09 ~ Baylor University, 1939 – 1940
When I got to Baylor University I found that the magazines and newspapers were full of the experiences in Europe. LIFE magazine showed the British people digging trenches in their parks because of the bombing in Britain. The children were shown as they boarded trains that were to take them safely out of the city of London.
~ Pat M. Neff, the former governor of Texas, was president of Baylor. He was a strict disciplinarian. I remember he called us in to give us a lecture as preachers and make a nomination for scholarships, but because it was war time, President Neff said we were going to have to work for our tuition. I was assigned to check the chapel attendance, which I was delighted to have. A lot of the young people did not like chapel, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and took notes on many of the wonderful addresses we had there.
~ Baylor was a wonderful, maturing experience for me. I majored in Bible and had the pleasure of sitting at the feet of one of the greatest Bible teachers I had ever heard, J. B. Tidwell, a man who was not converted until he was married and had a family. He had never gone to college, but entered junior college and later became a teacher at Baylor University. He captured our interest and hearts in the stories he told. He told about the time he was struggling with his college education. He went out under a tree to pray; he had his Greek book in his hand, and after communing with God he wrote in the flyleaf of his Greek book these words, “What I am plus God equals enough.” How those words inspired my heart at a time when I was struggling to get my education! I determined that what I was plus God was enough to get me through Baylor. It was, though I had some trouble with Chemistry because I had no background in it. Many of my classmates were pre-med students, but I struggled with Chemistry and to this good day I wonder why they required it of the preacher boys.
~ I also had the pleasure of sitting at the feet of Woodson Armes, who at that time was the pastor at Seventh and James Baptist Church in Waco [adjacent the Baylor campus] and the teacher of evangelism at Baylor. What a joy it was to sit in his class! I would later pastor in the same district with him. One time I was an interim pastor where he held his membership.
~ At Baylor I tried to take advantage of all the Baptist meetings. In the fall of 1940 I attended the Waco Baptist Association annual meeting at the First Baptist Church in Waco. I also attended the Limestone Association. What a pleasure it was during the month of October to attend my first state general convention in Houston, Texas. After that I was to attend many Baptist meetings, but this one was especially impressive to me. During the convention a number of the preachers that I had been in school with got together and took a boat ride to Galveston Bay. I shall never forget as we were coming into harbor the lights at Galveston were shining brightly, and we joined in singing, “I can see the lights of home.” What a thrilling moment for a young preacher boy!
~ One of the classes that delighted me at Baylor was the course on extemporaneous speech. In the middle of the course, all of the class members were asked to write a critique on the other members of the class. I received some thought-provoking criticism as well as some embarrassing compliments. One that I enjoyed because of the flattery was signed by a class member named Cooper. May I read it to you?
“Dear Mr. Morris: here comes a few friendly words and best wishes in the form of a two-hundred-word constructive criticism regarding speech 254. I have one paramount compliment to make, and my eagerness to make it has arrived at such a momentum that the impulse can no longer successfully be withstood. Therefore I am compelled to make it on the outset of this epistle. Of course I am not familiar with your condition as a husband or a minister but only as a classmate, and from this acquaintance I will confine my remarks. From observation and from hearing you speak in class, I’m prepared to say with all seriousness that your speech reflects a refined and well-balanced life. This I am not saying exactly from a moralistic stand point but purely from a sense of honest appreciation I do admire you. After having heard you give your speech on picture-painting as a source of relaxation, revengefulness, and resourcefulness, and then observing you make crazy drawings all over your notebook during class, I am convinced that you have found a solution to a prevalent ailment of western civilization. Now if I am incorrect in my impressions, please don’t tell me, for in these trying days I have enough discouragement. Surely to epitomize on good qualities as well as combination of the bad ones is a process of speech improvement. Therefore I am leaving for someone else to depict the errors you have committed in regard to speech technicalities. To prevent abusing my two hundred word privilege I will close with this personal remark that I hope all the blessings known to life will crown your homestead and your wife. My best wishes are with you all.”
~As I chuckled over that I could not help but observe that whoever my unknown friend in the class was, he was trying to use all of the big words that he could summon. Not all of the speech criticisms were that flattering. I’ve kept all of them because it helps my humility. Here is one that has my name, “Chester Morris,” instead of Lester Morris, which shows you right off that they will have some prejudice. May I quote what this person said?
