True-Blue Presbyterian

The following is extracted from an article which appeared in the May 1852 issue of The Presbyterian Magazine (available from Google Books here; reproduced also here). I encourage the reader to peruse the full article, but the abbreviated text below is offered as a summary of an article worth reading by Presbyterians and others alike.

A "TRUE-BLUE PRESBYTERIAN."

A "TRUE-BLUE Presbyterian" is an enlightened, true-hearted son of a Church that aims at pursuing the "chief end of man," according to the Scriptures.

Let us glance at the origin of this homespun word -- often a term of reproach -- but, like the banner of Caledonia, significant of strength and loyalty.

The term seems to be suggested by some part of the dress which was of blue; and some say that, after the fashion of other Presbyterian things, it is taken from the Scriptures. ["Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue:" (Num. 15.38)]

Another theory is, that the Scotch Covenanters assumed blue ribbons as their colours, and wore them as scarfs, or in their bonnets, in opposition to the scarlet badge of Charles I. Other antiquarians trace the Scotch blue up to the aboriginal races on the island of Great Britain. Caesar thus describes the Britons of his day: "All the Britons dye themselves with woad, which produces a cerulean or blue colour." (Lib. v. 14, de B. G.) Other inquirers satisfy themselves with the fact that blue predominates in the tartans of the most ancient and gallant clans, while it enteres as a constituent colour more or less into all. Hence, "true blue" became symbolic of Scotch patriotism and national renown.

"It's guid to be upright and wise,
It's guid to be honest and true,
It's guid to support Caledonia's cause,
And bide by the bonnets o'blue."

Without entering deeper into the origin of our clannish blue, (the reproach of which colour, by the bye, tinges the vesture of our Congregational brethren, whose far-famed legislation was scandalized with blue-laws,) we will content ourselves with assuming that blue characterized the Scotch tartan from time immemorial, like red the dress of the Southern Englishers, and that in the civil wars of the seventeenth century, "a true-blue Presbyterian" was synonymous with a Scotchman who fought for liberty and his Church.

What is the meaning of the word now-a-days? That, dear reader, we shall explain very briefly, and in its truest sense. The word has some definite meaning at hearth-stones, and in our school-houses and churches.

1. A true-blue Presbyterian is a Christian who loves the old fashioned Bible doctrine in the Confession of Faith.

2. He is a strict friend of the Sabbath and of divine ordinances.

3. A true-blue Presbyterian exalts the covenant of grace in the training of his children.

4. A thorough Presbyterian is a conservative in Church and State.

5. A thorough Presbyterian loves his own Church.

6. The thorough Presbyterian aims at extending the knowledge of the truth, as he understands it, among all nations.

7. The true Presbyterian is an uncompromising foe to the Man of Sin and Popish idolatry.

8. The thorough Presbyterian, notwithstanding his uncompromising ecclesiastical principles, has a sectarianism more tolerant and magnanimous than that of some sects which boast of larger charity -- as will be discovered at the last day.

9. Finally, the true Presbyterian, after aiming at a life of holiness, which acknowledges its imperfections at the best, wishes to die trusting alone in the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

These remarks on the characteristics of a consistent and loyal Presbyterian are not offered in the spirit of "we are the church," but simply as descriptive of one of the many shades of doctrinal belief and practice which prevail in the Christian world.