Wheaton College Alumni Magazine Winter 2015 | Page 29

Laura Berenger, conservator of rare books at Chicago’s Conservation
Center, worked to restore all five pieces for the Oxleys.
“These may be the most exquisite pieces I have had the chance to work
on,” Laura writes. “Travels and work that, to me, seem beyond daring are
married with the most intimate and refined artwork—paintings that are
spontaneous, contemplative, delicate, and majestic.”
How these pieces of history found a way to Wheaton College is part
of a much larger story—a story about how the life and art of an “almost
famous” missionary and artist will continue to further the cause of the
gospel today.

“Are all things—even the treasures He has sanctified—held loosely,
ready to be parted with, without a struggle, when He asks for them?”
–Lilias Trotter, Paa s o f th e Cro ss
r ble
A gifted English artist born to a world of privilege in 1853, Lilias
Trotter might have been famous. She was offered the chance to develop
her artistic talents to their fullest under the tutelage and influence of
the Victorian artist and critic John Ruskin. In fact, Ruskin told her
“she would be the greatest living painter and do things that would be
Immortal,” if only she would give herself over to developing her talent.
Lilias had come of age during the “Higher Life Movement” in
England, and attended the first meetings of what would become
the Keswick Conference, along with such notables as Rev. George
MacDonald, Bishop Wilberforce (son of William Wilberforce), and
Dwight L. Moody. These conferences shaped her theology, and her
understanding that Christians were meant to live lives of service.
Though tantalized by Ruskin’s offer, rather than pursue her art, she
chose instead to devote herself to fulltime ministry, first in London, and then in
North Africa for 40 years.
“Lily knew that she could not continue to
do both and give either what it would require
of her. The rudder of her will had already
been set toward God’s purposes,” Miriam
wrote in A Passion for the Impossible.
This spring, Many Beautiful Things, a
documentary about the life and legacy of this remarkable woman that
will explore questions of talent and calling, is set to be released by the
Academy Award-winning Image Bearer Pictures.
The documentary is the culmination of a dream for Miriam, who
vividly recalls her first introduction to Lilias in the 1980s. Two retired
sisters, concerned that their personal library of Lilias’ out-of-print books
and leaflets would be lost, began sending them to Miriam, one by one.
Miriam says, “Her life and work spoke to my spirit, cutting through the
culture and the events of daily life, bringing me eternal perspective.”
A minister’s wife, then busy with church activities and the bustle
of her young family, Miriam says, “Everything in my life at the time was
unfinished.”
W H EA T O N . ED U / M A G A Z I N E

Like many today, she remembers struggling with not being able to
see results of the day-in and day-out investment of her time and talent.
But as she read more about the life and work of this 19th-century
woman, who “lived above the circumstances of her life,” including
the lean times in ministry, the disappointments, and the setbacks,
Miriam began to take inspiration—drawing out “faith lessons that
become survival lessons.”
Rather than focusing on results, Lilias’ whole focus was on
faithfulness—through prayer and through loving service. The results
she left to God, trusting “that what was sown in the name of Christ
might not be reaped in her lifetime, but in God’s time, and his
economy, nothing would be wasted,” says Miriam.

“How the angels must watch the first day when that light reaches a
new spot on this earth that God loves . . . and, oh, the joy of being
allowed to go with His message that first day. How can His people
hold back from that joy while one corner remains unvisited by
the Dayspring!” –Lilias Trotter, March 1885
Miriam has called Lilias “a 19th century Mother Teresa to Algiers.