CHALK TALK Mr. Eternity This story is in itself a chalk talk, although the chalk was used differently than we are use to. The celebrated new Millennium began with a bang in Sydney Australia.  On the tick of midnight December 31, 1999, the promised fireworks display erupted over Sydney Harbor to the delight of more than a million people who were watching. This was the display to end all displays.  It was designed to outdo every other New Year's celebration on planet earth, and it seems to have achieved its goal. For 24 hours the world media ran continuous commentary of celebrations on every part of the globe, but nothing compared with the brilliance of Sydney Harbor on January 1st, 2000. What was the reason for Sydney's success in surpassing every other display around the globe?  Was it the amount of money spent on the fireworks?  Was it the fact that Australia has such incredible skills in developing fireworks extravaganzas? Perhaps in the year of Sydney's Olympic games it was intended to put the city in the land "down under" at the top of the globe. There is another reason for Sydney's New Millennium success.  A reason that can be summed up in one word.  I will tell you that one word later in this talk. This story really goes back to August 6th, 1930.  On that day, Arthur Stace wandered into a "Meeting for Needy Men."  Looking around he noticed a few well dressed men standing near the door and he turned to the man sitting next to him, and asked him, "Who are they?"  The reply came back, "I'd reckon they'd be Christians." Arthur said, "Well look at them and look at us.  I'm havin' a go at what they've got." After the gospel had been presented and each man had received his rock cake and tea, Arthur made his way out of the hall, across Broadway into Sydney University Park.  There, under a big Mortan Bay Fig tree he fell on his knees to the ground and with tears of repentance steaming down his face cried out, "God, be merciful to me a sinner!"   That cry turned Arthur's life around.  His was a genuine conversion to Christ, and for the next 37 years his life was a living testimony to God's saving and keeping power.  God heard his cry and at that instant Arthur became a child of God.  He later testified: "I went to get a cup of tea and a rock cake, but I met the Rock of Ages."   In November of 1932 Evangelist John G Ridley conducted evangelistic services at Burton Street Baptist Tabernacle in Darlinghurst where Arthur was attending.  John Ridley had served in the French army and won a Military Cross for bravery in battle.  A German bullet had passed through his face and impaired his speech; but God had wonderfully restored him to become a most eloquent, forceful preacher, and an outstanding evangelist.  Little did he realize what impact his sermon would have on Arthur Stace when he preached on the text of Isaiah 57:15. Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity" Stressing the word eternity, the preacher cried, "Eternity!  Eternity!  I wish I could sound or shout that word to everyone in the streets of Sydney.  Eternity!  You have to meet it.  Where will you spend eternity?" Arthur Stace recalled that meeting.  He said, "Eternity was ringing through my brain, and suddenly I began to cry and felt a powerful call from the Lord to write ‘Eternity'.  I had a piece of chalk in my pocket, and outside the church I bent down right there and wrote it...The funny thing is, that before I wrote it I could hardly write my own name.  I had no schooling and I couldn't have spelled ‘eternity' for a hundred quid.  But it came out smoothly, in a beautiful copperplate script.  I couldn't understand it, and I still can't.   For 33 years Arthur Stace rose at 5 o'clock each morning to walk the streets of Sydney and its far flung suburbs to write with chalk in flawless copperplate style on the pavements just one word, "Eternity."  Day after day, with a commitment and passion rarely equaled, he preached his sermon to the busy crowds of shoppers and workers as they rushed along the sidewalks.  It is estimated that this simple, yet profound message, was repeated over 5,000 times. In many ways the word was mysterious, for no one knew who was responsible for this elegant graffiti that adorned the pavement. Newspaper journalists wrote about it and people everywhere discussed it, but who was responsible?  No one could predict where the word would appear next.  It could be in the heart of the city one day and in the suburbs the next.  It even appeared in Melbourne, 1,000 miles away. There was no doubt the same person was responsible wherever it appeared, but who did it?  Journalists referred to its author as "Mr. Eternity", and each day people would remark, "Mr. Eternity has struck again!"  One day in 1956, after 24 years of mystery, Rev. Lisle Thompson, who was Arthur's pastor, saw him writing the mysterious word on the pavement.  "Are you Mr. Eternity? He asked.  Back came the answer, "Guilty, your honor!"   Once Mr. Eternity's identity was known interviews were arranged with the media, and the Daily Telegraph published a full report on June 21, 1956.  