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Arthur Stace "THE POWER" TO MAKE THE CROOKED STRAIGHT
A SMALL man only 5 feet 3 inches, nearly 40 years of age, stood before the magistrate of the Central Drunks Court in Sydney. The little man had been before the court many times for drunkenness and disorderly conduct. The magistrate tried a threat. "Don't you know I have the power to put you in Long Bay Jail or the power to set you free?" he said.
"Yes, sir," replied the small man in the dock.
The little man groaned within his heart for he knew he needed something which the magistrate didn`t have the ability to give - power to stop drinking, power to overcome a vile heredity, power to throw off the effects of a slum environment with its evil companions, power to break ingrained habits of sin and crime - power to make the crooked straight.
Science and Psychology says heredity and environment combine to make us what we are. Here is the story of this little man, Arthur Stace, of Pyrmont, Sydney, Australia and see the power that conquers heredity and environmental influences.
YOUTH
Arthur Stace was hardly schooled at all by 12 years of age, and was taken trom his irresponisible parents and made a State ward, but, already he was confirmed in crime and evil. Arthur tasted his first strong drink as a small boy, from his father's bottle, his first so-called man's drink came at the age of 14 years when he started work in a south coast coal mine. With his first pay he hurried off to buy his first counter beer from a hotel. Drinking strong drink became the regular habit, and as early as 15 years of age he was carted to jail drunk, and charged. Pleadings and threats by the police were of no avail. No employer would keep him, so he moved from job to job, from town to town - always finding a new job - a new hotel - a new policeman - and a new jail!
MANHOOD
Arthur Stace moved to the city in his twenties and lived in Surry Hills, where he became a tout for a local pub, carrying drink from the pub to houses of ill-fame located in this area. Arthur carried drink to the various two-up schools, one of which was run in an upstairs room of his sister's house of ill-fame. Arthur was employed as a scout to warn the two up school of any approach of the police - one night he was severely cautioned and let go. In three years of employment with the City Council he lost half of his time off work through the effects of alcohol. The power of evil companionships led him into breaking and entering gangs where, because of his small stature, he was chiefly spy and watchman. Sacked from the City Council, Arthur Stace abandoned himself to the underworld where he lived for eight years, and he was known to and knew the criminal population of Sydney.
In this eight years many crimes were done which cannot be printed here, but slowly bad heredity and evil environment led down-beer drinking became wine drinking, wine drinking became whisky drinking, whisky led to gin and rum and rum finally to methylated spirits. This is the last link in the chain of dereliction, and showed a beaten man. Mind now going as well as body there followed some years of attempts to stop on the downward path before sanity went. Homes - Institutions - Hospitals, all failed! Broughton Hall, a voluntary psychiatric clinic, failed, and the authorities very nearly led Arthur Stare through the little gate which connects Broughton Hall from Callan Park Mental Asylum, from which he would probably never have returned.
THE POWER NEEDED
True a man like this needs power, power to overcome hereditary forces within him, power to break with evil companions, power to control the mind and body's cravings for drink - power to conquer environment. Is there such a power? Yes, and it really works!
A Christian once met a free thinker who twitted him for putting any trust in God and the Bible. He scoffed, "The authorship of some of the books of the Bible is uncertain. How can you believe in it if you don't know who wrote it?" The Christian replied with another question, "Who wrote the multiplication table?" "I don t know," answered the scoffer. "Yet you believe in it and use it," the Christian said. The unbeliever hesitated for a moment, then thinking he saw a way out, said, "Yes, but the multiplication works." "True," said the Christian, "and so does the Gospel which is the power of God unto Salvation to every one that believeth."
THE CRISIS
Arthur Stace, dirty, ill clad, a methylated spirits derelict, wandering from pub to pub, living by cunning, walked into a meeting for men conduded by Archdeacon R. B. S. Hammond, of St. Barnabas Church, Broadway, on August 6th, 1930. A cup of tea and a rock cake were given by the workers to the down and outs. Sydney was then in the grip of the depression which followed World War I.
