Salvation

Meaning
His main point in telling the narrative is to explain how based off of him telling one lie and deceiving many, his world was turned upside down he began to doubt the existence of Jesus.
A child named Westley, whom was sitting next to him during the service, decided to quit wasting and pretend that he had found God and pretended to be saved. After noticing he was the only one left and seeing how everyone reacted just to get him to get up and become saved, Hughes decided to also stop wasting time and deceive everyone, a choice that only causes him turmoil in the end.
I think that Hughes is saying that no one is truly saved from or that the only path to salvation, in his mind, is to confess one's faults, which is what he did.

Purpose and Audience
1. I think Hughes wrote "Salvation" as sort of confession, to get the actions he had partaken in off his chest, the way he felt about the existence of Jesus, which is sort of criticizing his aunt and the other adults for, in this case, "lying" to him. Sort of his journey to salvation.
2. He assumes his readers to be familiar with the setting of a southern, all-black church with the long hours of singing, praying, shouting (dancing or clapping to a set rhythm of drums, bass guitar, and organ), and capping it off with a pastor preaching with high emotion and ending the service with someone getting saved (most times services wouldn't end until at least one or two people did).
3. It makes the reader sit right where he was on the mourner's bench, feel the people around you and smother you with begs and pleas the go get saved, and the anxiety and pressure he is under as he remains in his seat, and his faith slipping as he doesn't "see" Jesus.

Method and Structure
I think he chose a narrative to show others through his story that no one is truly saved from sin, but if he chose to have done an argumentative essay it would not be impossible, but it would be a one-sided argument. It would be "Still bound by the chains of Sin".
He basically does it through out the entire narration. This makes the reader aware of how long he waited for Jesus to show and how when Jesus didn't it forced Hughes to lie about what happened.
Paragraphs 5-7 and 13-15.
It's essential because it explains all that what he went and how long he waited for Jesus to show up.

Language
He felt shame and doubt and that's because he had to lie to get the whole torturing ordeal over with and Jesus never showed up.
The effect I believe he is trying to achieve is the influence of the younger generation. In his adult life, as well in his child life, that night in the church was a waste of time to him and what he had to do to get out of the situation troubled him. I believe he is trying to keep someone else from making the same mistake.
Hughes meaning of "seeing" Jesus is Jesus actually appearing to him in the flesh, while his aunts meaning of "seeing" Jesus is having a visitation from Jesus in your soul, where you can't see him but feel him. The significance is that because he didn't physically see Jesus, it made him doubt that Jesus ever existed.