In the quiet pre-dawn darkness as Australia's largest city 00:00:25.85\00:00:30.16 sleeps a shadowy figure silently walks the streets 00:00:30.19\00:00:34.86 of Sydney like a phantom in the night. 00:00:34.90\00:00:37.37 Unseen and unknown, he walks with purpose and intent 00:00:37.40\00:00:43.00 along the footpath stopping every 30 meters or so 00:00:43.04\00:00:46.98 to crouch down and write a mysterious message. 00:00:47.01\00:00:51.05 A one-word message to Sydney's residents. Just one word 00:00:51.08\00:00:56.35 written in a distinctive Copper Plate lettering style. 00:00:56.38\00:00:59.92 Now, fast forward 50 years. It's New Year's Eve 2000. 00:00:59.95\00:01:06.53 The New Millennium is fast approaching and the eyes 00:01:06.56\00:01:10.17 of the world are on Sydney. 00:01:10.20\00:01:12.67 About two million people around the world watched transfixed 00:01:12.70\00:01:17.67 as the city celebrated on its famous harbor with a 00:01:17.71\00:01:21.31 fireworks display of epic proportions. 00:01:21.34\00:01:24.81 At the stroke of midnight the new millennium began 00:01:24.85\00:01:28.85 with a bang as the fireworks erupted over Sydney harbor. 00:01:28.88\00:01:33.09 The world marveled at the sight of the southern skies 00:01:33.12\00:01:37.06 ablaze with color with spectacular fireballs of color 00:01:37.09\00:01:41.73 erupting in the sky engulfing Sydney Harbor Bridge, 00:01:41.76\00:01:45.97 New Year's colors rain down on the harbor city. 00:01:46.00\00:01:51.04 Then 30 minutes later it ended and as the smoke cleared 00:01:51.07\00:01:57.15 through the haze, one word appeared emblazoned on the 00:01:57.18\00:02:00.98 bridge, just one word. It was written in illuminated letters 00:02:01.02\00:02:05.79 18 meters high in a distinctive Copper Plate Lettering style. 00:02:05.82\00:02:11.53 It was a single word, Eternity. 00:02:11.56\00:02:15.80 The massive Sydney crowd immediately recognized its 00:02:15.83\00:02:20.54 significance and sent up cheers of delight, 00:02:20.57\00:02:23.20 they knew what it meant. A simple word but an enormous 00:02:23.24\00:02:27.84 concept, it was something that was truly iconic for many 00:02:27.88\00:02:31.78 Sydney siders, it had become a word engrained in Sydney 00:02:31.81\00:02:35.98 culture for over 50 years. 00:02:36.02\00:02:38.39 That night at the beginning of a new millennium Sydney 00:02:38.42\00:02:43.32 sent a message to the world. What was the message? 00:02:43.36\00:02:47.10 And who was the mysterious little man, who started it all? 00:02:47.13\00:02:51.87 Well, it's actually one of Sydney's greatest mysteries 00:02:51.90\00:02:55.77 and one of Sydney's greatest legends, it's actually 00:02:55.80\00:03:00.31 The Mystery of Eternity. 00:03:00.34\00:03:02.78 Join me as we investigate the story of Mr. Eternity 00:03:02.81\00:03:08.02 and his message to Sydney and the world. 00:03:08.05\00:03:11.49 Arthur Stace was born in a small derelict dwelling at 00:03:24.07\00:03:27.44 Redford, a suburb of the inner West of Sydney in 1885. 00:03:27.47\00:03:32.07 He was the 5th child in a family with alcoholic parents. 00:03:32.11\00:03:36.24 Arthur was brought up in neglect and poverty 00:03:36.28\00:03:39.41 in a Bellmain slum. He used to sleep on bags under the house 00:03:39.45\00:03:43.69 and survived childhood by stealing bottles of milk from 00:03:43.72\00:03:47.82 neighbor's doorsteps, shoplifting food and searching 00:03:47.86\00:03:52.33 for scraps of food in bins. He lived on the streets until he 00:03:52.36\00:03:56.36 was seven when his irresponsible father deserted the family. 00:03:56.40\00:03:59.77 Three weeks later the mother and children were evicted 00:03:59.80\00:04:03.81 from their home for non- payment of rent. 00:04:03.84\00:04:06.64 His mother couldn't cope and Arthur was given up to 00:04:06.68\00:04:10.08 Foster Care. Arthur was sent to Galvin about 190 Kilometers 00:04:10.11\00:04:16.05 southwest of Sydney where he spent the next seven years 00:04:16.08\00:04:19.39 living with an elderly widow. 