[DAWSON] SOLAR AND LUNAR CYCLES IN BOOK OF DANIEL 4B 



also, the fulfilment of a predicted period to a day, represents perfect 

 accuracy. Such accuracy is not unclaimed in Scripture ; as it is stated 

 that the promise made to Abraham was fulfilled to a day at the exodus 

 from Egypt. (See Exodus XII, 41). Expositors have also shown that 

 the period of " seventy weeks " revealed to Daniel, was fulfilled to a 

 day; the crucifixion of the ]\Iessiah being exactly at the middle of the 

 last week of seven years, as predicted. [See ISTote Bj. Both these 

 events were at the full moon, or the central point of the synodic month. 

 We cite these as examples, without entering upon exposition, to show 

 the limit of accuracy in such cycles, or in the periods on which they 

 are based, which represents perfection in this relative sense. 



But it would further appear, when secular acceleration is taken 

 into account, that there are epochs at which these three Daniel cycles 

 are truly exact, in the sense in which we have defined this term. From 

 the comparisons made, it will be seen that two of the cycles give values 

 for the lunar year slightly greater than at the present time; and we 

 propose to show that these values correspond with epochs, not in the 

 remote past, but falling within the limits of the longest of the prophetic 

 periods. 



Secular acceleration ; and assumptions made. — The secular accelera- 

 tion of the moon is always given as the angular value by which the 

 moon will be in advance of its calculated position, after the lapse ot 

 a century. In speaking of the sun, as we are dealing with the tropical 

 year only, we may also use for convenience the same term acceleration; 

 as the sum is similarly in advance of its position relatively to the equi- 

 noxial point, which marks the end of the tropical year. 



The tropical year and the synodic month are thus both decreasing 

 in length as time goes on. These changes are exceedingly small; the 

 decrease in the length of the year being only about half a second of 

 time in a century. The changes are due to causes which operate in 

 the one direction during a vast age, until a limit is reached; and in 

 such an age, the whole human period is but an inappreciable interval. 

 (See Herschel, "Outlines of Astronomy," paragraph 741.) 



(1) We may therefore assume that the variation in the length of 

 both year and month have proceeded proportionally to the time, or 

 without change in the rate of decrease, during .the past twenty-five 

 centuries under consideration. Even in the case of the moon, this 

 is no doubt true of what should strictly be termed secular acceleration. 

 But there is thought to be also an inequality of long period in the 

 mean motion of the moon, the period being a century or more; and this 

 is still involved in the secular acceleration, not being as yet differentiated 

 from it. (See the discussion of the subject in the " Encyclopœdia 

 Britannica," IXth Edition, Article " :Moon.") 



