368 APPENDIX I. 



Lord's promised return in those views of Divine prophecy which 

 you knew I held diverse from those held usually by ' Brethren ' so 

 called fifty years ago." 



Mr. Perrens, though looking for the return of the Lord Jesus, 

 did not accept the " year-day" system or the historical fulfilment 

 throughout the age, or dispensation, of the prophecies, either 

 of the Book of Daniel or the Revelation ; but this divergence 

 of opinion did not hinder their mutual regard and united labour 

 for the Lord. My husband followed the old-fashioned Protestant 

 scheme held by Scott the commentator, Bishop Newton, Elliott, 

 Bosanquet, and, lastly, H. Grattan Guinness, who has so ably 

 written The Approaching End of the Age, viewed in the light 

 of history, prophecy, and science. This mode looks on "the 

 times of the Gentiles" as starting from Nebuchadnezzar, into 

 whose hands God gave the kingdoms of the earth, after He had 

 taken the kingdom from Israel, " who shall be led away captive 

 into all nations, and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the 

 Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled." 



These subjects of prophecy from the Scriptures were, in detail, 

 under the constant study of my dear husband in some form or 

 other. He had a large number of books in his library, both 

 ancient and modern, dealing with these prophecies. He was a 

 daily reader of the Times newspaper ; he used to say the great 

 object of his reading this paper was to see " the decadence of the 

 nations, both Eastern and Western, in their downward progress." 

 He always kept his Polyglot Bible on the chimney-piece at his 

 right hand, and that was continually brought down on any new 

 event — war or collision among the nations — to see if it could 

 be possible to glean any fresh light from the Prophets on the 

 occasion of this fresh outbreak ; especially the Eastern Question 

 would give eager aspirations towards the break up of the Turkish 

 empire, and the setting Palestine free for the return of Israel. 



This year, 1884, he brought out a new edition of his Evenings 

 at the Microscope, correcting and enlarging some portions of the 

 book. This was not his own property, as he had written it some 

 twenty years earlier for the Society for Promoting Christian 

 Knowledge. 



This year also he began to write expositions of Scripture ; 

 some were from notes of his Sunday morning discourses taken by 



