Millions were enthralled and excited.

It was the last day of 1999; we were about to begin a new year and usher in a new century. Under the starry sky on a pleasant summer’s evening on the majestic Sydney Harbour, the display of fireworks and the live music celebration were perhaps Australia’s best yet.

Then, as the smoke from the fireworks cleared, projected onto the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge was displayed the beautiful copperplate writing of a single word in gold letters: “Eternity”, the first written word of the third millennium.

Why?

The story concerns a mostly unknown (and most unlikely) man named Arthur Stace, who later became known as “Mr Eternity”.

He was born in 1889 into a very poor family, to alcoholic parents; it soon became necessary for Arthur to search rubbish bins for food, and to steal milk and bread. By the age of twelve, he was a ward of the State, and was working in a coal mine. He too became an alcoholic, and at fifteen years old, he had spent time in jail. He had little schooling, if any, and could hardly write his own name.

His later “career” included being a look-out (a “cockatoo”) for illegal gambling venues (warning of approaching police), being a scout for his sisters’ brothels, and progressing to being a labourer. He joined the Army in 1916 for service during World War 1, and served well, but was discharged on medical grounds in 1919, with recurring bronchitis and pleurisy, probably resulting from his work in the coal mines.

Fast forward through Arthur’s sad and difficult life to 1930.

For some inexplicable reason, he found himself in an inner-city church, listening to a sermon about eternity, which both confronted and inspired him. He became a Christian, unexpectedly and amazingly converted. He swore off alcohol.

Two years later, in a different church, he heard the famous Christian evangelist John Ridley speaking passionately about eternity, and how we must all face it. Ridley declared that he would love to shout the word “Eternity” from the rooftops so that all might hear and turn to the living God.

His sermon was based on Isaiah 57:15, which says: This is what the high and lofty One says – He who inhabits Eternity, whose name is holy: ‘I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and humble in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite’.

Arthur Stace, almost illiterate, was transformed. He identified with being humble, lowly, and contrite. God was with him, and he had just received God's clear call, an unusual one. Arthur Stace was not educated, he was not a public speaker, but he could do something small to help others find their way.

With yellow chalk, he wrote the word “Eternity” on the footpaths and doorways of Sydney streets, at the entrances to railway stations, and wherever else he could think of. He could never explain it, but the only word he could ever write “properly” was in smooth, beautiful copperplate handwriting – the word “Eternity”.

He continued to do this, unobtrusively, rising well before dawn each day, for more than thirty years, unobserved and unknown for most of that time. The freshly chalked appearance of the word “Eternity” each day was a puzzle to Sydney society, an enigma. Who was this man?

Arthur Stace expanded his service. Footpaths and doorways in Newcastle, (more than 200 kilometres to the north), and Melbourne (1000 kilometres to the south), as well as in country New South Wales were soon seeing this special, intriguing, and challenging word.

Later, Arthur faced arrest more than twenty-four times for “defacing” public property. He simply declared that he had been given permission from a “Higher Authority” and was never arrested or charged. The law was subsequently changed so that it was no longer illegal to write with chalk on public streets and footpaths, and this became affectionately known as “Arthur’s Law”.

Interestingly, this later became a source of comfort, games, and communication when children and adults wrote chalk messages of encouragement and drew pictures on streets and footpaths during recent lockdowns.

Arthur Stace became a caretaker and a cleaner for his local church, and he worked as a volunteer social worker, caring for the vulnerable, the unemployed, the addicted, and the mentally ill. He could identify with them.

He died of a stroke, aged 82, in July 1967, bequeathed his body to the University of Sydney, and was buried two years later, with “Eternity” written above his grave – in his signature copperplate style. Arthur Malcolm Stace, an integral part of the folklore of Sydney, Australia. Who would have thought?

He had written the word “Eternity” more than half a million times, always with the same beautiful script. How many lives were impacted by this humble man with such a rough start to life? We will never know, but God does.