When ancient alchemists discovered the distilling process, some of the things they tried distilling were wines and other forms of alcohol. As they boiled off the wine and captured the steam to be distilled, it is easy to see why they might call this the “spirit” of wine, with the steam leaving the wine in much the same way that we imagine a spirit leaving the body. Eventually, any form of distilled liquor became known as a “spirit.” Spirit liquors ended up getting taxed differently than their much lower alcohol by volume cousins like wine and beer. To determine if a particular liquor had enough “spirit” in it, a test was developed. If gunpowder was soaked in the liquor and it was still able to burn, then it was considered “over proof”. And if it didn’t burn, then it was under proof. The proof that there was a high enough alcohol or spirit was in the burning. To this day, alcohol is still sold with a label of how much “proof” it is, with 100 proof or higher being enough alcohol to burn. As we strive to seek after goodness and beauty and truth, we have a remarkably similar test to prove whether something is good or true. Just as alcohol needs a high enough level of spirit in order to burn, our hearts must similarly be filled with enough of the Spirit to burn. After the Resurrection of Jesus when Luke and another disciple were walking on the road to Emmaus, they checked to see what level of proof they had. “And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?” (Luke 24:32). Their hearts burned. They were filled with the Spirit. They were at 100 proof. If we want to have our hearts burn within us, then we have to make sure that our hearts are filled with the Spirit at a high enough level. If we’ve got too much extra junk filling up our hearts, so that the Spirit can only get in like five or ten percent, then we won’t be able to get a high enough proof of what things are good and true, and what things aren’t. But if we will continue to seek after and to fill our hearts and our minds with good things, then we can boil off all of the unnecessary nonsense that is watering down our ability to judge righteously. “Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven.” (D&C 121:45) Virtue and the pure love of Christ will help us distill things down until we get to 100 proof or higher so that our hearts may burn with the Spirit of God.
