The aim in this division is to give information regarding the development of the church in general, and of the Lutheran church in particular. Narratives are grouped around great central characters--Christian personages. A realization of the lofty aims of Christianity on the part of the children together with an appreciation of their duties and responsibilities as members of the Christian church is the intent. By means of an instruction book the main divisions of church history, general history, and the history of Norway are correlated. Information contained in the hymn book acquaints the children with the ceremonial order of the ecclesiastical year as well as with the contents and order of the book itself. The study of previously memorized hymns and verses is emphasized and enlarged upon. It is to be remembered that in Norway church and state are united. Religious and scholastic interests are under the direction of the Department of Ecclesiastical and Educational affairs. The minister of this department of State is one of the King's cabinet. Here we find one of the numerous attempts at the solution of the vexing question of moral instruction, or, to be more exact, religious instruction in the public schools. While the provisions for this teaching are not faultless, and though their course of instruction could not be adopted for use in America with its medley of religious prejudices, yet we must acknowledge that they are well adapted to the needs and desires of the people served. The citizenship of the country is homogenous religiously, almost universally Lutheran, and their traditions militate against any change in religious creed. The teaching of religion in the schools has been the practice for generations, the instruction is taken as a matter of course, and it exerts its beneficient influences upon all.