The New Millennium began with a bang in Sydney, Australia. On the tick of
midnight 31 Dec 1999 the promised fireworks display erupted over Sydney Harbour
to the delight of more than a million people, who watched from the foreshores
and from a vast flotilla of watercraft on the harbour.
This was the display to end all displays. It was designed to outdo every other
New Year's celebration on planet earth, and it seems to have achieved its goal.
For 24 hours the world media ran continuous commentary of celebrations on every
part of the globe. From remote islands in the Pacific Ocean, New Zealand,
Australia, Hong Kong, across Asia to the Middle East, and on into Europe to
France's Eiffel Tower and England's Millennium Dome. Then, as the earth spun at
1,000 miles per hour, across the Atlantic we saw the richest and most powerful
nation on earth, the United States of America, in the freeze of winter join the
celebration of a thousand years; but nothing compared with the brilliance of
Sydney Harbour on 1st January 2000.
What was the reason for Sydney's success in surpassing every other display
around the globe? Was it the amount of money spent on the fireworks? Or the fact
that Australia has such incredible skills in developing fireworks extravaganzas?
Perhaps in the year of Sydney's Olympic Games it was intended to put the city in
the land 'down under' at the top of the globe.
Sydney Harbour has a natural beauty unsurpassed by any harbour in the world, and
the mild summer drew nearly one in three of its four million citizens to the
harbourside celebrations. While much of the world shivered in the cold of a
Northern Hemisphere winter, Sydney's weather was idyllic, and even the forecast
showers did not eventuate.
Many may heap their plaudits on the organizers for the world-wide notoriety, but
there is another reason for Sydney's New Millennium success. A reason that can
be summed up in one word that hung suspended from the giant arch of the Sydney
Harbour Bridge, amidst the jetting rockets exploding above and the deluge of
light that poured from the roadway beneath it. That word was "Eternity".
Like a message from heaven flashed across the world stage to billions of souls,
it shone like a beacon, warning that time is swiftly passing and we are
creatures of eternity. This was a sermon in a word, the magnitude of which can
only be grasped as one understands the story behind it.
In down-town Sydney, set in the pavement at Sydney Square, is the same
inescapable word, "Eternity", in faultless copperplate writing. It was put there
to perpetuate the memory of Sydney's unique citizen, Arthur Stace, otherwise
known as Mr Eternity.
When the Sydney architect, Ridley Smith, unveiled the plaque in Sydney Square in
July 1977, a note in the Sydney Morning Herald drew attention to Arthur's
one-word sermon:
"In letters almost 21 cm high is the famous copperplate message ETERNITY. The
one-word sermon gleams in wrought aluminium. There's no undue prominence; no
garish presentation; merely the simple ETERNITY on pebbles as Arthur Stace would
have wanted it."
Arthur was a thin little man no more than 5 feet 3 inches in stature. He was
uneducated and on his own testimony could barely write his name. His wife would
read him his mail and he would tell her what to write in reply; yet for 33 years
this incredible man rose at 5 o'clock each morning to walk the streets of Sydney
and its far-flung suburbs to write with chalk in flawless copperplate style on
the pavements just one word, "Eternity". Day after day, with a commitment and
passion rarely equalled, he preached his sermon to the busy crowds of shoppers
and workers as they rushed along the sidewalks. It is estimated that this
simple, yet profound message, was repeated over 500,000 times.
In many ways the word was mysterious, for no one knew who was responsible for
this elegant graffiti that adorned the pavement.
Newspaper journalists wrote about it and people everywhere discussed it, but who
was responsible? No one could predict where the word would appear next. It could
be in the heart of the city one day and 20 kilometres out in the suburbs the
next. It even appeared in Melbourne, 1,000 miles away.
There was no doubt the same person was responsible wherever it appeared, but who
did it? Journalists referred to its author as "Mr Eternity", and each day people
would remark, "Mr Eternity has struck again!" Occasionally his sermon changed to
"Obey God", but quickly reverted to the simple one-word sermon, "Eternity". One
day in 1956, after 24 years of mystery, Rev Lisle Thompson, who was Arthur's
pastor at Burton Street Baptist Tabernacle, saw him writing the mysterious word
on the pavement. "Are you Mr Eternity?" He asked. Back came the answer, "Guilty,
your honour."
