THE JOURNEYS OF A FAITHFUL SERVANT
The Story of Elder T. N. Alderton
August 1906
Notice of death by Bro. J. G. Wiltshire, publisher.
I don’t know when I was ever more shocked and saddened than when the sad intelligence of the sudden departure of Brother T. N. Alderton reached me, and I felt to exclaim: WHAT A LOSS! WHAT A LOSS! Brother Alderton was truly a most faithful and useful servant of God, and our finite minds cannot comprehend how his place can well be filled; but an infinite God knows, and does all things for the best, and may he enable his dear bereaved family, and all of us to feel to say, “Thy will be done.”
Brother Alderton was one of the Advocate’s best friends, and Oh, how we shall miss him! Brother Alderton was stricken in the pulpit while preaching in Greenwell Baptist church, West Virginia, Sunday, July 15th, and died the same evening. Brother Waters preached the funeral sermon on the afternoon of Tuesday, July 17th at Great Cacapon, W. Va., a full account of which will appear in the next issue.
from Elder J. H. Oliphant
We have just heard of the death of Brother T. N. Alderton – the news was so sad. He was just in his prime of life, his judgment mature and his heart was warm with love for the precious cause of truth. We needed him so much.
We have lost one of our greatest and best men; especially our people in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Maryland have sustained the greatest loss. Elder Alderton was a Primitive Baptist, indeed, content to go along the old and beaten path; but he is gone from us, no more shall we hear his voice lifted up for truth, or see his noble and manly form in the assembly of the saints. Truly a mighty one has fallen in Israel, but our loss is his gain, and we hope again to meet him and all the redeemed in that home where death never comes. Oh, let us still press on and spend the remnant of our days in his praise – we too will soon walk that silent way. Let us remember his teaching and examples, and let us rejoice in the Lord whom he loved and faithfully served.
September 1906
[Following are a couple of excerpts from the remarks of the ministers at Elder Alderton’s funeral.]
Elder C. H. Waters (who was also a medical doctor)
As a man, Brother Alderton was one of nature’s noblemen. I have been associated with him as much perhaps as anyone, who lived as far from him as I did, could be. He was of that gentle, refined nature that could be appreciated by rude people. Brother Alderton was a gentleman born; while he was fond of pleasantries, I have never heard anything unchaste, I have never heard from his lips what would make the most refined blush. As a husband you knew him as well as I, and can testify that as a husband and a father, few equaled and none were better; as a citizen he had the respect of all who knew him and this town is ready to testify to that. As a servant of God, if there be a man – if there has been a man – who could say with the Apostle Paul, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith,” Brother Alderton has that right. . . .
Last Sunday morning he was in the pulpit, and from this Bible, from this volume, he began to read the ninth, tenth and eleventh verses of the fifth chapter of First Thessalonians, he began to speak and after speaking a short time there was a suffusion of blood over the brain, confusion first, then spasm, and then unconsciousness followed the rupture of blood vessels in the brain, and his life went out.
Elder T. S. Dalton
Yesterday about the hour of noon I reached my home and my wife met me at the gate. I could see that there was something wrong. Wholly unprepared for it, she said to me: “Have you heard the news?” Said I, “What?” She said, “Brother Alderton is dead.”
I felt in a moment that another soldier that had stood with me in the fight of the Master’s battle was gone. He had stood with me fighting in the cause of the dear Saviour, preaching the doctrine of salvation; and he had gone to rest, and he had fallen asleep at his post in the arms of his dear Saviour. . . . Just one month ago today, Brother Alderton and I parted in the little town of Needmore, Pennsylvania, and that day, if I am not mistaken, before we parted, I told him our people were very anxious to see him at Front Royal again and I asked him to pay us a visit. I will never forget his words. They were: “If I live awhile, I will come.” That very expression of his to me makes me think that he realized that his time on earth was short, and that he was ready. . . .
Brother Alderton never faltered in the good cause; he was a soldier that stood by his God; he was a soldier that slept on his arms. I don’t know how often I have heard him say, “I want to die at my post.” God has given him that for which he asked. He died at his post and we are confident of the fact that his soul rests this evening in the bosom of Jesus, in the home of the blessed, while his body lies cold before us to be taken to the grave and there it will remain until the resurrection of the body on the last great day. “I have fought the good fight.” He fought against sin, he fought against the enemies of God, he fought against every false way that presented itself and he fought the fight that God’s ministers fight. . . .
People, perhaps you cannot realize your loss, you do not realize that loss now. It will come when you look for him to whom you went for comfort in your sorrows, and you find his place knows him not. It will come when you go to look for the advice that was so freely given, and you find him not – that advice that he never failed to give. Loved one, lying cold in death, it was the great pleasure of his life to comfort those who mourned, to comfort the troubled one and search out the little children of God and bring comfort and peace. We have one joy and comfort in thinking that the dear one is at home. Oh, to be among God’s little children as Brother Alderton is today, with the Lamb of God.
October 1917
Sister Minnie Corder, Donora, Pennsylvania
Now, Bro. Wiltshire, I would like to give a little history of our church set up here in the wilderness as it were:
There is no church of our faith and order within a radius of one hundred miles. There are a few of our beloved brethren here and there, but they have no flourishing churches nearer. We are about forty miles from the old Red Stone church. Dear Elder Alderton prayed fervently that this valley might again blossom as the rose, and others of us longed and prayed for a resting place, where we might go in and out and find pasture. Before Elder Alderton died four willing ones were baptized, of whom the unworthy writer was one. There have been twelve baptized since and two received by letter. Our church of twelve was organized in 1910, and in 1912 our church house was built. We now number twenty-two, and one has gone from us by death. Some are standing just outside with longing and anxious hearts, saying, Oh, that I could come! And others that God is leading, who come to hear and gather crumbs, and I believe are being grounded in the truths of the Bible. [This last excerpt is a poignant statement, written several years later, of the worth of that dear brother’s labors, made by one of God’s little ones who was gathered under his ministry in the “waste places” where he loved to preach. Elder T. N. Alderton was truly one of the heroes of the faith. May his memory remain dear among Primitive Baptists. – Ed.] Submitted by Elder Mark Green.