"How divinely full of glory and pleasure shall that hour be when all the millions of mankind that have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God shall meet together and stand around Him, with every tongue and every heart full of joy and praise! How astonishing will be the glory and the joy of that day when all the saints shall join together in one common song of gratitude and love, and of everlasting thankfulness to this Redeemer! With what unknown delight, and inexpressible satisfaction, shall all that are saved from the ruins of sin and hell address the Lamb that was slain, and rejoice in His presence!"

"The wise will make their anger cool At least before 'tis night."

"There is a land of pure delight, Where saints immortal reign; Infinite day excludes the night, And pleasures banish pain."

"A flower, when offered in the bud, Is no vain sacrifice."

"So, when a raging fever burns, We shift from side to side by turns; And 't is a poor relief we gain To change the place, but keep the pain."

"A flower may fade before 'tis noon, And I this day may lose my breath."

"Just as a tree cut down, that fell To north, or southward, there it lies: So man departs to heaven or hell, Fix'd in the state wherein he dies."

"When I can read my title clear To mansions in the skies, I'll bid farewell to every fear, And wipe my weeping eyes."

"I write not for your farthing, but to try / How I your farthing writers, may outvie."

"And he that does one fault at first And lies to hide it, makes it two."

"I would not change my native land For rich Peru with all her gold. A nobler prize lies in my hand Than East or Western Indies hold."

"...but every lyar Must have his portion in the lake That burns with brimstone and with fire."

"Lord, I ascribe it to thy grace, And not to chance as others do, That I was born of Christian race, And not a Heathen, or a Jew."

"One stroke of his almighty rod Shall send young sinners quick to hell."

"And while the lamp holds out to burn, The vilest sinner may return."

"My faith would lay her hand On that dear head of Thine, While like a penitent I stand, And there confess my sin."

"Were I so tall to reach the pole, Or grasp the ocean with my span, I must be measured by my soul; The mind's the standard of the man."

"There's not a place where we can flee, But God is present there."

"The compassion of Christ inclines Him to save sinners, — the power of Christ enables Him to save sinners, — and the promise of Christ binds Him to save sinners. A guilty, weak, and helpless worm, On Thy kind arms I fall; Be Thou my Strength and Righteousness, My Saviour and my All."

"Whene'er I take my walks abroad, How many poor I see! What shall I render to my God For all his gifts to me?"

"I believe the promises of God enough to venture an eternity on them."

"Strange that a harp of thousand strings Should keep in tune so long!"

"Hark! from the tombs a doleful sound."

"The tall, the wise, the reverend head Must lie as low as ours."

"With irony — though never with bitterness — Sydney satirised every form of self-righteous faith; to be without doubt was, to him, the ultimate in godless pride. In two books, The Rock Of Doubt (1978) and Dance In The Dark (1980), he set out the signposts of his journey in aphorisms, a journey through the holiness of humanity. "Bibles, legends, history are signposts: they are pointing to the future, not the past. Do not embrace the past or it will turn into an idol." Jesus was central to his experience, but not, in his words, "the official Jesus— but the Jesus who is calling you to liberty, to the breaking of all idols including the idol which he himself has become.""

"If any church could come to holding Sydney's allegiance, it was the Society of Friends, with its rejection of dogma, and its reliance on personal experience and social activism, and its affirmation of God's presence in every human being."

"The optimistic lines "I danced in the morning when the world begun and I danced in the moon and the stars and the sun" also contain a hint of paganism which, mixed with Christianity, makes it attractive to those of ambiguous religious beliefs or none at all. Carter himself genially admitted that he had been partly inspired by the statue of Shiva which sat on his desk; and, whenever he was asked to resolve the contradiction, he would declare that he had never tried to do so. However, he admitted to being as astonished as anyone by its success. "I did not think the churches would like it at all. I thought many people would find it pretty far flown, probably heretical and anyway dubiously Christian. But in fact people did sing it and, unknown to me, it touched a chord. . . "Anyway," Carter would continue, "it's the sort of Christianity I believe in.""