00:04:19.42\00:04:21.52 He attended school there intermittently and got a limited 00:04:21.56\00:04:25.79 education, his reading and writing skills were so poor 00:04:25.83\00:04:29.86 that he was barely literate and so left school as 00:04:29.90\00:04:33.03 soon as he could. By the time he was 14, he was working 00:04:33.07\00:04:37.47 in the South Coast coal mine. With his first pay, 00:04:37.51\00:04:41.14 he went to the local pub where her purchased his first 00:04:41.18\00:04:44.58 alcoholic drink. By the time he was 15 he was being 00:04:44.61\00:04:48.75 carted off to jail drunk. 00:04:48.78\00:04:50.95 His drinking became a habit and Arthur quickly became a 00:04:50.99\00:04:55.32 hopeless alcoholic just like his parent before him. 00:04:55.36\00:04:59.06 In his early 20's, he returned to Sydney living with his 00:04:59.09\00:05:03.77 sister Minnie in a Sorry Hills brothel, his sisters were 00:05:03.80\00:05:07.87 prostitutes and he soon became a petty criminal as a lookout 00:05:07.90\00:05:11.87 for the brothels and illegal gambling vends as well as a 00:05:11.91\00:05:16.44 local break-and-enter gang. 00:05:16.48\00:05:18.25 Arthur Stace in his own words said, "I became a bad man." 00:05:18.28\00:05:23.72 When World War I broke out in 1914, Arthur saw an 00:05:23.75\00:05:33.60 opportunity to escape the life of crime and gambling 00:05:33.63\00:05:36.73 he was living and gained some self-respect. 00:05:36.77\00:05:39.53 So, he decided to join the Australian Infantry Forces 00:05:39.57\00:05:44.07 and fight for his country but at only 161 centimeters or 00:05:44.11\00:05:49.11 5 ft. 3 in. tall he was too short to make the height 00:05:49.14\00:05:54.88 requirements let alone the character test for enlistment. 00:05:54.92\00:05:57.72 However Arthurs opportunity came after the horrific 00:05:57.75\00:06:02.12 death toll at Gallipoli where the Australian and New Zealand. 00:06:02.16\00:06:05.96 Army Corp suffered heavy losses recruitment plummeted 00:06:05.99\00:06:10.37 and the army was forced to reduce its height requirements 00:06:10.40\00:06:14.17 and background checks on recruits became less rigorous. 00:06:14.20\00:06:18.64 The army just needed men so on the 18th of March 1916 00:06:18.67\00:06:24.95 Arthur enlisted in the 19th battalion, Arthur Stace 00:06:24.98\00:06:30.09 served on the battlefields in France as a stretcher-bearer, 00:06:30.12\00:06:33.76 he witnessed the most appalling scenes. 00:06:33.79\00:06:36.86 There was a scale of violence unknown in any previous war 00:06:36.89\00:06:41.73 there were terrible combat casualties, millions of them 00:06:41.76\00:06:46.13 and Arthur Stace often had to pick up the shattered bodies 00:06:46.17\00:06:50.21 of his mates. Stretcher-bearers in wartime typically earned 00:06:50.24\00:06:54.88 the highest place in the esteem of their comrades but in 00:06:54.91\00:06:59.11 April 1917, Arthur was wounded when a gas-filled shell 00:06:59.15\00:07:03.95 exploded beside him. 00:07:03.99\00:07:05.49 After he had recovered in England, he was discharged 00:07:05.52\00:07:09.82 and sent back to Australia, the official reasons for his 00:07:09.86\00:07:13.70 discharge were recurring bouts of bronchitis, pleurisy, 00:07:13.73\00:07:18.03 and the shell shock resulting from the horrors that he had 00:07:18.07\00:07:21.97 experienced. Back in Sydney Arthur soon slipped back 00:07:22.00\00:07:26.17 into his bad old ways and before long he was into a life 00:07:26.21\00:07:31.01 of alcohol, gambling, and crime again. 00:07:31.05\00:07:33.21 He wandered the streets eating out of rubbish bins 00:07:33.25\00:07:37.02 and drinking methylated spirits. In his own words, 00:07:37.05\00:07:40.99 Arthur became a petty criminal, a bum, and a Meth drinker. 