St John’s Wort
The name of this flower I had heard of it before, but did not remember the connection of the name with the dark yellow flowers. So we have to keep reviewing these things we hear and refresh the mind.
But I wondered, why, Oh, why does it have this name? How does it have any connection with St. John?
St John’s Wort
This plant of European habitat is so named because the people use it to hang up for St John’s Day, June 24, to celebrate the day. It has pretty dark yellow flowers and like to grow in the meadows and will some times reach three feet with its straight branched stem.
St John’s Wort is used medicinally but caution should be taken and best to use on the skin rather than internally, though people do use it for depression. It would do well to put it on the cuts and bruises and some skin diseases will be aided by the antibacterial action it sometimes can be effective for.
It is called a noxious weed and can be eaten by the farm animals with deleterious effect to some.
"Another thing that was taught there was temperance—healthful living. This is shown by the fact that Daniel and his companions refused the king's dainties and royal food, and the wine which he drank, and asked for a simple fare, a vegetarian diet. Dan. 1:5, 12-16. That they were taught this in the school of the prophets which they attended, is plain from the fact that this was a thoroughly grounded principle with them, and that in that school they had been educated. And that such was the diet in the schools of the prophets is taught by the fact that in that school, in the time of Elisha, even when "there was a dearth in the land," Elisha, giving directions to prepare food, said, "Set on the great pot, and seethe pottage." And in following this direction, "one went out into the field to gather herbs." 2 Kings 4:38, 39. When herbs were gathered in response to the ordinary direction to prepare food, and this when "there was a dearth in the land," surely this is strong evidence that a vegetarian diet was the regular diet in the school. This is confirmed by the further recorded fact that "there came a man from Baal-shalisha, and brought the man of God bread of the first-fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk thereof. And he [Elisha] said, Give unto the people, that they may eat." Verse 42. Here was a man bringing a present of provisions to the principal of the school, and he brought only food from the vegetable kingdom.
All this is evidence that a vegetarian diet was the diet of the students and teachers in the schools of the prophets; that this temperate way of living was a part of the instruction; and that temperance was so inculcated as to become a living principle in the lives of the students."
February 8, 1898 ATJ, ARSH 92