Arthur Stace says, "I went in to get a cup of tea and a rockcake but I met the Rock of Ages." Three hundred men of all classes were present - mostly down and outs. There were six Christian workers sitting in the front seat - clean, well dressed and looking happy. Arthur Stace pointed them out to his companion, a criminal, and said: "That's what I want to be like." The service was finished but the gospel, the good news that Christ loves sinners, that He died for them, that He rose again and has power to save had entered into the sin-soaked mind. So Christ was alive. The little man parted with his companion and slunk into University Park where the municipal swimming pool now is. Under an old fig tree, tears streaming down his face, the little man stood and cried unto that Living Christ: "God," he said, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." Here a wayward soul touched God by simple faith - here was sincerity and reality! Here was human strength and pride broken. Here was helplessness and despair. Here was a sinner surrendering to God, and from Heaven came a power - a power - stronger than a vile heredity, a power stronger than an evil environment, or habit or evil companions - a power which gave mental peace and independence and freedom - it was the living Spirit of God who entered Arthur Stace's life. The Word of God, the Bible, says, "If any man has not the Spirit of God (dwelling in him) he is none of His (Christ's) (Rom 8:9). Arthur Stace went out of the park with the Spirit of God in his heart (Eph 1:13).
THE NEW MAN
Now listen to the story of the new man. In a little while after his conversion, Arthur Stace learnt what he calls the two secrets of success in the Christian life. These, says Arthur, are Prayer and Obedience. Arthur Stace rises early to read the Bible and pray simple sincere prayers. At midday hour he prays again and when evening falls prayer arises again, for cleansing and help. Much prayer, says Arthur Stace, keeps the channel clean, keeps us in touch with God. The second secret is obedience. To Arthur Stace God is the power. Arthur Stace, Arthur declares, is weak, unclean, and powerless, but God has all power so obey God in everything, small and great, and His Spirit will break sin's power and make the crooked Will straight.
THE RESULT
The result after twenty-five years is no swearing, no lying, no stealing no drinking, no gambling - a bad heredity has been conquered by a new power.
Thirty five years of untiring service for his Master began almost as soon as the change came - a house was rented and a five-bed hostel in Ultimo was the first attempt to reclaim men for Christ. This led to being appointed to the R. B. S. Hammond Buckland Street Hostel (now pulled down) where Arthur shaved and issued canteen supplies to 300 down-and-out men in order to tell them his story.
Realising that he most go out into the open air to reach men, Arthur Stace led an open air meeting on the corner of George and Bathurst Streets, Sydney, for 24 years.
Every Wednesday evening until June, 1965, he visited the Methodist Hostel in Francis Street and preached Salvation through God's power to the derelicts who seek a bed for the night.
Years of visitation to the inmates of Callan Park, and also to the Lazaret among lepers, has brought cheer and hope to desperate cases. Always glad to tell what God has done for him, Arthur Stace has preached in many churches of most denominations and much fruit has come from this Gospel sowing.
Arthur Stace teamed with Cairo Bradley's tent missions and thousands heard the story of God's power to save. During World War II many military camps heard the story of his salvation.
Feeling the need to "belong", and have a spiritual home, Arthur Stace was baptised and joined the Burton Street Baptist Tabernacle where, as a humble member, he led a church prayer meeting and assisted in the open-air work of the church until June, 1965, when he entered Hammondville C. of E. Aged Peoples Homes. Very few people in the city of Sydney know that the famous footpath message Eternity is written by Arthur Stace. This one word sermon has challenged thousands and thousands.
Reader, the power of God can make a badman good, overcome the power of inborn heredity and environment, evil companions, and habits. Yes, the power of God can make a crooked man straight. You may not (and we hope not) have gone the downward path like Arthur Stace but we have all sinned. Will you repent of your sins, and call upon God to save you and then cling to God in earnest prayer and obedience? This guspel is true for it works. Behold a modern miracle in the life of Arthur Stace and take heart, for the God that can save Arthur Stace can save you, too.