The secret was out, and the mystery solved at last.  In 1994 a TV documentary was produced on his life and shown across the nation.   When Arthur Stace turned to God and found mercy he realized that every other person needed to do the same.  That is why, for 33 years, he walked the streets from the early hours of the morning preaching his one-word sermon, "Eternity". Eternity to him was the everlasting destiny of every soul to be spent in heaven or hell, and concern for his fellow man drove him on day after day.  He knew the forgiveness of God in his own life and wanted others to have the same assurance. In down-town Sydney, set in the pavement of Sydney Square, is the same inescapable word, "Eternity" in perfect copperplate writing.  It was put there to perpetuate the memory of Sydney's unique citizen, Arthur Stace, otherwise known as Mr. Eternity. When the Sydney architect, Ridley Smith, unveiled the plaque in Sidney Square in July of 1977, a note in the Sydney Morning Herald drew attention to Arthur's one- word sermon:                                 "In letters almost 21 cm high is the famous copperplate message  ETERNITY.  The one-word sermon gleams in wrought aluminum. There's no garish presentation; merely the simple ETERNITY on pebbles as Arthur Stace would have wanted it." It is an amazing turn of Divine providence that they Sydney architect, Ridley Smith, who unveiled the plaque inscribed with the word "eternity" in the pavement of Sydney Square, was the son of missionary parents serving with the China Inland Mission.  His father named his son Ridley because of the great respect for Evangelist John Ridley, the very preacher who was used to change Arthur Stace into Mr. Eternity. Arthur was a tireless worker for God.  He was 46 years old when he was saved. He was employed as a cleaner in the city, but wherever he found an opportunity shared the gospel of Christ with his fellow creatures of eternity.  For many years he preached on a street corner in the heart of Sydney.  His method was unusual.  First he would place his Bible on the ground, and then cover it with his hat.  Next he would begin walking around the hat, pointing to it and calling out, "Look, its alive! It's alive!" Soon people would gather around; and then he would remove his hat, take up his Bible and proclaim, "It's alive!  The Word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword..." quoting Hebrews 4:12 from the Bible. In this way he got his audience and never failed to tell the good news of the Savior who had changed his life and given him hope for eternity. Why did Sydney have such world-wide notoriety, and new Millennium success. The reason can be summed up in one word that hung suspended from the giant arch of the Sydney Harbor Bridge, amidst the jetting rockets exploding above and the deluge of light that poured from the roadway beneath it.  THAT WORD WAS ETERNITY! Like a message from heaven flashed across the world slate to billions of souls, it shone like a beacon, warning that time is swiftly passing and we are creatures of eternity.  This was a sermon in a word, the magnitude of which can only be grasped as one understands the story behind it.                               It is said that the word "eternity" can still be discerned on the bell in the old Sydney GPO Tower.  How he put it there no one will every know, but on January 1st, 2000 that one-word sermon tolled far beyond the revelers on Sydney Harbor, to possible 2 billion viewers around the globe; not once, but again and again that message rang out. Was the celebration worth all the millions of dollars expended?  I venture to say that this was the most cost effective sermon ever preached; and it was the message of a little man who had no theological qualifications, had never been ordained to the Christian ministry, and who, up to the age of 46 years confessed himself "a petty criminal, a bum, and a metho drinker."   Arthur Stace has sown the seed, God will give the increase, and eternity will reveal the harvest. Now I understand why Sydney's New Millennium celebration had to be the best in the world. God had a millennial message for all mankind, and that message is summed up in the gospel of Christ (John 3:16). Life at best is very brief, Like the falling of a leaf, Like the binding of a sheaf, Be in time; Fleeting days are telling fast That the die will soon be cast, And the fatal line be past, BE IN TIME! Sinner, heed the warning voice, Make the Lord your final choice, Then all heaven will rejoice, Be in time. Come from darkness into light, Come let Jesus make you right,                                 Come and start for heaven tonight, BE IN TIME! The gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes.  Death is but the gateway to eternity, and there are two eternal destinations.  What you do with Jesus Christ determines your eternal destiny.     What will you do with Jesus?     Neutral you cannot be.     Some day your heart will be asking,     What will He do with me? YOU CAN BE SAVED BY GRACE TODAY IF YOU RECEIVE HIM!                                    6