00:07:41.02\00:07:45.96 By 1930 Sydney was in the grip of the Great Depression, 00:07:45.99\00:07:50.97 unemployed men wandered the streets desperately 00:07:51.00\00:07:55.20 looking for work and during these challenging times 00:07:55.24\00:07:58.87 a disheveled Metho drinker-like Arthur was the least likely 00:07:58.91\00:08:03.38 person to get a job. That year Arthur was convinced 00:08:03.41\00:08:07.98 that he would never escape the grip that alcohol had 00:08:08.02\00:08:11.22 on his life and so on one occasion he staggered into 00:08:11.25\00:08:16.12 Regent's Redfern's Police Station and begged the Sergeant 00:08:16.16\00:08:19.83 to lock him up. He said "Sergeant put me away, I am no 00:08:19.86\00:08:26.43 good and I haven't been sober for eight years. 00:08:26.47\00:08:29.20 Give me a chance and put me away." 00:08:29.24\00:08:32.64 But the Sergeant said to him "You stink of metho. Get out." 00:08:32.67\00:08:37.95 On the 6th of August, 1930 not long after Stace tried 00:08:37.98\00:08:43.15 to have himself locked up, he attended a meeting at 00:08:43.18\00:08:46.65 St Barnabas church on Broadway. Many Christian Churches 00:08:46.69\00:08:50.59 at that time would hold meetings for the down and out men 00:08:50.63\00:08:54.60 of Sydney where if they sat and listened to the sermon, 00:08:54.63\00:08:58.03 they'd get something to eat afterwards 00:08:58.07\00:09:00.17 and it was the promise of food that attracted Arthur 00:09:00.20\00:09:04.24 to the meeting. The preacher that day was Arch Deacon Bob 00:09:04.27\00:09:08.78 Hammond. There are about 300 grubby men in the audience 00:09:08.81\00:09:13.05 along with six clean looking and well-presented people 00:09:13.08\00:09:17.15 sitting on separate seats on the front. 00:09:17.19\00:09:19.59 Arthur was sitting next to his friend a well-known Sydney 00:09:19.62\00:09:23.59 criminal and he turned and asked him about those neat 00:09:23.63\00:09:27.63 and tidy people. "Who are they?" His companion replied 00:09:27.66\00:09:33.00 "I'd reckon they'd be Christians." 00:09:33.03\00:09:35.44 And Stace said to him, "Well, look at them and 00:09:35.47\00:09:40.08 look at us." " I'm having a go at what they have got. 00:09:40.11\00:09:43.35 That's what I want to be like." 00:09:43.38\00:09:45.98 Arthur knew that his life was in a mess, he knew that he 00:09:46.01\00:09:51.05 desperately needed help. That night Arthur heard the 00:09:51.09\00:09:56.16 good news that Jesus loves sinners, people like him 00:09:56.19\00:10:00.53 even though they've made a mess of their lives. 00:10:00.56\00:10:03.40 He found out that Christ died for him and then rose again 00:10:03.43\00:10:08.34 and has the power to save and change people like him. 00:10:08.37\00:10:12.84 It was the best news he'd ever heard. 00:10:12.87\00:10:16.54 When the meeting finished, Arthur came to Victoria Park 00:10:16.58\00:10:20.95 and under a giant Fig tree, he fell on his knees 00:10:20.98\00:10:24.75 and cried out to God, be merciful to me a sinner. 00:10:24.79\00:10:30.03 Later, speaking about the meeting that day Arthur 00:10:30.06\00:10:34.76 used to say "I went in to get a cup of tea and a rock cake 00:10:34.80\00:10:38.40 but I met the Rock of Ages." 00:10:38.43\00:10:41.64 Now finally Arthur was able to do what he has never been able 00:10:41.67\00:10:47.84 to do before, he gave up drinking and he found himself 00:10:47.88\00:10:52.31 a part-time job. He was a changed man. 00:10:52.35\00:10:55.78 Changed by getting to know Jesus Christ, he discovered 00:10:55.82\00:11:00.72 that Christ was stronger than alcohol, stronger than his 00:11:00.76\00:11:05.36 addictions. Arthur became totally committed to helping 00:11:05.39\00:11:10.37 other people like himself to find the good news of our Jesus 00:11:10.40\00:11:14.50 that completely transformed his life. 00:11:14.54\00:11:17.61 Now instead of spending his time hopelessly drunk 00:11:17.64\00:11:21.28 he would spend his spare hours preaching on street corners 00:11:21.31\00:11:25.08 to anyone who would listen. 