Rev Lisle M. Thompson, the author of this tract, was called Home to be with the Lord he loved and served on 18th January, 1963.
This tract has been used widely by church workers and ministers of the Gospel, and a Sydney doctor uses it to assist some of his patients if it suits their problem. Because of the blessing that has accompanied its use, we send it forth on its third edition with the prayer God will use its contents to lead many to the knowledge of the power of God that can make a crooked soul straight.
Christian Broadcasting Association Ltd
420 Lyons Road, Five Dock, NSW 4th Edition
God's Warrior
MR ETERNITY
When I was a child walking down the street
I'd see this strange word written, written at my feet
Eternity was what it read, I asked my Dad just what it said
And it meant forever, and ever and ever
Always, always
Chorus:
And Mr Eternity
The man whom we never see
In the early light of day
With his chalk he'd write away
Eternity, Eternity
What to a young child could this strange word mean
A day, a week, a year, to some it might have seemed
Another year to Christmas seemed eternity
And a week to Saturday's pictures was like forever to me
THE STORY OF ARTHUR STACE
Transcript of a Book by Keith Dunstan Ratbags.
He started early, usually before dawn and he wandered through all the streets of Sydney. Every morning he was somewhere else, Wynyard, Glebe, Paddington, Randwick and Central Station. As he said - where God directed him. Every night the message appeared in his head. He was a very little man, bent, grey-haired, only five feet three inches tall and just seven stone. He looked frail enough to blow away. Then with the formality of another generation he always wore a grey felt hat, tie and prim double-breasted navy blue suit. Sometimes in the dawn light he would be seen around Wynyard Station. He would nod to the drunks still left on the pavement and he would look at the debris of the affluent society stretched out on the park benches, trying to keep warm under newspapers. If he detected any movement there would be a pat on the head or a warm greeting. He had the air of a man who understood.
As he walked every so often he would stop, pull out a crayon, bend down and write on the pavement in large, elegant copperplate - ETERNITY. He would move on a hundred yards then write it again, ETERNITY, nothing more, just one simple word. For thirty-seven years he chalked this one-word sermon and he wrote more than half a million times.
He did not like publicity. He regarded his unique style of Evangelism as a serious mission, something between Arthur Stace and his Maker, so for a decade these Eternity signs mystified Sydney. They were an enigma . Sydney columnists wrote about it, speculated on the author, and several people walked into newspaper offices and announced that they were the author. The real man kept quiet.
The mystery all came clear in 1956 and the man who cracked it was the Reverend Lisle M Thompson of the Burton Street Baptist Church. Arthur Stace was actually the church cleaner and one of their prayer leaders. One day Lisle Thompson saw Stace take out his crayon and write the famous Eternity on the pavement. He did it without realizing that he has been spotted .Thompson said, "Are you Mr Eternity?" and Stace replied "Guilty Your Honor". Lisle Thompson wrote a tract telling the little man's extraordinary story and Tom Farrell, later had the first interview. He published it in the Sunday Telegraph on 21 June 1956.
Authur Stace was born in a Balmain slum in 1884. His father and mother were both drunkards. Two sisters and two brothers also were drunks and they lived much of their time in jail. The sisters ran brothels and one of them was ordered out of New South Wales three times. Stace used to sleep on bags under the house and when his parents were drunk he had to look after himself. He used to steal milk from the doorsteps, pick scraps of food out of garbage and shoplift cakes and sweets.
His schooling was practically non-existent; so much so that this was noticed by Government officials .At the age of twelve he became a state ward .Not that this helped him greatly. When he was Fourteen he had his first job - in a coal mine - and his first pay check he spent in a hotel. Already he had learned to drink at home so like the rest of the family he became a perambulating drunk, living in a fog of alcohol. He went to jail for the first time when he was fifteen, then it became a regular affair.
