ANNUAL REPORT OF JOHN J. LYTLE, GENERAL SECRETARY.
In submitting this, my Eighteenth Report, covering the last two years, I realize that I have much cause for gratitude. For a large part of this time, I have been blessed with health and strength to continue my labors among the prisoners of the Eastern Penitentiary.
I have been an Official Visitor at this institution for fifty-six years, and for more than a score of years I have given my entire service to this work for which I have felt that I had a special call.
While providing prisoners at the time of their discharge with a respectable outfit, it has also been my earnest desire to point them to the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. I have also continued my visits to the cells of the prisoners, and I have felt that a blessing has attended my efforts. While I can never know the result of these labors, I have worked in faith endeavoring to minister to both their temporal and spiritual needs. Many have confessed to me that their imprisonment had been to them a blessing. Arrested in their career of crime, they had resolved to lead better lives in the future. I have not doubted their sincerity, and have encouraged such to seek Divine help. It is right to protect the community, and the law-breaker must suffer the penalty for his crime, but while he is incarcerated it is our duty to avail ourselves of the opportunity to instruct him and to plead with him to follow better ideals. Indeed, I have felt it a great privilege to sit beside a prisoner in his cell and tell him of the “old, old story of Jesus and his love.”
From careful inquiries, I am satisfied that the most of the prisoners can trace their downfall to indulgence in drink and the social evil.