"Let Your Light So Shine"

"A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid."

"Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good 1ry61165."-l\r[atthew v. 14-16.

If a dealer wants s..iptl."i",rlno.ity for advertising and VISUALIZING his product, let him go no farther than the above text. It applies just as fully and forcefully to the " operation of a retail lumber business, as it does toward the philosophy of living that the Master reflected on, when He uttered those words.

"A city that is built upon a hill, cannot be hid." Surely NOT. And a lumber business that is operated on so high and intelligent a plane that it DEMANDS the attention and COMMANDS the respect of the community in which it is located, cannot be hid either.

"Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works." Just exactly rvhat THE CALIFORNIA LUMBER MERCHANT has been begging the retail lumbermen for year after vear. Make them SEE your goocl rvorks; meaning, your good stocks, your good service, vour good willingness to SERVE.

lVe used to tell the retailers at first, before they had begun to emerge from their shells and practice merchandising, that they acted like men who were AFRAID to let people know that thev rvere in business. They never seemed to see the necessity for letting the "Light so shine," that men might see their good works

And as far as the giving of SERVICE, is concer.nedand mind you there are still lumbermen who scofi at the necessity of giving the customer anything but the GOODS -harken to this ;-"p61 the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister."

Anything vague about that? The lowest ancl the highest rvho would REALLY succeed, must do so through the giving of SERVICE. The giving of service is a sacred thing, not simply a theory.

L,et's take these three thoughts home with us for a New Year Scriptural lesson on merchanclising. A lumber' dealer who builds his business on a lofty plane and high in the estimation of his fellotv torvnsmen, has the city that "canhot be hid." If he is to do justice to the possibilities of this business and of his town, he must exploit that business, letting his light so shine that all men-and women and chilclren also-will see his "good rvorks."

And he will demonstrate to his trade that his job is to minister, to serve, not simply to be a stumbling block for live business men to fall over.

Try it this year.