He was in his twenties when he moved to the seedy inner suburb of Surry Hills .There his job was to carry liquor from the pubs to the brothels, and particularly his sister's brothel. Then there were other jobs such as cockatoo at a two-up school, that is the character who gives warning of the approach of the police .He was mixed up with various housebreaking gangs and because of his size he was splendidly useful as a look out man.
During the first world war he enlisted in the 19th Battalion, went to France and returned home gassed and half blind in one eye. Back in Surry hills he took up his old habits, drink in particular. He slipped from beer, to whisky, to gin , to rum, to cheap wine until finally living on hand-outs. All he could afford was mentholated spirits at sixpence a bottle. His alcoholism was so extreme his mind began to go and he was in danger of becoming a permanent inmate of Callan Park Mental Asylum.
He told Tom Farrell that in 1930 he was in Central Court for the umpteenth time. The magistrate said to him: "Don't you know that I have the POWER to put you in Long Bay jail or the POWER to set you free". "Yes Sir" , he replied, but it was the word POWER that he remembered. What he needed was the power to give up drink. He signed the Pledge but he had done that many times before. He went to Regent Street Police Station and pleaded with the Sergeant to lock him up, "Sergeant, put me away. I am no good and I haven't been sober for eight years. Give me a chance and put me away".
The Sergeant said, "You stink of metho. Get out!"
This was the depression time and a metho drinker, dirty, wretchedly dressed, had to be the least likely of any to get a job. Outside the Court House there was a group walking up Broadway. The word had got around that a cup of tea and something to eat was available at the Church Hall. In the nineteen thirties one would endure almost anything for free food.
The date was August 6th and it was a meeting for men conducted by Archdeacon R.B.S. Hammond of St Barnabas' Church on Broadway. There were about 300 men present, mostly down and outs, but they had to endure an hour and half of talking before they received their tea and rock cakes. Up front there were six people on a separate seat, all looking very clean, spruce and nicely turned out, a remarkable contrast to the 300 grubby-looking males in the audience. Stace said to the man sitting next to him, a well-known criminal: "Who are they?" "I'd reckon they'd be Christians", he replied. Stace said: "Well look at them and look at us. I'm having a go at what they have got," and he slipped down on his knees and prayed.
After that, he did find it possible to give up drink and he said: "As I got back my self respect, people were more decent to me". So he won a job on the dole, working on the sand mills at Maroubra one week on, one week off at three pounds a week.
Some months later in the Burton Street Baptist Church at Darlinghurst he heard the evangelist, the Reverend John Ridley. Ridley was a Military Cross winner from the World War One and a noted "give-'em-Hell" preacher. He shouted: "I wish I could shout ETERNITY through the streets of Sydney". Stace, recalling the day, said: "He repeated himself and kept shouting 'ETERNITY, ETERNITY' and his words were ringing through my brain as I left the church. Suddenly I began crying and I felt a powerful call from the Lord to write "ETERNITY". I had a piece of chalk in my pocket and I bent down there and wrote it. The funny thing is that before I wrote I could hardly have spelled my own name. I had no schooling and I couldn't have spelt "ETERNITY" for hundred quid. But it came out smoothly in beautiful copperplate script. I couldn't understand it and I still can't".
Stace claimed that normally his handwriting was appalling and his friends found it illegible. He demonstrated this to a Daily Telegraph reporter. He wrote ETERNITY which snaked across the pavement gracefully with rich curves and flourishes, but when he wrote his own name "Arthur" it was almost unreadable. "I've tried and tried but 'ETERNITY' is the only word that comes out in copperplate", he said. (4) After eight or nine years he did try something else "OBEY GOD", and five years later, "GOD OR SIN" and "GOD 1st", but finally he stuck with ETERNITY. He had some problems. There was a fellow who followed him round and every time he wrote ETERNITY this other character changed it to MATERNITY. so he altered his style to give ETERNITY a large, eloquent capital E and maternity took a dive. The City Council had a rule against de-facing the pavement and the police "very nearly arrested" him twenty-four times. "But I had permission from a higher source", he said.
