Bible Encyclopedias
Smith, Philander, D.D.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

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third bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada after the separate organization in 1828, was. born in Delaware County, N.Y., in 1796. He was reared a Calvinist, and at an early age settled in. Elizabethtown, near Brockville, Canada. He was converted in 1817 under the preaching of bishop George, and united with the Methodists. In 1820 he joined the Genesee Conference, and was duly ordained deacon and elder. In 1826 he was appointed presiding elder of the Upper Canada work, and labored regularly till the union of the Canada Conference with the British Wesleyans in 1833. Opposing this action, dissatisfied with the abandonment of the episcopacy, and with the terms of the union generally, he ceased travelling for a time. In 1836 he united with the Methodist Episcopal Church, which had again rallied, and in 1862 was elected to the episcopate, which office he held until his death, March 28, 1870. As a preacher he was earnest and effective; as an administrator he was calm and' judicious; as an overseer in the Church of Christ he was watchful, self- sacrificing, and laborious. See Simpson, Cyclop. of Methodism, s.v.