p. 338 | THE MOON'S REVOLUTION

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 3, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 21.

THE MOON'S REVOLUTION.

If we could take a bird's-eye view of the portion of the solar system containing only the sun, the earth, and the moon, we should see the sun moving with rapid pace through the vast regions of space, taking with him the earth and the moon. We should see the earth revolving round the sun, taking with her the moon. We should also see the moon revolving round the earth, her motion round both sun and earth causing her to move in an irregular curve, always concave to the sun.

We could then realize as no words can describe how exceedingly complicated is the motion of the moon in her orbit, and admire with reverent awe the heavenly harmony that prevails even in this small portion of the material universe. For it must be remembered that our majestic sun is but a shining point, seen from the nearest fixed star, and our earth and moon are invisible to the suns of space.

The moon revolves around the earth from any fixed star to the same star again, in twenty-seven and three-tenths days, completing a periodic or sideral revolution.

The earth meantime has advanced in her orbit, and the moon requires more time to complete a revolution in regard to the sun, bringing sun, moon, and earth into line, and making the time from new moon to new moon again twenty-nine and a half days. This is called a lunar month, lunation, or synodic period.

The moon is often considered as of little consequence in the economy of creation. But what would the earth do without her? She is our minister and companion. If she were blotted from the skies there would be no tides of any amount, no silver crescents hanging in the golden west, no glorious full moons flooding the sleeping earth with soft lights and shadows, and no total eclipses of the sun, the most sublime phenomena on which mortal eyes rest.

We have need then to be devoutly grateful for our satellite, for her position in the heavens, for the short period of her revolution, and for all the blessings that follow in her train. Her movement round the earth is but one short chapter in the complex history of our nearest and most intimate celestial neighbor.—Youth's Companion.