Pulpit, a museum piece now, evokes flood of memories
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If the welfare and humanitarian services exhibit alone had not been enough to evoke tender memories for President Thomas S. Monson at the March 11 ribbon cutting, there was one other circumstance.
The pulpit at which he and the other speakers gave their remarks at the Museum of Church History and Art has special significance for President Monson, first counselor in the First Presidency.
"This pulpit where I stand was for many years in the ward over which I presided, the [Salt Lake] Sixth-Seventh Ward of the Pioneer Stake," he explained. After the demolition of the meetinghouse, the pulpit was given to President Monson, who conveyed it to the custody of the museum.
He recalled that as a little boy, he gave his first Church talk at the pulpit in the meetinghouse, which was at 150 W. 500 South in downtown Salt Lake City, a site now occupied by a hotel. His mother and father both insisted that he learn the talk on his own, he said, so he went to Temple Square for inspiration. That Sunday, he delivered a 2 1/2-minute talk about the Seagull Monument.
"It was 49 years ago the first week in May that I accepted the responsibility as bishop in our ward," he recounted.
After formally closing his remarks, President Monson tarried at the pulpit.
"Is there a beehive on the front still?" he asked the audience. There was.
He commented: "I had it finished in this golden oak. The building's gone. I just felt this is where it ought to be. I don't know whether you rolled it out for me to have a memory or whether you just rolled it out because it was a good pulpit."
After pausing for several seconds, President Monson said: "Every person needs his own sacred grove, not only the Prophet. And my sacred grove during those years that I presided was our chapel on Fifth South. Many's the night I've gone in the back door and up to the stand and knelt right next to this pulpit. The only light would be the arc light coming through the windows of that pioneer building. I felt when I left on those occasions that I had been in a grove called sacred to me."
