The way Langston Hughes said he was saved but he wasn't

really saved kind of gives the whole plot away at the beginning.

But he said it like this to grab his readers' attention and make them

keep reading on to fully understand why he was or was not saved.

This indeed did catch my eye. I have also had a similar

experience with the thoughts and feelings of our Lord.

There have been many times when I have sat in that long,

padded church pew and wondered why exactly was I there? Then I

would look around me and wonder if the people in the congregation were

thinking the same thing. I would have the most trouble during silent

prayer. I never quite knew what to pray for. Finally, when I did

figure it out and actually prayed, I never got a response. I understood we

should pray for our family and friends, cures for disease, the hungry to

be nourished, and for there to be no more wars, I just never thought of that while

I was at church. I do believe in God and everything but it is really hard

to believe fully in something that is not a "physical being." It

reminds me of when I was younger and my parents told me that Santa

Claus brought everyone in the world Christmas presents on Christmas Eve.

I never actually saw Santa, unless it was my uncle or my grandpa in that

big, jolly red and white suit, but I still believed. Now I

am not saying I still believe in Santa, but I do believe in the

spirit of Christmas. I think this is exactly how Langston was feeling

about God. He just had a gard time realizing that there is not going to be any physical,

vocal, or emotional change in the way he feels. Ok, there will definitely be emotional

change, but that will only come after he accepts God in his heart.

One by one, as the children go up to the platform to be saved, they left Langston and Westley behind.

I thhought Westley was a real jerk. He wasn't really saved either,

obviously. He just fell to pressure. The thhing that really

gets to me though is he used the Lord's name in vain. I have

slipped a few times myself and sad His holy name, never intentionally.

Just because he was tired of sitting on the mourner's bench doesn't

mean he had to falsify in God's house. What the two boys do not

understand is that the only way they are going to be saved is by

opening their hearts to the thoughts and sayings of Jesus Christ.

In the closing paragraphs of the story, Langston cried himself

to sleep. His aunt heard him and proclaimed to her husband that he

was crying because he was saved earlier that day. If she had just

gone and asked him what was wrong, and if he had told her maybe she

would have understood. It does say that he could not bear to tell

her that not only deceived her, the church, but also God, because

it would hurt her too much. I think it could have been explained, at

least in this day and age but back then it probably woud have

been very hard.