Where the answer to prayer follows so directly the appeal, we may suppose that the intensity of thought may affect directly the individual who responds. Thus, when Allston was so despairing, his thoughts would go widely forth, and the Marquis of Stafford having seen the painting, and desiring it, might have the thought of it awakened, and be thereby drawn at the special time to the artist’s studio. Of course the case is also open to the direct intervention of angelic messengers, for all this class of facts intimately blend, and are controlled by the same general laws, and it is difficult to determine to which of the two causes they should be referred. The door that admits angelic beings makes the influence of thought waves also possible. The cure of Melancthon by the prayers of Luther is well known to the student of the Reformation. The former had been given over to die, when Luther rushed to the death-bed of his loved friend with tears and exclamations of agony. Melancthon was aroused and said: “O Luther, is this you? Why do you not let me depart in peace?” “We can’t spare you yet, Philip,” was Luther’s answer. Then he bowed down for a long hour in prayer, until he felt he had been answered. Then he took Melancthon’s hand, who said: “Dear Luther, why do you not let me depart in peace?” “No, no, Philip, we can not spare you from the field of labor;” and added, “Philip, take this soup, or I will excommunicate you.” Melancthon took the soup, began to revive, and lived many years to assist the sturdy reformer with his facile pen. Luther went home and told his wife, in joyous triumph, that “God gave me my brother, Melancthon, in direct answer to prayer.” Now, such a cure would be called faith cure, or magnetic healing. The state of feeling induced by long and fervent prayer was the source of magnetic power, and therein, and not through the direct intervention of God, was the prayer answered. Bishop Bowman gives the following account of the unexpected recovery of Bishop Simpson, when he was supposed to be dying: