'...infirmities may be no detriment to a man's career of special usefulness; they may even have been imposed upon on him by divine wisdom as necessary qualifications for his peculiar course of service. Some plants owe their medicinal qualities to the marsh in which they grow; others to the shades in which alone they flourish. There are precious fruits put forth by the moon as well as by the sun. Boats need ballast as well as sail; a drag on the carriage-wheel is no hindrance when the road runs downhill. Pain has, probably, in some cases developed genius; hunting out the soul which otherwise might have slept like a lion in its den.'
Charles Spurgeon, 'The Minister's Fainting Fits' in Lectures to My Students, p.181.
