His father had been refused entry to Charles Spurgeon's Pastor's College because he was "consumptive" and come to Australia to recover.
[1] Morling was baptised and joined Ashfield Baptist Church at age 17, before attending Sydney University where he graduated with a BA in 1913.
[1] He became a visiting lecturer at the Baptist College around the same time, and was appointed acting principal in 1922 after the abrupt resignation of Alexander Gordon.
[1][3] He was appointed an honorary lecturer in Church History at Sydney University in 1938 and chairman of Inter Varsity Fellowship Australia in 1947.
[3] Rowland Croucher described Morling as one of the four most admired Australian Baptists, alongside Geoffrey Blackburn, F. W. Boreham, and Noel Vose.