00:11:25.11\00:11:27.28 For over 20 years he led open- air evangelistic meetings 00:11:27.32\00:11:32.22 on the corner of George and Bathurst Streets. 00:11:32.25\00:11:35.12 Arthur dedicated himself to helping at a self-help hotel 00:11:35.16\00:11:40.26 in a converted factory in Chippendale where he helped 00:11:40.30\00:11:43.57 unemployed men to be fed, shaved, and tided up 00:11:43.60\00:11:47.74 in order to improve their chances of finding work. 00:11:47.77\00:11:50.94 He loved doing all of these things and helping others 00:11:50.97\00:11:54.71 but still, he had not found his life's purpose. 00:11:54.74\00:11:59.01 Arthur became a janitor at the Burton Street Baptist Tabernacle 00:11:59.05\00:12:04.09 in Darlinghurst where he joined the congregation, 00:12:04.12\00:12:07.06 sadly neither that church nor the original St. Barnaba's 00:12:07.09\00:12:12.23 church on Broadway exist anymore today it's the Eternity 00:12:12.26\00:12:17.63 Playhouse. In November 1932 Arthur heard the popular 00:12:17.67\00:12:23.10 evangelist John Riddley delivered a sermon on Eternity. 00:12:23.14\00:12:26.37 Riddley's sermon was called "The Echoes of Eternity" 00:12:26.41\00:12:31.65 and it was based on Isaiah 57:15, let me read the text 00:12:31.68\00:12:37.62 to you. 00:12:37.65\00:12:52.60 The preacher's words struck Arthur powerfully, 00:12:52.63\00:12:56.44 the preacher said. 00:12:56.47\00:12:58.07 In an interview many years later, Arthur said. 00:13:12.55\00:13:26.50 Arthur Stace determined there and then to make his life 00:13:26.53\00:13:27.87 count for eternity, that day the 14th of November 1932 00:13:27.90\00:13:37.81 Arthur happened to have a piece of chalk in his pocket 00:13:37.85\00:13:40.92 and as he left the church he bent down and wrote the word 00:13:40.95\00:13:45.79 ETERNITY on the pavement for the very first time. 00:13:45.82\00:13:49.96 Stace stood up and looked at what he had written 00:13:49.99\00:13:53.90 and he couldn't believe it, he had always struggled with 00:13:53.93\00:13:57.63 reading and writing. Yet he said, the funny thing is 00:13:57.67\00:14:02.80 that before I wrote the word Eternity, I could hardly have 00:14:02.84\00:14:07.24 spelled my own name I had little schooling and I couldn't 00:14:07.28\00:14:11.28 have spelled Eternity for a hundred quid 00:14:11.31\00:14:14.35 but it came out smoothly in Copper Plate script 00:14:14.38\00:14:19.42 I couldn't understand it and I still can't. 00:14:19.45\00:14:22.79 In later years Stace tried writing other things like 00:14:22.82\00:14:27.06 "Obey God" and "God or Sin" but he couldn't write them 00:14:27.10\00:14:32.17 the same way, he later said... 00:14:32.20\00:14:42.64 Stace knew that God had given him a special gift and 00:14:42.68\00:14:47.22 that he found his calling in life and so Stace would 00:14:47.25\00:14:52.85 regularly wake up at 4:00 a.m., pray for an hour and then leave 00:14:52.89\00:14:57.33 home with his pieces of chalk and before dawn would write 00:14:57.36\00:15:01.26 the word Eternity every 30 meters or so on footpaths, 00:15:01.30\00:15:06.53 train station entrances, and wherever he believed that God 00:15:06.57\00:15:11.91 lead him to write and he did it for the next 35 years 00:15:11.94\00:15:15.98 from Kings Cross to Liverpool right across the city. 00:15:16.01\00:15:21.22 Meanwhile in January 1942 when Arthur was 57, he married 00:15:21.25\00:15:27.26 Pearl Dawson who was 42, the ceremony was conducted 00:15:27.29\00:15:32.03 at his church St. Barnabas on Broadway by Archdeacon 00:15:32.06\00:15:36.13 Abbias Hammond, the revered a public figure known for his 00:15:36.16\00:15:40.54 charitable and evangelistic work in Sydney 00:15:40.57\00:15:42.94 and the first preacher Arthur had heard at the church in 1930. 