Driven by Eternity: Make Your Life Count Today and Forever

by John Bevere

What is it about the word eternity that catches our attention—in fact, has the potential to influence an entire nation? Such is the story of Arthur Stace, an Australian born into a life of hopelessness at the turn of the century. His life was that of a bum, filled with petty crime and alcoholism between the First World War and the Great Depression. All this changed when he met Jesus on August 6, 1930, and soon afterward heard his pastor cry, “I wish I could shout eternity through all the streets of Sydney!” He felt driven to make this cry a reality. Arthur would rise early each morning, pray for an hour, and leave his home between 5:00 and 5:30 a.m. to go wherever he felt God lead him. For hours he would write one word, eternity, approximately every hundred feet on the sidewalks of Sydney. For more than twenty years his work was a mystery. Who was writing this single word that caused countless thousands to pause and ponder its meaning, both immediate and long range? Had this mystery man captured the impact and portion of this single word’s power? It wasn’t until 1956 that the puzzle was solved. Two years after Arthur’s death in 1967, Sydney poet Douglas Stewart published these words and immortalized the word of this graffiti preacher: That shy mysterious poet Arthur Stace Whose work was just one single mighty word Walked in the utmost depths of time and space And there his word was spoken and he heard ETERNITY, ETERNITY, it banged him like a bell Dulcet from heaven soundin...

A person who cannot forgive has forgotten how great a debt they were forgiven of!