Ecclesiastes 3:4

A time to weep, and a time to laugh,.... There is a time for these things, as it goes ill or well with persons, as to their health, estate, or friends; and as it goes ill or well with kingdoms and states.

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to mourn - namely, for the dead (Genesis 23:2).

A time to weep; when men shall have just occasion for weeping and mourning.

Ecclesiastes 3:4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;Ver. 4. A time to weep, and a time to laugh.] Only we must not invert the order, but weep with men that we may laugh with angels; lay godly sorrow as a foundation of spiritual joy. Surely out of this eater comes meat; out of this strong, sweet. Strong and sweet refreshments follow upon penitential performances; these April showers bring on May flowers. Tertullian saith that he was nulli rei natus nisi poenitentiae, born for no other purpose but to repent; but then he that truly repenteth, de peccatis dolet et de dolore gaudet, is grieved for his sins, and then is glad of such a grief. "Those that so sow in tears shall reap in joy": whereas those that will not - in an evil time, especially when God "calls to weeping and mourning," and even thrusts men down, as it were, with a thump on the back - weep here, where there are weeping handkerchiefs in the hands of Christ, are like to have their eyes whipt out in hell, and to howl with devils. A time to mourn.] Matter enough of mourning we shall be sure of (and we should be soberly sensible of it) while we are in this vale of misery, valley of tears, in hoc exilio, in hoc ergastulo, in hoc peregrinatione, as Bernard hath it, in this prison house, purgatory, pilgrimage. In this place of banishment and bondage, how can we look for better? God sets us not here, as he did Adam in paradise, to take his pleasure, or as he did Leviathan in the sea, to sport and dally. We must not think to do as the people of Tombutum, in Africa, who are said to spend their time in singing and dancing. The way of this world is like the wilderness of Sin, or the vale of Siddim, or the Pacific Sea, which Captain Drake found tempestuous and troublous above measure. Many miseries and molestations, both satanical and secular, we are sure to meet with, to make us mourn. Jerome complains that he had furrows in his face, and icicles from his lips, with continual weeping. Origen is thought to have died of grief. Chrysostom calls the days of his life the days of his sorrow. Basil was made old and unprofitable for God’ s Church before his time, with travail and trouble. Rebecca is weary of her life; so is Elijah. Naomi will be Naomi no longer, but Marah; Paul veils all his topsails, and sits down in the dust, besides his sympathising with others. And a time to dance.] Or, Skip, as young cattle do at spring time. Here is nothing for mixed immodest dancings. Quid opus est talibus salsamentis? What need people provoke themselves to that evil they so naturally incline to? Nemo sobrius saltat, said the heathen orator: No sober man will offer to dance.

(4) Mourn.—This is the ordinary word used for noisy funeral lamentations (Jeremiah 4:8; 1 Samuel 25:1).

Verse 4. A time to weep, - laugh, - mourn, - dance] _________________ "When private griefs affect The heart, our tears with decent sorrow flow; Nor less becoming, when the public mourns, To vent the deepest sighs. But all around When things a smiling aspect bear, our souls May well exult; 'tis then a time for joy."

4. a time to weep] The two couples are naturally grouped together, the first taking in the natural spontaneous expression of individual feeling, the second the more formal manifestation of the feelings in the mourners and wailers of a funeral (Zechariah 12:10, where the same verb is found) and the dancers at a wedding feast. In the parable of the Children in the Market-place our Lord practically inculcates the lesson of the Debater. The Scribes who sneered at the fasts of John’s disciples, and condemned the disciples of Jesus for not fasting were as the children whose dramatic funerals and weddings were alike out of place and inopportune, and so the true followers after the Wisdom which “is justified of her children,” who recognised that the ascetic and the joyous life had each its true time and season, would not weep to their lamenting or dance to their piping (Matthew 11:16-19).

4. Weep… laugh… mourn — The human heart must vent its emotions, and they must have appropriate expression. Tears are no more virtuous than laughter. The moral quality lies further back than the mere expression.