comprehends them in the least[.]”²⁵

Bell found in Christian Science what she had been searching for since childhood. And from there she faithfully pressed on, in spite of ongoing challenges. She not only contributed significantly to the establishment and growth of Christian Science in Chicago and beyond but also provided a generous measure of steady friendship and support to Eddy over the course of a quarter century. In addition to her many thoughtful, interesting, and loving letters, Bell also continued to write poems in later years, some of which were published in the Christian Science magazines. They reflect the fruits she gleaned through an unwavering pursuit of the truth. Her poem “At Last” includes this stanza:

At last, the light did shine,
Truth healed me of a broken heart.
It said, From grief you now must part,
The saving love of Truth is thine.²⁶

Please note: Quoted references in our “From the Papers” article series reflect the original documents. For this reason they may include spelling mistakes and edits made by the authors. In instances where a mark or edit is not easily represented in quoted text, an omission or insertion may be made silently.