Recieved this in an email this morning and thought I would share.If you watched the world-wide TV New Year's Eve 2000celebrations, you would have seen, not only the impressivefireworks display in Sydney (Australia), but alsoemblazoned in extremely large neon writing right across theSydney Harbor Bridge the word, "Eternity." This word was in celebration of the "work and witness" ofsidewalk chalk artist (if that's what you could call him),Arthur Malcolm Stace, who became affectionately known as"Mr. Eternity." "July 30 of this year marked the 36th anniversary of thedeath of Arthur Stace. Born in 1884 into a drunkenAustralian family, Arthur described what he'd become, "apetty criminal, a bum, and a metho (metholated spiritsalcohol) drinker." "His new birth from an old life in crime and sin to a newlife in Christ and service took place on the night ofAugust 6, 1930. "This spiritual turn around occurred after he heard theGospel of Jesus Christ preached faithfully by Rev. R.D.S.Hammond at St Barnabas church in Broadway, Sydney. Twelveyears later, on a Sunday night, November 14, 1942, at hishome church in Darlinghurst, as he sat listening to 'TheEchoes of Eternity' proclaimed forthrightly by Australia'sbeloved evangelist--the late Rev. John G. Ridley--Stace waschallenged to go out and write with chalk the word Eternitymultiplied thousands of times on city sidewalks. This hedid continuously and consistently for the next quarter ofcentury till he died on July 30, 1967. "By the time Arthur Stace was called by God to exit thisworld into eternity, he had left behind a legacy of anenormous value in the copperplate writing of oneword--Eternity. "God took his tool--a piece of chalk--his text of one word,Eternity, and his territory of one pavement at a time inSydney, and multiplied it abundantly.It was witnessed first by many thousands in Sydney,Woolongong, Newcastle, and Melbourne. Then on the eve ofthe new millennium celebration, more than a million peoplewho crammed around the Sydney Harbor Bridge saw itelectronically emblazoned across the bridge of our Olympiccity after a spectacular display of fireworks. It was alsobeamed around the world to more than two billion viewers,as well as at the closing ceremony of the Sydney OlympicGames later on in the year."¹Eternity. It is a powerful word with eternal consequences.In his own simple but profound way, Arthur Stace was posingthe question, "Where will you spend eternity?" 1. Peter Rahme, Pastor, Inner West Baptist ChurchFor more info and a full version; www.innerwestbaptist.org.au