He lived with his wife Pearl in Bulwarra Road, Pyrmont and this was his routine. He rose at 4am, prayed for an hour, had breakfast, then he set out. He claimed that God gave him his directions the night before, the name of the suburb into his head and he arrived there before dawn. He took his message every 100 yards or so where it could be seen best then he was back home around 10am. First he wrote in yellow chalk, then he switched to marking crayon because it stayed on better in the wet. He did other things. On Saturday nights he led gospel meetings at the corner of Bathurst and George Streets. At first he did it from the gutter but in later years he had a fine van with electric lighting and an amplifier.
Aruther Stace died of a stroke in a nursing home on July 30, 1967. He was 83. He left his body to Sydney University so that the proceeds could go to charity. The remains were finally buried at Botany Cemetery more than two years later.
There were suggestions that the city should put down a plaque to his memory. Leslie Jillet of Mosman said that there should be a statue in Railway Square depicting Stace kneeling chalk in hand.
In 1968 the Sydney City Council decided to perpetuate Stace's one-word sermon by putting down permanent plaques in "numerous" locations throughout the city. Sir David Griffin, a former Lord Mayor, tried to perpetuate what he called "a delicious piece of eccentricity", but a team of City Commissioners killed the idea. They thought it was too trivial.
For weeks there was angry debate in the Letters to the Editor columns. Some said, better than plaques, let's put the money into decent walk able footpaths and another reader believed Mary Anne Smith, who gave us the Granny Smith apple, was far more worthy of recognition.
But finally Arthur Stace did get his plaque. It happened ten years after his death and was all due to Ridley Smith, architect of Sydney Square. He set the message ETERNITY in cast aluminum, set in aggregate, near the Syndey Square waterfall. The Sydney Morning Herald Column 8 said: "In letters almost 21cm (8in) high if the famous copperplate message ETERNITY. The one word sermon gleams in wrought aluminum. There's no undue prominence. No garish presentation. Merely the simple ETERNITY on pebbles as Arthur Stace would have wanted it.(12)
Ridley Smith did have an interest in Arthur Stace, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. As a boy he used to hear him preach on the corner of Bathurst Street. Even more interesting, Ridley Smith was named after the fire-breathing Reverend John Ridley, the very man who converted John Ridley back in 1930.(13)
That was the end of the story except that seven years after the death of Arthur Stace, the word ARTHUR appeared around Sydney. The one word message appeared on footpaths, walls and poles, written in chalk. A newspaper columnist claimed that he saw the writer actually on the job, putting ARTHUR there on the pavement. He was a little man, white-haired, and he was in a black coat. He scuttled away through the traffic before the columnist could get to him.
There was much speculation about the meaning of ARTHUR. Was it an old friend of Arthur Stace trying, like others, to keep alive his memory? A newspaper even called in a handwriting specialist who, after studying the block line manner in which ARTHUR was written, made the profound statement that clearly the writer had a working class background, there was some connection with the building industry, and he was a middle aged man with a limp. Clearly Sherlock Holmes could not have done better!
Although the signs appeared for several years, nobody discovered Arthur or what the words meant; Except that in somewhat obscure fashion Arthur provided the answer himself. One day he wrote a whole sentence on the footpath:
Arthur is Jesus' brother and is the poor devil who cops the lot.
Material taken from the following:
(1)Sunday Telegraph, 21 June 1956.
(2) Reverend Lisle M. Thompson, The Crooked Made Straight.
(3) Daily Telegraph, 12 June 1965.
(4) Ibid.
(5) Sydney Morning Herald, 1 August 1967.
(6) Daily Telegraph, 8 October 1969.
(7) Sydney Morning Herald, 9 May 1968.
( Daily Telegraph, 30 April 1968.
(9) Sydney Morning Herald, 20 November 1976.
(10) Ibid, 10 May 1968.
(11) Ibid, 14 May 1968.
(12) Ibid, 12 July 1977.
(13) Ibid, 13 July 1977.
(14) The Herald, 9 August 1974.
Daily Telegraph, 30 April 1968.