Once Mr Eternity's identity was known interviews were arranged with the media,
and the Daily Telegraph published a full report on 21 June 1956. The secret ;was
out, and the mystery solved at last. In 1994 a TV documentary was produced on
his life and shown across the nation. A Sydney poet has written his story in
verse.
Arthur Stace was born in Balmain, now an inner suburb of Sydney, in the year
1884. His father was an alcoholic and his mother ran a brothel. He had two
brothers, both of whom died of alcoholism. His two sisters ran a brothel.
During childhood the five Stace children had to fend for themselves in a home
where domestic violence was the norm. It is said that the children frequently
slept on hessian bags under the house to escape the wrath of a violent, drunken
father.
Needless to say, the family grew up in abject poverty, and Arthur's childhood
was a daily battle for survival. He stole to eat, and at the age of 12 was made
a State Ward. He received no education.
When 14 years old Arthur went to work in a coal mine, presumably the old Balmain
coal mine, and at 15 served his first gaol sentence. Even at this young age he
was a heavy drinker.
In his twenties he moved from Balmain to Surry Hills adjacent to Sydney Central
Railway Station. There he occupied himself with running "sly grog" for pubs and
acting as "cockatoo", or lookout, for gambling houses and brothels. His whole
lifestyle brought him into conflict with the police and on many occasions was he
arrested and sentenced.
When the Great War of 1914-18 began, Arthur escaped the life he was living and
enlisted in the AIF. He was sent to the battlefields of France, where he served
as stretcher-bearer and drummer. He witnessed the horrors of warfare in the
trenches under heavy artillery bombardment in freezing conditions, and received
injuries that impaired the sight of one of his eyes. In 1919 he returned to
Australia and was discharged still suffering from shell shock and the effects of
mustard gas poisoning. Back home in Sydney, Arthur found it easy to renew old
acquaintances and soon slipped into a life of alcohol, gambling and crime. He
wandered the streets feeding out of rubbish bins. Methylated spirits became a
cheap escape. He found he could buy a bottle for sixpence and that would keep
him in drunken oblivion for a whole day. Next day he drank water to reactivate
the methylated spirits. He could thus get along on threepence a day! On his own
testimony, Arthur had become "a petty criminal, a bum, and a metho drinker".
Alcohol which had destroyed his father was now controlling him, and on one
occasion he staggered into a police station and begged to be locked up, but the
officer refused. Evangelist John G Ridley, who knew Arthur personally, records
that he staggered away saying, "When I don't want them to put me in, they do it:
now when I want them to put me in they shut me out.'
By 1930 the world was in the grip of the Great Depression. Unemployed men walked
the streets searching for help wherever it might be found. One port of call was
St Barnabas Anglican Church in Broadway, where Archdeacon RBS Hammond ran "A
Meeting for Needy Men ".
The Archbishop was a strong evangelical with a great concern for people. In his
meeting he presented the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the only solution for man's
need, and afterwards supplied each man with a cup of tea and a rock cake.
On the 6th August 1930 Arthur Stace wandered into this "Meeting for Needy Men'
and found 300 seated in the hall. Looking around he noticed a few well dressed
men standing near the door and he turned to the man sitting next to him, who was
one of Sydney's best known criminals, and asked, "Who are they?" The reply came
back, "I'd reckon they'd be Christians." Arthur said, "Well look at them and
look at us. I'm havin' a go at what they've got."
After the gospel had been presented and each man had received his rock cake and
tea, Arthur made his way out of the hall, across Broadway into Sydney University
Park. There, under a big Morton Bay fig tree he fell on his knees to the ground
and with tears of repentance streaming down his face cried out, "God, be
merciful to me a sinner!"