00:15:42.97\00:15:47.91 Arthur and Pearl lived all their married life 19 years 00:15:47.94\00:15:53.55 in a tiny rented cottage at 12 Bulwara Rd Pyrmont. 00:15:53.58\00:15:59.15 Stace wrote the word Eternity in chalk or crayon 00:15:59.19\00:16:04.43 on the pavements of Sydney more than half a million times 00:16:04.46\00:16:08.86 between 1932 and 1966 on hundreds of Sydney streets 00:16:08.90\00:16:14.54 almost every day during those years he would spend hours 00:16:14.57\00:16:19.27 handwriting Eternity around Sydney. 00:16:19.31\00:16:23.04 Stace took his mission very seriously as something between 00:16:23.08\00:16:27.75 he and God alone in a unique way that he could preach 00:16:27.78\00:16:32.19 using a special gift that God had given him. 00:16:32.22\00:16:35.82 Stace believed that he was doing the work of God 00:16:35.86\00:16:39.66 so when he'd go out in the mornings, he would be dressed 00:16:39.69\00:16:43.67 in his best outfit, usually a threadbare suit, 00:16:43.70\00:16:47.10 a battered felt hat, collar and tie. A tiny man who moved 00:16:47.14\00:16:52.87 quietly in the dark and early morning light of Sydney. 00:16:52.91\00:16:56.88 Later in the mornings the bustling workers would arrive 00:16:56.91\00:17:01.12 in the city and see the word freshly written, 00:17:01.15\00:17:04.45 a powerful one-word sermon but they would never see the 00:17:04.49\00:17:08.96 writer and so the man who writes Eternity became a 00:17:08.99\00:17:14.56 legend in Sydney. For most of the time his identity 00:17:14.60\00:17:19.07 would largely remain a mystery, he was unseen and unknown. 00:17:19.10\00:17:24.54 The mystery was finally solved when Reverend Lyle Thompson 00:17:24.57\00:17:30.51 who preached at the church where Stace was a cleaner 00:17:30.55\00:17:34.02 saw him take a piece of chalk from his pocket one day 00:17:34.05\00:17:37.65 and write the word on the footpath. Stace's identity 00:17:37.69\00:17:41.92 was finally publicly revealed when Thompson wrote a story 00:17:41.96\00:17:46.73 about Stace's life in the Sydney Sunday Telegraph on the 00:17:46.76\00:17:50.93 21st of June 1956 but still Stace remained elusive. 00:17:50.97\00:17:57.04 In 1963 photographer Trevor Dallen cornered Arthur 00:17:57.07\00:18:03.71 and asked to take a few pictures of him writing his famous word 00:18:03.75\00:18:07.52 Eternity. After four photos Trevor ran out of film and asked 00:18:07.55\00:18:13.42 Stace to wait while he got more film, when he returned 00:18:13.46\00:18:17.16 Stace was gone. Today this photo in the National Library 00:18:17.19\00:18:22.70 of Australia is the only photo still in existence 00:18:22.73\00:18:26.67 of Arthur Stace at work. Now the city council had 00:18:26.70\00:18:31.27 a rule about defacing the pavement and the police 00:18:31.31\00:18:35.31 very nearly arrested him 24 times but he would tell them 00:18:35.34\00:18:40.15 I have permission from a higher source. 00:18:40.18\00:18:43.25 By the mid-1960's Stace had become unwell, 00:18:43.28\00:18:49.46 he was cared for in a nursing home until his death from a 00:18:49.49\00:18:53.53 stroke on the 30th of July, in 1967 when he was 83. 00:18:53.56\00:18:58.53 Arthur Stace bequeathed his body to science as his final act 00:18:58.57\00:19:05.94 to help others. Two years after his death his earthly remains 00:19:05.97\00:19:11.05 were laid to rest with his late wife Pearl here at the 00:19:11.08\00:19:14.75 Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park. The statue is a short distance 00:19:14.78\00:19:19.85 from his grave and is a memorial to his life and legacy. 00:19:19.89\00:19:24.36 Much of the Sydney that Stace new is gone today 00:19:24.39\00:19:28.90 but the city has never forgotten him. 00:19:28.93\00:19:31.33 A small man of 161 centimeters or 5'3" who wrote the word 00:19:31.37\00:19:38.07 Eternity an estimated 500,000 times became a giant 00:19:38.11\00:19:44.31 among the legends of Sydney. 