Phillips, William (2)

a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born in Jessamine County, Kentucky, May 7, 1797. Even as a youth he exhibited talents of a superior order. He received a carefiul and pious training, but he did not as a young man make any outward profession of religion; and after entering political life, and while engaged for several years as a successful teacher, he became even less considerate of his higher and immortal interests, and sought refuge from the accusations, of conscience in the dark and cheerless regions of infidelity. His early impressions of religious truth were, however, strong and abiding, and he was finally converted, and deeply impressed with the idea that he was called of God to enter the Christian ministry. December 27, 1828, he was licensed as a local preacher. In the fall of 1831 he was received into the Kentucky Conference. He was appointed consecutively to the Winchester Circuit, Lexington Circuit, and Newport and Covington stations. He was also assistant editor of the Western Christian Advocate, serving for one year by appointment of the Book Committee, and then by vote of the General Conference of 1836. Among his numerous contributions to that journal was a series of articles on the peculiar tenets of Alexander Campbell, which excited very considerable attention. These were republished, by request of the Ohio Conference, after Mr. Phillips's death, which occurred June 22, 1836, only a few weeks after his election by the General Conference.