ARTHUR STACE – WHAT CAN I DO FOR GOD?

History records of a simple man, who did nothing but write a single word “ETERNITY” on the pavements and walls on the streets of Sydney, Australia. Arthur Malcolm Stace, also known as “Mr. Eternity,” was an alcoholic from his teenage years, up until the early 1930s, when he was touched and transformed by Jesus, and this began his mission to spread his one word message – “Eternity.”

Arthur Stace was born on 9 February, 1885, in the slums of Sydney. Both his parents were alcoholics, and his sisters operated a brothel. His father was a violent drunkard, and to escape his wrath, Arthur would frequently sleep under the house. His father, mother, and his five siblings, all eventually died as drunkards and derelicts.

In the 1932, Arthur Stace heard an inspiring sermon “Echoes of Eternity” by John Ridley, a Baptist preacher, on the subject of eternity, who said, “I wish I could shout ETERNITY through all the streets of Sydney!” Stace was very much moved by this thought. As he left the church he felt a deep stirring in his heart to write the word ETERNITY.” He found a piece of chalk in his pocket, and immediately bent down, and wrote on the pavement, then and there. 

Stace could barely write his own name legibly, because he was not greatly literate. However, when he wrote “ETERNITY” he did so elegantly in copperplate style script, on the pavement, mostly about two feet wide. He spent the rest of his life, getting up everyday, at about 5:30, and spending about an hour in prayer, then go around Sydney, to write his one word mission, “ETERNITY” all over the city, because he felt God led him to do so.

Arthur Malcolm Stace, by the time he died in 1967, wrote the word “ETERNITY” over a half a million times, on the pavements of Sydney. Many were touched by this word, and surely God had used this humble effort for His glory, and the spread of His gospel.

– The little boy of Luke 9:10-17, gave his meal of five loaves of bread, and two fish, which was used by God to bless multitudes of people.
– Arthur Stacy gave whatever little he had, to his LORD and Saviour, and God blessed it abundantly.
– “20 And thus did Hezekiah throughout all Judah, and wrought that which was good and right and truth before the LORD his God. 21 And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered.” – 2 Chronicles 31:20-21

What about us? What are we giving to the LORD, who gave us His very life, so that, we can have life? Arthur Malcolm Stace was called to write the word, “ETERNITY” on the pavements of Sydney. He did it faithfully and unashamedly, till the day he died. What about us? May we seek the LORD, to help us serve Him and Him alone, all the days of our lives. May we serve our Redeemer in whatever He is calling us to. Even so the LORD help us.