Salvation

Langston Hughes's childhood memoir, "Salvation" begins with a seemingly contradictory statement: "I was saved from sin when I was going on thirteen. But not really saved". He was saved simply because he stood up at his aunt's church revival for children, but his true heart was not saved. In fact, he gets emotionally hurt by being falsely "saved", becoming agnostic. His devout aunt always tells Langston that once he is saved, his life would be different with Jesus and God being with him from that moment. As a Christian myself, I believe in this statement, but I also understand that to non - believers, it sounds like an old clichй with people from church saying it to make people come to their church. They coax the non- believers saying that his life would be completely different once they become members of the church, and they would see Jesus in their soul and life. They, however, always hesitate to mention that one cannot be saved just by coming to church, and even he comes to church every Sundays, it is not guaranteed that he would see a light in his life.

As a devout and fervent believer she is, Langston's aunt escorts him to the front raw as if she expects Langston to be saved from the beginning, giving him a burden. Hughes states that "the preacher preached a wonderful rhythmical sermon" as if he is mocking the emptiness of the sermon. The preacher's preach might have been rhythmical and perfect, it failed to make Langston become a true Christian. The part that Hugh describes the sermon, "The preacher preached a wonderful rhythmical sermon, all moans and shouts and lonely cries and dire pictures of hell, and then he sang a song about the ninety and nine safe in the fold, but one little lamb was left out in the cold" amused me because it greatly resembled the revivals I have attended so far. Even the preacher's shouting: "Won't you come? Won't you come to Jesus? Young lambs, won't you come?" and his gesture of holding his arms to the audience were similar, which made me question the originality of church revivals and sermons.

People start to cry, pray, and confess their sins as the revival continues, and people stand up to show their wish to be saved. Eventually, everyone except Westley and Hugh stand up. As I read this part, two questions came up on my mind; one was whether or not the children who stand up truly desired to be saved, and secondly whether they were ready to be saved. The revival in this story was targeted for young generations. It is children's tendency to follow other people's behavior because they do not want to be left alone. Some children might have felt peer pressure as Hughes did because everyone