The Fire in Cristobal by Lillian S. Connelly

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 1, 1911

The Fire in Cristobal

By Lillian S. Connelly

WHILE man is master of his surroundings, he can hardly realize his frailty and lack of power; but let the forces of nature, of which, under ordinary circumstances, he proudly considers himself master, rise up against him, and there is a speedy demonstration of his helplessness, and of the truth of the Bible statement that he is but “as the flower of the field.”

In the recent calamity that befell our publishing-house in Cristobal, Panama, this truth was forcibly brought home to us, as our band of workers, with blanched faces and quivering lips, beheld, in absolute helplessness, the cruel flames leap upon, and reduce to ashes, our printing-plant, with its cylinder-press worth three thousand dollars; its job-press and other equipment; the office of the West Indian Union Conference, and all its supplies; the office of the West Caribbean Conference, with its quantities of books and Bibles, in both Spanish and English, for the canvassers in this field; and the four comfortable suites of rooms that provided comfortable homes for four families of workers.

At first we were mute as we looked at one another, and the first question our lips could frame was, “What does it mean?” We are still asking what it can mean, with our cause so needy, that God should permit us to suffer such a loss. But we are but children, and God is our Father, and no one can say to him, “What doest thou?” We remember his promises, and know that somewhere in it all there must be the working together for good.

The origin of the fire is not certainly known, but it is supposed to have started through the careless lighting of a coal-pot fire in the colored quarters in Colon; and there being a stiff breeze and low water-pressure, with the sun-baked wooden houses standing close together, the flames passed rapidly from one house to another, until seventy-five had been swept away, making more than three thousand persons homeless, and destroying seven lives and about eight hundred thousand dollars’ worth of property.

We know that this loss means a call to deeper consecration and more decided and energetic efforts on the part of the workers; for God’s work must not be hindered in its progress.

LILLIAN S. CONNELLY.