Obituary.

DEACON SAMUEL HOLMES.

The death of Deacon Samuel Holmes takes from active career in life one who has been prominent and useful in many forms of Christian work in the local church and in broader efforts for the extension of the Redeemer's kingdom. He was for many years a member and officer in the Broadway Tabernacle, New York city, and on his removal thirty years ago to Montclair, N. J., he was one of the charter members of the growing Congregational Church organized there. He was the first man elected as its deacon, and to the day of his death was its senior deacon. At the time of his death, Dec. 9, 1897, he was a member of the Executive Committee of the American Missionary Association and the oldest in age and in date of appointment, having held that position for the third of a century. He was a corporate member of the American Board and a vice-president of the Congregational Education Society. He was an officer in the National Congregational Council held in Boston in 1865, and was one of the committee which convened the National Congregational Council in Oberlin in 1871. He was also a delegate to the International Congregational Council held in London in 1891. His memory will be warmly cherished in the many circles of Christian service in which he was actively engaged.

MISS MARY E. McLANE.

The painful intelligence of the death of a most useful and highly esteemed teacher, Miss Mary E. McLane, of New Haven, Conn., which is received by us, will be seriously felt in our missionary work.

Miss McLane died at Mobile, Ala., on the 2d of February. Appointed in the year 1887 to St. Augustine, Fla., Miss McLane had taught in Fisk University, Tennessee, had been principal of a school at Anniston, Ala., for four years; was then transferred at her own request to Athens, Ala., where she was principal, and after three years service there was appointed as matron in the Teachers' Home of Emerson Institute, at Mobile, Ala. In a missionary service of more than ten years Miss McLane obtained a good report as a most faithful and earnest teacher, thoroughly imbued with the missionary spirit and always actuated by a missionary purpose.

MISS ANNA COFFIN.

The death of Miss Anna Coffin occurred at her home in Haverhill, Mass. At the age of 18 she was graduated from the Salem Normal School. Having a desire to serve the needy colored people, she accepted a commission from the American Missionary Association to teach in Burrell School, at Selma, Ala. She threw herself into the work with all the ardor and enthusiasm so natural to her, and for the two years of her stay proved a devoted teacher and faithful servant of Christ. Later, for four years, she was connected with Tougaloo University, at Tougaloo, Miss., where her unselfish, consecrated life was powerful for good. With grief softened by joy, we count her among the "happy saints that dwell in light, and walk with Jesus in white."