Arthur Stace

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Arthur Malcolm Stace (February 9, 1884 - 30 July 1967), otherwise known as Mr. Eternity, was a homeless Australian man who converted to Christianity and spread his form of gospel by writing the word "Eternity" on sidewalks in Sydney, Australia, using chalk.

1 Early years
2 Conversion to Christianity
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Early years

A house called Eternity, Mosman, Sydney. The nameplate on the house is based on Arthur Stace's Eternity.

Stace's grave in Botany Cemetery

Arthur Stace was born in Balmain, in the inner-west of Sydney, Australia. The child of alcoholics, he was brought up in poverty. In order to survive, he resorted to stealing bread and milk and searching for scraps of food in bins. By the age of 12, Arthur, with virtually no formal schooling, had become a ward of the state. As a teenager, he became an alcoholic and was subsequently sent to jail at 15. Afterwards, he worked as a "cockatoo" or a look-out for a Two-up "school". In his twenties, he was a scout for his sisters' brothels.

[edit] Conversion to Christianity

Arthur Stace converted to Christianity on the night of 6 August 1930, after hearing an inspirational sermon by Rev. R. B. S. Hammond at St. Barnabas Church, Broadway. Inspired by the words, he became enamoured with the notion of eternity. Two years later, on 14 November 1932, Arthur was further inspired by the preaching of Evangelist John G. Ridley^[1],MC, on "The echoes of Eternity" from Isaiah 57:15:

For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth Eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

John Ridley's words,"Eternity, Eternity, I wish that I could sound or shout that word to everyone in the streets of Sydney. You’ve got to meet it, where will you spend Eternity?" would prove crucial in Stace's decision to tell others about his faith. In an interview, Arthur Stace said, "Eternity went ringing through my brain and suddenly I began crying and felt a powerful call from the Lord to write Eternity." Even though he was illiterate and could hardly write his own name Arthur, legibly, the word Eternity, "came out smoothly, in a beautiful copperplate script. I couldn't understand it, and I still can't."

After eight or nine years, he tried to write something else, "Obey God" and then five years later, "God or Sin" but he could not bring himself to stop writing Eternity. The Sydney City Council brought him to the attention of the police as they had rules about the defacing of pavements, so much so that he narrowly avoided arrest around twenty-four times. Each time he was caught, he responded with, "But I had permission from a higher source".

Several mornings a week for the next 35 years, Arthur would leave his wife, Pearl and their home in Bulwarra Road, Pyrmont around 5am to go around the streets of Sydney and chalk the word Eternity on footpaths, train station entrances and anywhere else he could think of. It is estimated that he wrote the word around 500,000 times over the 35 years. Workers arriving in the city would see the word freshly written, but not the writer, and so, "The man who writes Eternity" became a legend in Sydney. The mystery was solved when Reverend Lisle M. Thompson, who preached at the church where Arthur worked as a cleaner, saw him take a piece of chalk from his pocket and write the word on the footpath. Thompson wrote about Stace's life and an interview was published in the Sydney Sunday Telegraph on 21 June 1956.

Arthur Stace died of a stroke in a nursing home at the age of 83 on July 30, 1967. He bequeathed his body to the University of Sydney; subsequently, his remains were buried with those of his wife at Botany Cemetery (General 15, no. 729) around two years later.

The National Museum of Australia in Canberra holds one of Arthur Stace's iconic 'Eternity' signs, which he chalked on a piece of cardboard for a fellow parishioner. The museum also has an Eternity gallery, inspired by Arthur Stace's story. The gallery features 50 personal stories from ordinary and extraordinary Australians. The stories are tied together by emotional themes including joy, fear, separation, chance and loneliness, which are all elements of Stace's story.

In Sydney today, you can still see the word Eternity written in three places:

On Stace's gravestone in Botany Cemetery.
Inside the bell in the GPO clock tower which had been dismantled during World War II. When the clock tower was rebuilt in the 1960s, the bell was brought out of storage and as the workmen were installing it they noticed, inside, the word "Eternity" in Stace's chalk. (No one ever found out how Stace had been able to get to the bell, which had been sealed up).
In Town Hall Square, between St Andrew's Cathedral and the Sydney Town Hall. When the area was redeveloped in the 1970s, a wrought aluminium replica of the word in Stace's original copperplate handwriting was embedded in the footpath near a fountain as an eternal memorial to Arthur Stace.

As a tribute to the man known as Mr. Eternity, the Sydney Harbour Bridge was lit up with the word "Eternity" as part of the celebrations for the beginning of the year 2000 and the beginning of the new century.^[2]