Andrew was a quiet man. Perhaps growing up with his boisterous brother, Peter, helped to make him so. But one thing is sure. All Peter's attention-getting bluster notwithstanding, he could not match Andrew's talent for winning friends.

It was a quality Andrew no doubt developed as a junior partner in his father Jonas' fishery where, side by side with men as hard-working as himself, he had frequently shared the frustration of empty nets (Luke 5:5) or the tedium of mending broken ones, (Matthew 4:21) in the process learning a great deal about human nature.

As a result Andrew had developed two qualities that were to mark all his days. The first was accepting persons as he found them. The second was the patience to stand by them until they rose up on their own. No common characteristics thes…