Phillips be­gan teach­ing sing­ing school at age 19. In 1860, he formed a part­ner­ship in Cin­cin­nati, Ohio, with Will­iam Sum­ner & Com­pa­ny, un­der the firm name of Phil­ip Phill­ips & Com­pa­ny, to sell pi­an­os, or­gans, and Sun­day school song­books. Phil­lips fre­quent­ly in­tro­duced him­self in a town by put­ting a mel­o­de­on in a ve­hicle, park­ing on a prom­i­nent street cor­ner, and be­gin to sing and play. His mar­vel­ous voice drew large crowds.

In 1875, Phil­lips went on a tour of Aus­tral­ia, con­duct­ing over one hun­dred song ser­vic­es. He re­turned to New York two years lat­er, by way of Sri Lan­ka, In­dia, Ja­pan, Jeru­sa­lem, Egypt, It­a­ly, Eur­ope, and Eng­land. He wrote Round the World with De­scrip­tive Songs about the ex­per­i­ence.

Phillips’ other books in­clude:

• Early Blos­soms (Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio: John Church, 1862)
• Musical Leaves (Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio: Phil­ip Phil­lips & Com­pa­ny, 1864)
• Home Songs for Young Pa­tri­ots (Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio: Phil­ip Phil­lips & Com­pa­ny, 1865)
• The Singing Pil­grim (New York: Brain­ard & Sons, 1866)
• New Stand­ard Sing­er (New York: 1868)
• Hallowed Songs (New York: Phil­ip Phil­lips & Com­pa­ny, 1870)
• Day School Sing­er (New York: Amer­i­can Book Com­pa­ny, 1870)
• Song Life for Sun­day Schools (New York: Harper & Bro­thers, 1872)
• Song Ser­mons (New York: In­ter­na­tion­al Mu­sic and Pub­lish­ing Agen­cy, 1877)
• American Sac­red Song­ster (sold over a mill­ion co­pies)
• Temperance Songs
• Standard Gems (New York: Phil­ip Phil­lips & Com­pa­ny, 1866)
• Colonial Sing­er
• Song Pil­grim­age Around the World (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: Fair­banks, Pal­mer & Com­pa­ny, 1880)
• Bright Gems (New York: Mast, Crow­ell & Kirk­pat­rick, 1887)
• Round the World with Phil­ip Phill­ips (New York: The Phil­lips Pub­lish­ing Com­pa­ny, 1887)
• New Hymn and Tune Book: An Of­fer­ing of Praise for the Use of the Afr­i­can Meth­od­ist Epis­co­pal Zi­on Church of Amer­i­ca (New York: A.M.E. Z. Book Con­cern, 1889)
• Our New Hym­nal (New York: Funk & Wag­nalls, 1893)
• International Song Ser­vice (New York: Mast, Crow­ell & Kirk­pat­rick, 1895)

• Brown, pp. 150, 239-40
• Hall, pp. 119-23
• Jones, p. 137

1. Blind Bar­ti­me­us
2. Home of the Soul
3. I Am Sweep­ing Thro’ the Gate
4. Lord Will Pro­vide, The
5. Nearer My Home
6. Oh, What Are You Go­ing to Do?
7. Our Coun­try
8. Stand Like the Brave
9. Song of Sal­va­tion