His direct acquaintance with the old China extended over the long period of forty years,—from his arrival at Tengchow in 1863 to his return from his last furlough, in 1903. During the five years immediately preceding his death he was face to face with the signs indicative of the China that is to be. He was therefore exceptionally qualified to speak intelligently concerning the present situation in that country; for it is not the man who now for the first time finds himself there, amid the demand for railroads, and telegraphs, and up-to-date navy and army, and schools, who is most competent to interpret the movements of the hour. We are more likely to learn the whole truth if we turn to veterans like Sir Robert Hart and Dr. W. A. P. Martin and Dr. Mateer, who by almost lifelong experience know the real mind and heart of China; which surely, notwithstanding the occurrences of to-day, have not been completely changed. On the one hand, there can be no doubt of the love which Dr. Mateer had for the people of China. To promote their welfare in this world as well as in the next he gave himself to the uttermost all his long time of residence among them, and when death confronted him at last, his only reluctance to obey that call of his Master was because he would be unable to complete what he regarded as perhaps his greatest service for them. As we have already seen, in his explanation of the causes of the Boxer outbreak, notwithstanding his heartbreak and indignation for the horrors and outrages perpetrated, he lays bare the secret of it, as consisting in part of the wrongs done by foreign nations and persons to China and the Chinese. There were hundreds and perhaps thousands in Shantung who revered him as a father, and confided in him as they did in almost no other human being.