Their ages would have an important bearing toward the work of these two men.
I. Their ages would indicate that they were not likely to be misled by the enthusiasm of youth. The world is slow to take young men into its confidence. It soon smiles at their visions, and laughs at their enthusiastic hopes.
II. Their ages would be likely to command the respect of those with whom they had to do. The world wants men of tried energy and long experience to achieve its moral emancipation; men in whom hot passion has calmed into a settled force.
III. Their ages would be an incentive to fidelity, as they had spent the younger part of life, and wouldbe forcefully reminded of the future. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
Delay in entering upon work of life
Let us learn not to be impatient for the discovery of our true lifework. Moses was eighty years old before he entered upon that noble career by which he became the emancipator and educator of his nation. Two-thirds of his days were gone before he really touched that which was his great, distinctive, and peculiar labour, and his enterprise was all the more gloriously accomplished by reason of the delay. Nor is this a solitary instance. The Lord Jesus Himself lived thirty years, during most of which He was in training for a public ministry, which lasted only two-and-forty months. John Knox never entered a pulpit until he was over forty years of age; and much of the fire and energy of his preaching was owing to the fact that the flame had been so long pent up within his breast. Havelock was a dreary while a mere lieutenant, held back by the iniquitous system of purchase, which was so long in vogue in the English army; but, as it happened, that was only a life-long apprenticeship, by which he was enabled all the more efficiently tobecome, at length, the saviour of the Indian Empire. So let no one chafe and fret over the delay which seems evermore to keep him from doing anything to purpose for the world and his Lord. The opportunity will come in its own season. It does come, sooner or later, to every man; and it is well if, when at length he hears the voice calling, “Moses! Moses!” he is ready with the answer, “Here am I.” For while I would comfort you with the assurance that the hour will come, I do not mean that you should be idle until it strikes. No; for if you adopt such a plan, the certainty is that you will not hear its stroke, or that you will not be ready to begin at its call. The true principle is to do with your might that which is lying atyour hand day by day, in the firm conviction that you are thereby training yourself into fitness for your future vocation. (W. H. Taylor, D. D.)
