Thus this martyr testified that he, like the beautiful tree of the Orient, grew best in his spiritual life under weights.
This is the universal law of spiritual growth.

There must be resistance, struggle, conflict, or there can be no development of strength.

We are inclined to pity those whose lives are scenes of toil and hardship, but God's angels do not pity them, if only they are victorious; for in their overcoming they are climbing daily upward toward the holy heights of sainthood.

The beatitudes in the Apocalypse are all for over-comers.

Heaven's rewards and crowns lie beyond battle-plains.