“Illustrations and jokes are fine in after dinner speeches, but I do not think you will find it so effective in a speech on war or other out-of-the-way speeches. Another thing I have noticed is that you do not seem to talk very much about the subject you are speaking on. You seem to talk all around the subject and only at times touch on the subject. Stay on the subject most of the way, and I think here and there you can put in an illustration that fits the time and subject. Make a short outline and stick with it. I think you are one of the best speakers in the class, with the keenest wit. I think though you could improve the effectiveness of your speeches by showing a little more interest in the subject. If you don’t seem interested in the subject how do you expect the audience to be interested also? Another thing I might say, I have noticed a lot of facial gestures that should not be there. You seem to be trying to imitate someone you’ve heard before. At times it is rather artificial and noticeable. I may be wrong but that’s the way it appears to me.”
~ Well thank you. I don’t know who in the world I would imitate, but it was good experience, and I chuckle over the letters to this day.
~ There were some humorous things that happened on Baylor campus while I was there. I still chuckle when I think of the April Fools joke that was played on Pat Neff. He usually sat in chapel with his legs crossed, looking very stern in his black suit and wing-tipped collar with its tie, and his gray hair glistening. On this particular chapel day, we had a guest speaker, and since it was April Fools Day, in the middle of the speech high above Waco Hall someone had planted alarm clocks in several different places. They began to go off one at a time, one after the other. Pat Neff was twisting in his suit and was thoroughly embarrassed with the behavior of his students and their response to a chapel speaker.
~ All of us knew that it would mean trouble if we disobeyed any of the rules President Neff had carefully laid down to all of us. I remember when he announced in chapel that we were to be out early for the Christmas holidays. Some of the football boys and bigger boys on the campus picked Pat Neff up as he stood on the steps of Waco Hall and carried him across the street to the R. E. B. Baylor statue and let him down, at which time he said, “I felt just like Jesus when he rode into the city on an ass.” My first year at Baylor saw the opening of the beautiful Pat Neff Hall. I was intrigued with the quotations carved in cement around the fringes [the entablature] of the beautiful building. They were quotations from Pat Neff’s many speeches. One of them made an indelible impression upon my mind: “The preservers of history are as heroic as its makers.” I stood there admiring the Pat Neff Hall on Founders Day, February 1, 1940. It was the first night that the Cullen F. Thomas chimes had played. What a thrill was ours as we listened to the beautiful chimes echo across the way. Mr. Cullen Thomas had given fifteen thousand dollars for the chimes, but he died before he heard the first note. They are a part of Baylor. They were silent for a period, but one of my former members gave a donation to help put the chimes in the air again for Baylor University.
~ In addition to the influence of Dr. Tidwell, my Bible professor, another man stood out as the outstanding teacher in Baylor. He was a world authority on Robert Browning, and in later years helped to raise money to build the Armstrong-Browning Library, which to this day is a center of interest at Baylor University. Dr. Armstrong was a very strict professor. In fact I think Sallie M. Duncan of the College of Marshall must have come under his influence, for she had many of his ways. He especially thought that preachers should do better than anybody else in the class. And he constantly used his tongue to emphasize that. I was literally scared of him, but as the Lord would help me, I was able to overcome this fear and make a good grade. At one time for several days I had been out of school with the flu, and some of my members were members of a book club. That particular month the book club selection was two volumes by Thomas Mann on Joseph. I must tell you I would never have read those books had I not been sick in bed and bored to death, but I found the two volumes fascinating. Based upon a few verses of scripture in the Bible, Thomas Mann weaved a beautiful story. When I returned to Baylor from my bout with the flu, one of the first things that greeted me in Dr. Armstrong’s class was a discussion on Thomas Mann. He said, “How many of you have read Joseph by Thomas Mann?” Can you imagine? I had just finished it, and I raised my hand to indicate that I had. As a result of that the study under Dr. Armstrong became easier for me, and I made a good grade.
~ Dr. A. J. Armstrong contributed more than I can describe to my life and my appreciation not only of literature but of art. He talked about such things as Sergeant’s “Fringe of the Prophets” in Boston, the Sistine Chapel in Italy, and many other pieces of art in the Louvre Museum in Paris. I mention this because I would never had gone to see Sergeant’s “Fringe of the Prophets,” just a few months after that experience in Baylor, when I was stationed outside of Boston. Many years later I took my wife back to Boston and insisted that she come with me to Copley Square to the Public Library, there to stand before Sergeant’s beautiful “Fringe of the Prophets.” Later, during my period of Army service in Europe, I stood in the Sistine Chapel and reminisced about Baylor and Dr. Armstrong. I later had a wonderful tour of the Louvre in Paris, France, where again I was reminded of the appreciation he had put in my heart.