That cry was the pivot on which Arthur's life turned. His was a genuine
conversion to Christ, and for the next 37 years his life was a living testimony
to God's saving and keeping power. At that instant God heard his cry and he
became a child of God. He could say, as the hymn writer has put it, "My sins
which were many are all washed away!"
Later Arthur testified: "I went in to get a cup of tea and a rock-cake, but I
met the Rock of Ages."
Let those who doubt that God can hear the sinner's cry and answer in infinite
love and power to lift him into glorious liberty from sins slavery, take heed to
the testimony of this hopeless little metho drinker and petty criminal who, by
the grace of God, became Mr Eternity. And let it be known by all that Arthur
Stace is not the only one to experience the mercy of God. Millions have found
the joy of salvation by trusting the Saviour. Not all had the same unfortunate
background. Not all were enslaved by the fearsome drug of alcohol, but all
needed to be saved.
The Bible says, "If any man be in Christ he is a new creature, old things are
passed away; behold, all things are become new."
When Arthur Stace turned to God and found mercy he realized that every other
person needed to do the same. That is why, for 33 years, he walked the streets
from the early hours of the morning preaching his one-word sermon, "Eternity".
"Eternity", to him was the everlasting destiny of every soul to be spent in
heaven or hell, and concern for his fellow man drove him on day after day. He
knew the forgiveness of God in his own life and wanted others to have the same
assurance.
In Nov 1932 Evangelist John G Kidney MC conducted an evangelistic mission at the
Burton Street Baptist Tabernacle in Darlinghurst, where Arthur was attending.
John Ridley had also served in the fields of France and had won a Military Cross
for bravery in battle. A German bullet had passed through his face and impaired
his speech; but God had wonderfully restored him to become a most eloquent,
forceful preacher, and an outstanding evangelist. Little did he realize what
impact his sermon would have on Arthur Stace when he preached on the text Isaiah
57:15. "Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity"
Stressing the word eternity, the preacher cried, "Eternity! Eternity! I wish I
could sound or shout that word to everyone in the streets of Sydney. Eternity!
You have to meet it. Where will you spend eternity?"
Arthur Stace recalled that meeting. He said, "Eternity was ringing through my
brain, and suddenly I began to cry and felt a powerful call from the Lord to
write "Eternity". I had a piece of chalk in my pocket, and outside the Church I
bent down right there and wrote it. The funny thing is, that before I wrote it I
could hardly write my own name. I had no schooling and I couldn't have spelled
"eternity" for a hundred quid. But it came out smoothly, in a beautiful
copperplate script. I couldn't understand it, and I still can 't".
Over the next 33 years that one word, "eternity", was repeated more than 500,000
times, all over the city of Sydney, in country towns and in Melbourne; wherever
he went.
It is an amazing turn of Divine providence that the Sydney architect, Ridley
Smith, who unveiled the plaque inscribed with the word "Eternity" in the
pavement of Sydney Square in July 1977, was the son of missionary parents
serving with the China Inland Mission. His father named his son Ridley because
of his great respect for Evangelist John Ridley, the very preacher who was used
to change Arthur Stace into Mr Eternity.
Many stories have been told of this humble servant of Christ, for that indeed
was what he was. From the day he met Christ under the fig tree in University
Park he felt he had a debt of love to pay. He was like the street woman who came
into the house of Simon the Pharisee, and washed Jesus' feet with her tears and
wiped them with her hair. He loved much because he was forgiven much.
Although no one knew the identity of Mr Eternity for 24 years he did not go
unnoticed. He recalled being apprehended by police.
"Twenty three times", he said, "I have been questioned (by the police) but I’ve
never been arrested....the police have been very good to me. I know there's a
rule about defacing the footpaths, but I've got authority from a higher Source."
Once, in his early days, a policeman apprehended him with, "What are you doing
writing on the pavement? .... Well," replied Arthur, "it is a word from the
Bible which I want the people to read; and don't forget that when you were
sworn-in to the Police Force you placed your hand on that Book." With that the
officer turned away and Arthur continued his silent, sacred ministry.
