Samuel Leslie Morris was born on December 25, 1854, in Calhoun Falls, Abbeville County, South Carolina. He came from robust Scotch-Irish stock that were committed Presbyterians. After graduating from Erskine College at the age of 18, he entered Columbia Theological Seminary. He pastored churches in Walhalla, South Carolina; Macon, Georgia; and Atlanta, Georgia. His first call in Walhalla was for an annual salary of $300. Two small country churches promised another $300, and he wrote, "I now had an income of $600 a year -- not equal to that of Vanderbilt or Astor; but it gave me the temerity to take unto myself a wife. As one of my church officers had borrowed all of my 'savings,' something less than $100, I went to the town bank and secured a small loan to buy a wedding suit and bring home my bride. I was accordingly formally married October 23, 1877, to Ella M. Brice, only child of Christopher S. Brice, Sr., of New Hope Associate Reformed Presbyterian congregation near Woodward, S.C." (quoted here).
Morris is best known, however, for his work as Secretary of Home Missions for the Southern Presbyterian Church. He wrote several books on the mission effort of the Presbyterian Church to America, including At Our Own Door, The Task that Challenges, and Christianizing Christendom (find these works here). These volumes provide an insightful look at the state of the missionary heart of Presbyterians, as well as the vision and strategies they employed at the beginning of the 20th century. Morris also wrote a well-known book that could easily have been used as a text for Inquirers' Classes, Presbyterianism: Its Principles and Practice. The table of contents is as follows:
1. Presbyterianism - A System
2. Presbyterianism in History
3. Presbyterianism and Calvinism
4. Presbyterianism and Church Polity
5. Presbyterianism and the Sacraments (the Lord's Supper)
6. Presbyterianism and the Sacraments (Baptism)
7. Presbyterianism and the Covenant (Infant Church Membership)
8. Presbyterianism in Action
9. Presbyterianism and Catholicity
10. Presbyterianism and Missions
Spend some time perusing Morris' works, and be instructed and spurred on in your heart for the gospel going forth to the lost through the church of Jesus Christ.