00:19:44.35\00:19:46.35 Sydney remembered him when it celebrated the 2000 Olympics 00:19:46.38\00:19:51.22 it remembered him at the turn of the millennium. 00:19:51.25\00:19:54.16 Emblazoned in light on its famous Sydney Harbor Bridge 00:19:54.19\00:19:58.29 and then the word Eternity is engraved on one of the 00:19:58.33\00:20:03.20 great bells that rang out over the city from the Sydney General 00:20:03.23\00:20:07.14 Post Office. And when the area between St Andrews Cathedral 00:20:07.17\00:20:11.27 and the City Town Hall was redeveloped, there in front 00:20:11.31\00:20:15.64 of a waterfall is an Alemannia replica of Stace's perfect 00:20:15.68\00:20:20.38 Copperplate handwriting of the one word Eternity. 00:20:20.42\00:20:25.29 What's behind this mysterious word Eternity? 00:20:25.32\00:20:29.79 Why does it capture people's imagination? 00:20:29.82\00:20:33.13 And why did Arthur Stace devote his life to sharing 00:20:33.16\00:20:38.07 just this one word? Well, eternity means "forever" 00:20:38.10\00:20:43.91 it's time without end. Eternity stretches forever into the past 00:20:43.94\00:20:49.81 and forever into the future. 00:20:49.84\00:20:52.15 Our lives here on Earth are limited by time, 00:20:52.18\00:20:56.48 there's never enough time, that's why we use clocks 00:20:56.52\00:21:00.56 and watches, to tell us what the time is because 00:21:00.59\00:21:04.29 it seems like Eternity doesn't exist, but it does... 00:21:04.33\00:21:09.00 Some people ask what was there before God? 00:21:09.03\00:21:14.10 Well, the answer is that there was never a time before 00:21:14.14\00:21:19.17 there was God. Long before you and I existed 00:21:19.21\00:21:23.24 or even before our planet even came into being 00:21:23.28\00:21:27.08 there was God. He was there in the beginning 00:21:27.12\00:21:31.32 there was nothing before Him. He was before all things 00:21:31.35\00:21:36.62 and everything that exists was made by Him and somewhere 00:21:36.66\00:21:41.60 in that eternal past, He lovingly planned for you 00:21:41.63\00:21:45.87 to have an Eternal destiny with Him. That's what Ephesians 1:4 00:21:45.90\00:21:52.34 mean when it says that... 00:21:52.37\00:21:58.81 and that's what humanity yearns in its heart, a yearning 00:21:58.85\00:22:03.42 for eternity. It's what Blaze Pascal, the famous mathematician 00:22:03.45\00:22:08.62 called a God-shaped hole. 00:22:08.66\00:22:11.56 It's a hole that only an eternal God can fill. 00:22:11.59\00:22:16.13 The Bible tells us that... 00:22:16.16\00:22:23.17 We are never truly complete until we find eternity 00:22:23.20\00:22:28.41 through Jesus Christ. 00:22:28.44\00:22:30.15 What is eternity? Well, its forever, it is time without end. 00:22:30.18\00:22:35.85 And consider this. Eternity is how much time God wants 00:22:35.88\00:22:43.12 to spend with you, that's why God sent His Son into the world 00:22:43.16\00:22:47.40 so that... 00:22:47.43\00:22:54.60 Arthur Stace found the most important thing in life 00:22:54.64\00:22:59.37 he discovered eternity. Stace had found that ultimately 00:22:59.41\00:23:05.45 only the eternal power of God could save him from himself. 00:23:05.48\00:23:10.32 It was only through the power of God that he was able to 00:23:10.35\00:23:14.99 overcome his alcoholism and addictions and find fulfillment. 00:23:15.02\00:23:19.29 Stace had grown up in misery and squalor always searching 00:23:19.33\00:23:25.27 for the meaning of life, for happiness, for inner peace, 00:23:25.30\00:23:29.50 and for acceptance from others, he only found it when he 00:23:29.54\00:23:34.54 accepted the gift of eternity that God offered him in 00:23:34.58\00:23:38.81 Jesus Christ. Arthur Stace spent the rest of this life 00:23:38.85\00:23:43.55 telling others about eternity. 00:23:43.59\00:23:46.05 Why? Because God's gift of eternal life is so huge 00:23:46.09\00:23:52.03 and so amazing that when you understand it and receive it 00:23:52.06\00:23:56.77 it fills you with happiness and brings you inner peace. 