Some tried to erase the word from the pavement, and one man followed him placing
the letter 'm' before "eternity" making it "meternity". It was then that Arthur
increased the size of the first letter and, as he said, "I tricked the bloke and
made it a great big E'.
Arthur was a tireless worker for God. He was 46 years old when he was saved and
married at 57. He was employed as a cleaner in the city, but wherever he found
an opportunity shared the gospel of Christ with his fellow creatures of
eternity. For many years he preached on the corner of George and Bathurst
Streets in the heart of Sydney. His method was unusual. First he would place his
Bible on the ground, and then cover it with his hat. Next he would begin walking
around the hat, pointing to it and calling out, "Look, it's alive! It's alive!"
Soon people would gather round; and then he would remove his hat, take up his
Bible and proclaim, "It's alive! The Word of God is living and powerful, sharper
than any two-edged sword...." quoting Hebrews 4:12 from the Bible.
In this way he got his audience, and never failed to tell the good news of the
Saviour who had changed his life and given him hope for eternity.
Although Arthur could not read the Bible he had memorized much of its contents
and quoted it faultlessly. In Church services he had no need of a hymn book for
he had memorized every verse. He was blessed with an incredible memory.
His ministry included leading prayer meetings in his Church at Burton Street,
regular street meetings, helping at the Buckland Street Hostel, and the Francis
Street Night Refuge.
On the 30th July 1967, in a nursing home, Mr Eternity suffered a stroke and
passed over into the immediate presence of his Lord and Saviour. When he entered
the nursing home in 1965, he remarked, "I don't think I'll leave here under my
own steam."
It is said that the word "Eternity ....... can still be discerned on the bell in
the old Sydney GPO Tower. How he; put it there no one will ever know, but on the
1st of January 2000 that one-word sermon tolled far beyond the revellers on
Sydney Harbour, to possibly 2 billion viewers around the entire globe; not once,
but again and again that message rang out.
Was the celebration worth all the millions of dollars expended? I venture to say
that this was the most cost effective sermon ever preached; and it was the
message of a little man who had no theological qualifications, had never been
ordained to the Christian ministry, and who, up to the age of 46 years confessed
himself "a petty criminal, a bum, and a metho drinker".
Arthur Stace has sown the seed, God will give the increase and Eternity will
reveal the harvest.
Now I understand why Sydney's New Millennium celebration had to be the best in
the world.
God had a Millennial Message for all mankind, and that message is summed up in
the Gospel of Christ. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life" (John 3:16).
Life at best is very brief, Like the falling of a leaf, Like the binding of a
sheaf, Be in time; Fleeting days are telling fast That the die will soon be
cast, And the fatal line be past, BE IN TIME!
Sinner, heed the warning voice, Make the Lord your final choice, Then all heaven
will rejoice, Be in time. Come from darkness into light, Come let Jesus make you
right, Come and start for Heaven tonight, BE IN TIME!
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who
believes. Death is but the gateway to eternity, and there are two eternal
destinations. What you do with Jesus Christ determines your eternal destiny.
What will you do with Jesus? Neutral you cannot be. Some day your heart will be
asking, What will He do with me?
The Bible says, "For by grace (undeserved favour) are ye saved through faith;
and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man
should boast” (Eph 2:8-9).
"As many as received Him, to them gave He power, to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on His name" (John 1:12).
About this publication Information for this publication has been gleaned from J
G Ridley's tract, "The Passing of Mr Eternity", from Mr Bruce Leghorn, and
author's personal knowledge of this unique servant of Christ. Photographs were
kindly supplied by Ramon Williams of Worldwide Photos.
Prepared by J R Ecob for The Herald of Hope Inc. January 2000
Free copies of this publication are available on request.
Also a complimentary copy of the Herald of Hope magazine, and "Keys to Bible
Prophecy" studies may be obtained on request.
Please address all correspondence to:
The Editor: Herald of Hope Inc PO Box 216 Marayong NSW 2148 Australia Email
jrecob@netwit.net.au
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