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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 19, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 8.

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LET US UNSAY IT.

By Editor

In the Signs of February 5, on this page, we printed the following:—

A Warning.

Brother E. H. Rees, Box 614, Williamsport, Pa., sends us a warning, cautioning all our people, and others we suppose, against one L. Schmidt, a German of medium height, smooth face, slightly cross-eyed, of pleasing address, who passes as an S. D. A. missionary, selling Bibles, SIGNS, tracts, etc.; that he is using religion as a garb to cover wickedness; and that in every place he leaves a stench and reproach behind him. He was last seen in Harrisburg, Pa. State papers are requested to copy.
We are not among those who believe that editors are infallible. They make mistakes. We believe that it was our mistake to publish this “warning.” By this we do not question the motives or action of Brother Rees. That is wholly between him and God. The things which he stated, but which we did not publish, concerning the sins of L. Schmidt, we do not question, for the man himself has confessed them. But we have since learned something of the man; his early education and environments, his hard life up to a recent date, the struggles he has had, the attempts to overcome and live down the past; and how the evils he has wrought have been reported against him everywhere he has gone. We have learned from his own pen, in answer to a letter, the sad account, with no self-justification. And we believe it. He is still hoping to overcome, trusting in Christ Jesus; and let us plead with those who may meet both this and him. Try to help him onto firmer ground, to a better grasp of eternal life, to a clearer hope in Christ Jesus. “But he may have deceived you in his tale of woe and repentance.” Possibly, he may be much worse than we conceive. He may be an arrant hypocrite. Yet we would rather make a thousand mistakes in supposing him sincere than cause one little one to stumble, one broken reed to break. May he look to God, may he lay hold of the arm of the mighty One; nay, more, may he so put himself in God’s hands, that he shall be made in very deed a new creation in Christ Jesus, in which all the reproach shall be rolled away, and all things shall be new in Him.