00:23:56.80\00:24:00.57 You just can't stop telling others, even if it's by writing 00:24:00.60\00:24:05.64 a single word Eternity on the pavement a half a million times, 00:24:05.67\00:24:11.38 that's the life of Arthur Stace, Mr. Eternity. 00:24:11.41\00:24:16.32 Perhaps like Arthur, you're feeling trapped in an 00:24:16.35\00:24:20.76 endless cycle of addictions, toxic relationships, 00:24:20.79\00:24:24.69 illness and disappointment, or perhaps it's an emptiness 00:24:24.73\00:24:29.30 you feel. Perhaps there is something in you that cries out 00:24:29.33\00:24:33.90 for more out of life. 00:24:33.94\00:24:36.00 That's because you were made for eternity too. 00:24:36.04\00:24:41.04 God has left His mark, His fingerprinting your heart, 00:24:41.08\00:24:46.05 you have a longing for eternity that only God can satisfy. 00:24:46.08\00:24:51.75 God wants you to spend eternity with Him. 00:24:51.79\00:24:56.06 Throughout history, from the ancient Egyptians to the modern 00:24:56.09\00:25:01.03 cosmetics industry, humanity has looked for eternity 00:25:01.06\00:25:05.63 in all the wrong places. And things that don't work 00:25:05.67\00:25:09.70 and don't satisfy. But the simple secret opens eternity 00:25:09.74\00:25:15.48 to you is found here in the Word of God. 00:25:15.51\00:25:18.51 And I'd like to share with you one of the greatest passages 00:25:18.55\00:25:22.08 of scripture that I know, It's found in 1 John chapter five 00:25:22.12\00:25:27.12 verses 11 to 13. 00:25:27.16\00:25:54.72 The secret of eternity is that it's simply a gift and 00:25:54.78\00:26:00.72 it's received when you accept Jesus Christ as your personal 00:26:00.76\00:26:04.66 savior. If you would like to know more about 00:26:04.69\00:26:07.96 how you can receive God's gift of eternity, 00:26:08.00\00:26:11.27 then I'd like to recommend the free gift we have for all our 00:26:11.30\00:26:15.40 Incredible Journey viewers today. 00:26:15.44\00:26:18.44 It's the booklet Learning To Be Led By God. 00:26:18.47\00:26:22.28 This easy-to-read booklet will take you on a journey 00:26:22.31\00:26:26.01 with some of the most famous people in the Bible 00:26:26.05\00:26:28.88 and you'll discover how their setbacks and circumstances 00:26:28.92\00:26:33.22 they committed themselves to God and were guided by Him 00:26:33.25\00:26:37.43 to a place where they found peace and happiness on earth 00:26:37.46\00:26:40.90 and more importantly, the secret of eternity... 00:26:40.93\00:26:44.83 So, make the most of this wonderful opportunity to 00:26:44.87\00:26:49.30 receive the gift we have for you today. 00:26:49.34\00:26:51.64 Phone or text 0436.333.555 in Australia, or 020.422.2042 00:26:51.67\00:27:01.45 in New Zealand, or visit our website at TiJ.tv 00:27:01.48\00:27:06.22 or simply scan the QR Code on your screen and we'll send you 00:27:06.25\00:27:10.39 today's free offer, totally free of charge and with no 00:27:10.43\00:27:14.03 obligation. Write to us at GPO Box 274 Sydney NSW 2001, 00:27:14.06\00:27:21.24 Australia. Or PO Box 76673 Manukau, Auckland 2241 00:27:21.27\00:27:28.08 New Zealand. Don't Delay, call or text us now. 00:27:28.11\00:27:32.55 Dear Heavenly Father, We are so grateful that 00:27:32.58\00:27:37.65 You have put eternity in our hearts, 00:27:37.69\00:27:40.52 please fill the emptiness in our lives with the joy, hope, 00:27:40.56\00:27:45.43 and assurance of an eternity with you. 00:27:45.46\00:27:48.50 We accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and through the work 00:27:48.53\00:27:53.57 of His spirit in our lives, please replace our weakness 00:27:53.60\00:27:57.77 with strength, our fear with courage, and our sadness 00:27:57.81\00:28:02.04 with joy, and make your face shine upon us and give us peace. 00:28:02.08\00:28:07.98 In Jesus' name, we pray, Amen. 00:28:08.02\00:28:12.19