Sermon Illustrations

The Humanist’s Prayer

Lyman Abbot once paraphrased the Lord’s Prayer to reflect the philosophy of those without God. We might call it the Humanist’s Prayer:

Our brethren who art on earth,

Hallowed be our name.

Our kingdom come,

Our will be done on earth,

For there is no heaven.

We must get this day our daily bread;

We neither forgive nor are forgiven.

We fear not temptation,

For we deliver ourselves from evil.

For ours is the kingdom and the power,

And there is no glory and no forever.

(James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988), p. 446.)