When I first entered, the principal was Mr. Mateer. The first night I was there, my room was not ready, and I slept with him in his room. I can never forget the words of encouragement and cheer he spoke that night, to a homesick boy, away for almost the first time from his father and mother.... My contact with him came just at the time when my whole life was in such plastic form that influence of whatever character became permanent. He was an excellent teacher. His personal influence over me was very great. I suppose that when the records are all known, it will be seen that no other man did so much for the shaping of my life as he did. While at Beaver he at last decided that he was called of God to study for the ministry, but called not by any extraordinary external sign or inward experience. It was a sense of duty that determined him, and although he obeyed willingly, yet it was not without a struggle. He had a consciousness of ability to succeed as a teacher or in other vocations; and he was by no means without ambition to make his mark in the world. Because he was convinced by long and careful and prayerful consideration that he ought to become a minister he put aside all the other pursuits that might have opened to him. Not long after he entered the seminary he wrote to his mother: “You truly characterize the work for which I am now preparing as a great and glorious one. I have long looked forward to it, though scarcely daring to think it my duty to engage in it. After much pondering in my own mind, and prayer for direction I have thought it my duty to preach.” On account of teaching, as already related, he did not enter the theological seminary until more than a year after I did, so that I was not his classmate there. He came some months late in the school year, and had at first much back work to make up; but he soon showed that he ranked among the very best students. His classmate, Rev. John H. Sherrard, of Pittsburg, writes: One thing I do well remember about Mateer: his mental superiority impressed everyone, as also his deep spirituality. In some respects, indeed most, he stood head and shoulders above his fellows around him. Another classmate, Rev. Dr. William Gaston, of Cleveland, says: We regarded him as one of our most level-headed men; our peer in all points; not good merely in one point, but most thorough in all branches of study. He was cheerful and yet not flippant, and with a tinge of the most serious. He was optimistic, dwelling much on God’s great love.... He was not only a year in advance of most of us in graduating from college, but I think that we, as students, felt that though we were classmates in the seminary, he was in advance of us in other things. Life seemed more serious to him. I doubt if any one of us felt the responsibility of life as much as he did. I doubt if anyone worked as hard as he.