A worm, a gnat, a fly, a hair, a raisin, a skin of a grape!

(Thomas Brooks, "A Cabinet of Choice Jewels" 1669)

"Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth!" Proverbs 27:1

Who can sum up . . .
  the many possible deaths which are still lurking in his own body;
  or the innumerable hosts of external dangers which beleaguer him on every side;
  or the invisible arrows which fly about his ears continually!

Who can tell how soon he may have his mortal wound given him by one or another of them? Now, how sad would it be for a man to have a summons to appear before God in that eternal world, before his heart and life are savingly changed!

The life of a man is but a shadow, a span, a vapor, a flower, etc.

Though there is but one way to come into the world-yet there are thousands of ways to be sent out of the world!

We carry about in our bodies the material for a thousand deaths-and may die a thousand different ways in several hours. As many senses, as many members, nay, as many pores as there are in the body-so many windows there are for death to enter in at!

Death needs not spend all his arrows upon us. A worm, a gnat, a fly, a hair, a raisin, a skin of a grape, the stumbling of a horse, the trip of a foot, the pick of a pin, the cutting of a fingernail, the cutting out of a corn; all these have been to others, and any of them may be to us-the means of our death within the space of a few days; nay, of a few hours; nay, of a few moments!

Yet I am sure that the worst of deaths, shall but translate true believers . . .
  from earth-to Heaven,
  from a wilderness-to a paradise,
  from misery-to glory, and
  from mixed and mutable enjoyments-to the pure and everlasting enjoyments of God!

To a believer, "The day of death better than the day of birth. It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart." Ecclesiastes 7:1-2