Dr. Martineau insisted that “every spontaneous utterance of a deep devotion is poetry in its essence, and has only to fall into lyrical form to be a hymn.” But he went further and declared that “no expression of thought or feeling that has an ulterior purpose (i.e., instruction, exposition, persuasion, or impression) can have the spirit of poetry.” His idealism failed to realize that the spirit of poetry in a writer may be associated with a purpose of helpfulness urging expression in an efficient form. To delete all the hymns in our church collections that have definite spiritual purposes would rob the Christian Church of most of its devoutest and most helpful hymns. _The Purpose Must Affect Only the Practical Aspects._ Both the literary and devotional value of a hymn of purpose will depend upon the writer’s ability to reproduce the mental conditions of a purely spontaneous hymn. If the purpose can be confined to the practical aspects of the hymn, while the spiritual and poetic impulses control the thought and spirit, then the most valuable and effective hymn may be produced. But if the ulterior purpose fully occupies the mind of the writer, the hymn will be mechanical and uninspiring. In the more prolific hymn writers, like Watts and Charles Wesley, the relative influence of vision and purpose is easily detected. In their best hymns, the purpose is still present, but latent, and its guidance unconscious. III. PURPOSE OF THE USER OF HYMNS When we speak of the purpose of the hymn, therefore, it is not so much the mental attitude of the writer that is to be considered as that of the user of the hymn. He finds a body of religious verse ready to his hand, some of which is adapted to secure spiritual ends, or fitted to the social conditions which he seeks to improve. His purpose controls not the production of available verse, but the selection from existing stores of religious lyrics. The choice of hymns by the user will be determined by the characteristics and limitations which his practical purposes demand. There are three inevitable factors: the end to be realized, the people to be influenced, and the hymns adapted to affect both. IV. PURPOSES SERVED BY SINGING HYMNS _Hymns Unite Christians in Worship and Christian Activities._ The singing of hymns is the most practicable method of uniting assembled Christians in worship and praise and of creating a common interest in the various church activities. This is really the leading purpose of such a gathering.[1]