dreadful harvest day; the tares are separated from the wheat, and… cast into everlasting fire." Conversion, then, was not a mere moral readjustment, but a cataclysmic recreation of a spirit corrupted by sin. In this context, McGready, like Edwards, believed that dramatic conversion experiences that caused people to swoon or cry out were the physical manifestation of unseen spiritual activity. McGready’s focus on the need of the people for regeneration was not reserved for overt sinners, but also for church members who relied on exhibiting a moral life and knowledge of the Westminster catechism, but had not experienced a saving change. To McGready, all such people were in need of conversion. He regarded the participation in the sacrament without evidence of heart-felt regeneration as a serious hypocrisy, telling his congregation that “an unworthy communicant …is more offensive to Almighty God than a loathsome carcass crawling with vermin." Aside from his primary concern for the conversion of individuals, McGready also expressed an urgency to battle popular philosophies and religious doctrines that had advanced in connection with the rhetoric of the American Revolution, especially deism. In opposition to the Calvinist doctrines regarding atonement, election, and irresistible grace, Deism proposed that man could save himself and society through reason and scientific advances. Further, McGready believed that deism denied the supernatural aspects of the Bible and its preeminence as “the strongest bond of civil government." Other ministers shared his concerns. By 1795, Thomas Paine’s Age of Reason had been serialized in the Lexington Gazette, and was read widely. In 1798 a Presbyterian minister in the Bluegrass had complained that because many, especially among the youth, had "imbibed” these “writings of Infidels ...Infidelity...was desolating the land in respect to religion and morals." McGready believed that deism and ignorance about the Bible were synonymous: “Many of our poor, unhappy youth …must call themselves Deists, when they do not know a sentence in the Bible." Hymnody Hymn singing had been an important part of the sacrament season and continued to be a vital expression of religious feeling during the revivals. The familiarity of the songs encouraged participation and served as a vehicle for communal and devotional expression. McGready’s fondness for, and use of, hymns is evidenced in the many instances of popular hymns quoted in his sermons. It was also one of many points of contention between him and anti-revivalist ministers, who preferred the more traditional “Rouse