"All shall be well, I'm telling you, let the winter come and go All shall be well again, I know."

"Carter's openness to religious truth makes talks of religious categories rather superfluous, which was indeed a major irritation for the early critics of the open-minded, non-credal statements of his songs. That two of his most popular lyrics, "One More Step" and "Travel On", should invoke the concept of journey was indeed no coincidence. In this voyaging faith of interrogatives, the creed lay in the question mark, often of a Zen-like paradox."

"There's an ocean of darkness and I drown in the night till I come through the darkness to the ocean of light, for the light is forever and the light it is free, "And I walk in the glory of the light," said he."

"If we give you a pistol, will you fight for the Lord?" "But you can't kill the Devil with a gun or a sword!" "Will you swear on the Bible?" "I will not!" said he, "For the truth is more holy than the book, to me."

"Loud are the bells of Norwich and the people come and go. Here by the tower of Julian, I tell them what I know."

"Love, like the yellow daffodil, is Lord of all I know."

"With a book and a steeple, with a bell and a key they would bind it forever, but they can't," said he. "Oh, the book it will perish and the steeple will fall, but the light will be shining at the end of it all."

"They cut me down And I leapt up high; I am the life That'll never, never die; I'll live in you If you'll live in me — I am the Lord Of the Dance, said he."

"They buried my body And they thought I'd gone, But I am the Dance, And I still go on."

"When I needed a neighbour Were you there, were you there? When I needed a neighbour, were you there? And the creed and the colour And the name won't matter Were you there?"

"Dance, then, wherever you may be, I am the Lord of the Dance, said he, And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be, And I'll lead you all in the Dance, said he."

"I danced in the morning When the world was begun, And I danced in the moon And the stars and the sun, And I came down from heaven And I danced on the earth, At Bethlehem I had my birth."

"I danced on the Sabbath And I cured the lame; The holy people Said it was a shame. They whipped and they stripped And they hung me on high, And they left me there On a Cross to die."

"I was hungry and thirsty Were you there, were you there? I was hungry and thirsty, were you there? And the creed and the colour And the name won't matter Were you there?"

"There are obvious problems with so many denominations in schools today, but I had collective worship at school and I do not think it is a bad thing."

"They are songs which can be sung in a Christian context, but they all had to mean something to me because I was often on the edge of not believing. The songs certainly have not made my fortune, but I am still grateful for the royalties when they come in."

"Faith is more basic than language or theology. Faith is the response to something which is calling us from the timeless part of our reality. Faith may be encouraged by what has happened in the past, or what is thought to have happened in the past, but the only proof of it is in the future. Scriptures and creeds may come to seem incredible, but faith will still go dancing on. Even though (because it rejects a doctrine) it is now described as "doubt". This, I believe, is the kind of faith that Christ commended."

"Teach the crippled how to leap, Throw their crutches on a heap, Rock, love, carry it away, turn it upside down. Rock, love, carry it away, Lift the world up by your levity, Rock, love, carry it away, turn it upside down."

"I see Christ as the incarnation of the piper who is calling us. He dances that shape and pattern which is at the heart of our reality. By Christ I mean not only Jesus; in other times and places, other planets, there may be other Lords of the Dance. But Jesus is the one I know of first and best. I sing of the dancing pattern in the life and words of Jesus. Whether Jesus ever leaped in Galilee to the rhythm of a pipe or drum I do not know. We are told that David danced (and as an act of worship too), so it is not impossible. The fact that many Christians have regarded dancing as a bit ungodly (in a church, at any rate) does not mean that Jesus did. The Shakers didn't..."

"Coming and going by the dance, I see That what I am not is a part of me. Dancing is all that I can ever trust, The dance is all I am, the rest is dust. I will believe my bones and live by what Will go on dancing when my bones are not."

"Wherever you travel I'll be there, I'll be there Wherever you travel, I'll be there And the creed and the colour And the name won't matter I'll be there."