6.9.2016 Finney on HOW TO APPROACH SINNERS

BEHOLD, I SEND YOU OUT AS SHEEP IN THE MIDST OF WOLVES. THEREFORE BE WISE AS SERPENTS AND HARMLESS AS DOVES. matthew 10.16

seize the earliest opportunity to talk with those around you who are careless.
do not put it off from day to day, thinking a better opportunity will come.
you must seek an opportunity, and if you cannot find one, make one.
set a special time or place and arrange to meet with you friend or neighbor where you can speak with him freely.
send him a note or make a special trip to see him.
then he wil feel that this is important to you.
follow it up until you succeed or become convinced that, for now, nothing more can be done.

when you approach a careless individual, be sure to treat him kindly.
let him see that youare talking with him, not because you seek a quarrel with him,
but because you love his soul and desire his best good in time and eternity. if you are harsh and overbearing, you will probably offend him and drive him farther away from the way of life.

be sure to be very plain.
do not cover up any part of the person's character or his relationship to God.
lay it all open, not to offend of wound him, but because it is necessry.
before you can cure a wound, you must probe it to the bottom. kepp bake none of the turth, but let it come out plainly before him.

257  be very patient.
if he has a real difficulty in his mind, be very patient until you find out what it is, then clear it up.
if his problem is just a matter of splitting hairs, help him to see the insignificance of the issue compared with salvation.
do not try to answer with argument, but show him that he is not sincere in advancing his argument...

258...make it an object of constant study, daily reflection and prayer to learn how to deal with sinner and to promote their conversion. it is the great commission of every christian to save souls. people often complain that they do not know how to handle this matter. yet these same people have never taken the time to qualify themselves for the work. if people were as careless in preparing themselves for their worldly business as they are to save souls, how do you think they would succeed.

now, if you are neglecting the main business of life,
what are you living for?...

259  anxious sinners are in a very serious and critical state.
they have, in fact, come to a turning point.
it is a time when their destiny is likely to be settled forever.
christians ought to feel deeply for them.
in many respects their circumstances are more serious than those of the Final Judgment.
here their destiny is settled.
The Judgment Day reveals it.
and the particular time when it is done is when the Spirit is striving with them.