*Makes the sick whole

*Redeems the repentant*Resolves confilicts

President Gordon B. Hinckley spoke Sunday morning of the need for Christ's healing power and declared: "In a world of sickness and sorrow, of tension and jealousy and greed, there must be much of healing if there is to be life abundant."

President Hinckley, first counselor in the First Presidency, began his address by telling of his reunion recently in the Philippines with a prosperous couple from New York who had sold or given away their possessions to be missionaries in the Philippines.

"They are healers among the people, serving in the cause of the Master healer." he commented, speaking in a quiet, earnest voice.

"I have since reflected much on the power of Christ to heal and bless. It was He who said, 'I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.'"

He cited the account in John 4 of Christ healing the noble man's son.

"That same power has been restored in this generation," President Hinckley declared. "It came through the laying on of hands by Peter, James and John, who received it form the Lord Hinself. It was bestowed upon Joseph Smith, the prophet of this dispensation. Its presence is among us."

He then recalled the account in Church history involving Joseph Smith who, among other Nauvoo residents, was sick in bed, but being filled with the Spirit, arose and went out among the sick, healing and raising them.

"That power to heal the sick is still among us," President Hinckley emphasized. "It is the power of the priesthood of God. It is the authority held by the elders of this Church."

Sickness other than of the body often afflicts people, President Hinckley pointed out. "There is the sickness of sin."

He quoted form a letter written to the editor of a national magazine in response to its review of a recent sacrilegious motion picture. The letter writer acknowledged being a "former alcoholic and adulterer set free by the power of the living Jesus Christ."

"Legion are those who have testified of the healing power of Chirst to life them from the desolation of sin t higher and mobler living," President Hinckley commented.

Another category of sickness, he said, are conflicts, quarrels and arguments, which he called "a debilitating disease particularly afflicting families."

He quoted Matt. 5:38-41 about turning the other cheek and going the second mile.

"The application of this principle, difficult to live but wondrous in its curative powers, would have a miraculous effect on our troubled home," he said. "it is selfishness which is the cause of most of our misery."

The same spirit would heal the sickness of society, he added, citing the commandment to "succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble kneew" (D&C 81:5), and the admonition of james that pure religion is to visit the fatherless and widows (James 1:27.)

The powers of healing may even be invoked ot avoid litigation, President Hinckley said. He recalle dthat he was asked by President Stephen L Richards, a member of the First Presidency at the time, to assist in a delicate and sensitive matter with grave and serious consequences.

"I said, 'President Richards, you don't want me, you want a lawyer.' He said, 'I am a lawyer. I don't want to litigate this, I want to compose it.'

"We directed our efforts to that end, and wonderful results followed. money was saved, much of it. Embarrassment was avoided. The work was moved forward without fanfare or headlines. Wounds were closed. The healing powers of the master, the principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ were invoked in a delicate and difficult situation to compose what otherwise could have become a catastrophe."

Referring to individuals who have made it their mission to destroy the work of God. President Hinckley said: "A natural inclination is to fight back, to challenge these falsehoods and bring action against their perpetrators. But when these inclinations make themselves felt, there arise also the words of the Master healer."

He then quoted Matt. 5:43-44, the Savior's commandment to love one's enemies.

"Most of us have not reached that stage of compassion and love and forgiveness," he observed. "It is not easy. It requires a self-discipline almost greater than we are capable of. But as we try, we come to know that there is a resource of healing, there is a mighty power of healing in Chirst, and that if we are to be His true servants we must not only exercise that healing power in behalf of others, but, perhaps more importantly, inwardly.

"I would that the healing power of Christ might spread over the earth and be diffused through our society and into our homes, that it might cure men's hearts of the evil and adverse elements of greed and hate and conflict."

The ministry of members of the Church is one of healing, he added, "with a duty to bind the wounds and ease the pain of those who suffer."