Morning herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1837-1840, 1840-12-01

Of lectures history, at the Tabernacle The frat
referred to Chronology, which he said he gave first
being the driest part Of the course The second,
which give fellow, he delivered last week. The
third he delivered last night.
THE LEcrUPR.
History, IN all its parts, is Of the highest impor-
lance to all Ii enriches the mind with the be ST
treasures of knowledge. The study Of it is the
highest mental enjoyment have at all periods
Of existence. Ii adapted TO the nature Of man.
and has received the Divine sanction. And it was
we'll written by the dumb man at Hartford, ''no ia
BILE Of books is so interesting as the true history
To understand the epochs Of time it is necessary
to present history in a sort Of abstract form To
answer the question "What is Timer is difficult.
Tully says, "Difiicile est difnnire." Time is a
thing ideal measure of events, not like when we
take yard and measure a known quantity or
the relative distances of the stars and plan
cts. Man has always tried to measure time; but did
not always succeed The ancients found il difficult
to measure the solar year; and they thought it was
anite an approximation when they divided il into
II months OF 30 days; and hence $50 to be the
measure OF a circle. But this found not to be a
fit measure of sature, being deficient days.
When Julius Caesar was made Pontifus Maxinus
well as General Of Rome, he undertook to rectfy
tho measure Of time. The Julian year was bad in
some respects, but good in others Subss quently,
however, have had the year rectifed sufficiently
correct to answer all pusposes.
History may be divided under three heads
l-PeriOds.
2-Epochs and Fras.
S-SuccessiOn OF Events.
And as we proceed, we shall find that all history
we'll as all chronology has reference to religion.
We now live in the 59th century, from the com.
mencement Of the world, according to he best cal
cuations of Sir Isaac Newtoa, Archbishop Usher,
and other distinguished chronoiogists. Of these,
there were,
40 centuries from Adam to Christ;
Is from Christ to the commencement Of this CEN
fury
These SO / shall divide in this way
Charlemagne. Christ. Pull. Jacob Flood. Adam.
We distinguish them thus, for this reason. | be.
gin the first class of 10 centuries, which takes me
back to the coronation of Charlemagne and this is
the distinctive line between ancient and modern his
tory. Ten centuries back modern history end; .
back from that point takes to the birth Of Christi
8 centuries back from Christ carries to the time
Of Pull King of Assyra, just before the downfall Of
that separate Kin dom, and to the point where
carries back to the time Jacob and the feunda
ton of the II tribes OF Israel; more carries to
the Flood and IL more to the BEGINNING Of tune.
My for this division are, that profAne His
tory hath retrospect Of only eight centuries be-
yond Christ; for the ~ prece ding centuries
indebted to the Bible alone Forthc eight centuries
beyond Christ we havea pretty authentic account
others; but the 10 Immediately beyond that Of pro-
fame history, we may call all fabulous, mixed up
with mythology poetry, and all the vagaries OF Ian
cy.. 1t is not worthy the name of history. The
saeking OF Troy may be considered perhaps an ex-
ception and that took place 1854 before Christ
After these TO- come that uncertain in proiane
history, 10 the wilderness Of fable and then IL
that are unknswn to all proans historians; ascend
ing up to the Garden Of Eden, and the Isation Of
the World, when The Morning Stars sang together,
and all the Sons of God shouted for joy"
Sacred History, on the contrary, comes down
beautifully clear and connected for 81 centuries and
beyond that, from 300 to the birth Of Christ there
is blank in it, But il leaves safely for II is was
near the life time of Herodotus whose history csn,-
mences with the reign OF Gyges, King Of LYDIA us
years before Christ. Herodotus dtcd 4l3 years be-
fore Christ; Thurcydides p years afterwards; and
Xenophon 30 years after that. The prophecies Of
Malachi end lbs wears before Csrst, and distinctly
foretell his coming. Herodous dies after hav-
ing by his recitations of history at the Olympic
games fired the young Thueydides. After him
the forty third and ty-third Olympiad, ythogoras
fourished he was the father Of accidental history
and after that the current OF pIofane history never
ceased.
Nehemiah brings sacred history down 10 42o years
before Christ. Sacred history and prophecy extend
to within 100 years before Christ. The la,t verses
Of Malachi warn us to take heed to Moses and the
Prophets. After this, here is a blank in sacred
history for 400 years and we have to depend on The
prophecies for " hat occurred in that per od. And
il is not little remarkable that all the books Of the
typography sprung into existence during this four
hundred years. They are valued by divines as
historical records but being written in Greek and
for other reasans, they have never been received
emitted TO define what mean by epochs and
periods. An epoch to time what a point is to
space, and the time between cpochs 10 period.
We nave, then, to remember before Chris, three
remarkable epochs
II. C.
7a when the Assyrisn Empire ended BY the death
OF Sardanapalus
100 wears more, which brings us TO the food.
1851 c. the epoch Of the dispersion the build
ing Of Babel