He rarely wrote his name in full, his autograph in early life being Matthew C. Perry; and later, almost invariably, M. C. Perry. In this he affected the style neither of the fathers of the navy nor of the republic, who abbreviated the first name and added a colon. It was the belief of Matthew Perry that the Bible contained the will of God to man, and furnished a manual of human duty. It was his fixed habit to peruse this word of God daily. On every long cruise he began the reading of the whole Bible in course. Rear-Admiral Almy says: One pleasant Sunday afternoon in the month of April, 1845, and on the way home by way of the West Indies, I was officer of the deck of the frigate _Macedonian_, sailing along quietly in a smooth sea in the tropics, nearing the land and a port. The Commodore came upon deck, and towards me where I was standing, and remarked: “I have just finished the Bible. I have read it through from Genesis to Revelation. I make it a point to read it through every cruise. It is certainly a remarkable book, a most wonderful book.” As he uttered these words, the look-out aloft cried “Land O!” which diverted his attention, perhaps, or he would have continued with further remarks. “Perry,” writes another rear-admiral, “was a man of most exemplary habits, though not perhaps a communicant of any church, and upright, and full of pride of country and profession, with no patience or consideration for officers who felt otherwise.” Keenly enjoying the elements of worship in divine service, he was also a student of the Book of Common Prayer. His own private copy of this manual of devotion was well marked, showing his personal appreciation of its literary and spiritual merits. Often, in the absence of a chaplain, he read service himself. Of the burial service, he says it is “the English language in its noblest form.”