Above all the most potent influence on the Apostles was his personality, and that has a depth we can never fathom, a grandeur we can never grasp and a beauty we can never comprehend.  All we can say is that its attractiveness, its gentleness and its indefinable supernatural power left its indelible mark on the Apostles.

When he chose them they were men of integrity, commonsense and strong religious convictions; but they were also self-seeking and prejudiced, unimaginative and slow to learn.  But they had the saving grace of being both sincere and teachable.  And these ordinary men he was able to turn into the Apostles to whose moral courage and spiritual stature we largely owe the Christian Church.

What Jesus was then, that he is now.  Each man and woman in every generation has to discover him for himself and herself; and those who do and yield to his Spirit, find that his teaching and personality and power are no less effective today than they were in the time of the Apostles.