Sinclair Ferguson

we are able to enjoy the world that he has made and enjoy each other.

Yeah, I think that's a great question, Nathan, because actually the shorter catechism was written

for younger people.

The larger catechism was written for people like ministers to learn.

So it was like a next stage.

But I've quite often said, usually fairly quietly, I suspect that a 13-year-old boy in the Highlands of Scotland in the late 17th century would be able to articulate

more theology clearly than many seminary graduates from many seminaries would be able to do.

And when you think about, I mean, I think nowadays I sometimes say one of the things we need to help our young people to do is to out-think their contemporaries, to out-think them.

And that's one of the things that the Shorter Catechism enabled youngsters.

You know, historically it was probably used more in Scotland.

than anywhere else for historical reasons.

It wasn't used very much in England, although it was written there.

Now, of course, it's used all over the world because largely through Presbyterian churches.

But I have sometimes thought, this sounds very ethnically oriented,

But, you know, books like How the Scots Invented Almost Everything, that kind of thing.

When you look back to that period of history, and there was a period of history when the Scots did seem to invent almost everything.

And to a certain extent, it has continued into the present age.

But it's fascinated me that

That was an era when a large percentage of Scottish boys were taught to memorize the Shorter Catechism.

And you think, well, what has that got to do with engineering or with science?