A worm, a gnat, a fly, a hair, a seed of a raison, a skin of a grape – Thomas Brooks

“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! How soon he may have his mortal wound given him by one or another of them who can tell? 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 runner, a span, a vapor, a flower, etc. Though there is but one way to come into the world yet there are many thousand 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 seed of a raison, a skin of a grape, the stumbling of a horse, the trip of a foot, the prick 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!

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!