A story that touches the heart of everyone, not just in Australia, but across the world.
Arthur Stace was born on 9 February 1884 in a Balmain slum to a family of alcoholics. He grew up in poverty, received little education and, at 12, was made a ward of the state. By the age of 15 he’d been in jail for the first of many visits and, like his four siblings, he was a confessed alcoholic.
After joining up and serving in the 19th Battalion in France during World War 1, Stace returned to Sydney, partially blind, unemployed and – still – alcoholic.
On 6 August 1930, drawn into St. Barnabas’ Church on Broadway by the promise of a free meal, Stace encountered something that changed his life: a sermon from Archdeacon R.B.S. Hammond that saw Stace kneel and become a Christian.
From that day, Stace gained control over his drinking and began seeking work, obtaining a job on the sandmills at Maroubra earning three pounds a week.
A few months later, in the Burton Street Baptist Church at Darlinghurst, he heard the preacher, Reverend John Ridley, proclaim: ‘I wish I could shout “eternity” through the streets of Sydney!’ Stace later said: ‘He repeated himself and kept shouting “eternity, eternity” and his words were ringing through my brain as I left the church.
‘Suddenly I began crying and I felt a powerful call from the Lord to write the word “eternity”. I had a piece of chalk in my pocket and I bent down there and wrote it. The funny thing is that before I wrote I could hardly have spelled my own name. I had no schooling and I couldn’t have spelt “eternity” for a hundred quid. But it came out smoothly in beautiful copperplate script. I couldn’t understand it and I still can’t.’
It began a habit that became a legend. For 35 years, Stace rose at 5 a.m. to wander the streets of Sydney and chalk the word ‘Eternity’ on footpaths, train station entrances and anywhere else he could think of. It’s estimated that he wrote the word around 500,000 times.
Stace worked anonymously until, in 1956, a minister at the church where Stace was the cleaner saw him writing the word on the footpath and his identity was revealed.
Arthur Stace died of a stroke in a nursing home on 30 July 1967 at the age of 83. He left his body to Sydney University so that the proceeds could go to charity. The remains were finally buried at Botany Cemetery more that two years later.
It was an amazing tribute to the man, more than 30 years after his death, when the Sydney Harbour Bridge was lit up with the word ‘Eternity’ as part of the millennium celebrations at the beginning of the year 2000.
Seen on TV screens around the world, Stace’s one-word sermon had finally left Sydney’s streets and gone international.
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This article appeared in the Warcry magazine of The Salvation Army. (Used by permission and gratefully acknowledged)
This clip on You Tube of an Australian news team discussing Arthur Stace is well worth the watch.
https://youtu.be/f_k-McpEQBU