In the year A. D. 238, on a sarcophagus which bears the first dated representation of the Good Shepherd, we find the following touching inscription. It conveys nothing doctrinal beyond the phrase “most devout,” or “God-loving,” expressive of the youthful piety of the deceased. ΗΡΑΚΛΙΤΟϹ Ο ΘΕΟΦΙΛΕϹΤΑΤΟϹ ΕΖΗϹΕΝ ΕΤ(η) Η ΠΑΡΑ Η(μέρας) 421 ΙΓ ΕΝΟϹΗϹΕΝ ΗΜ(ε)Ρ(ας) ΙΒ.... ΞΑΝΘΙΑϹ ΠΑΤΗΡ ΤΕΚΝΩ ΓΛΥΚΥΤΕΡΩ ΦΩΤΟϹ ΚΑΙ ΖΩΗϹ--“The very devout Heraclitus lived eight years and thirteen days. He was ill twelve days.... Xanthias his father, to his son, sweeter than light and life.” The mention of the duration of the illness is very rare in these epitaphs. The yearning affection of the bereaved father is beautifully expressed in the last clause. The next example merely gives the consular date, A. D. 249, and the assurance that the deceased sleeps, DORMIT--a distinctively Christian synonym for death. In the year A. D. 268 occurs a fragment on which one may with difficulty decipher the inscription by the parents “to their well-deserving son, who lived twelve years and eleven months.” The chief interest attaches to the last line: VIBAS INTER SANCTIS (_sic_) IHA--“May you live among the holy ones.” The meaning of the last three letters is unknown. They have been interpreted as standing for _in pace_ or _et have_; but the last rarely, if ever, occurs in Christian epigraphy. Dr. McCaul ingeniously conjectures that the last word is intended for _sanctissimas_, or “most holy ones,” the H being an ill cut M. This natural ejaculation of the sorrowing friends, of which we shall find occasional examples, is certainly no indication of the later Romish practice of prayers for the dead, or of the intercession of the saints. On this slab are also the first known examples of the dove, olive branch, and vase. The next dated inscription, of the year 269, A. D., is of a very barbarous character--Latin words in Greek letters, not engraved, but merely painted on the slab. It is evidently, as is indicated by its wretched grammar and orthography, the production of extreme ignorance. 422 It requires a strong dogmatic prepossession to detect in its incoherent language any meaning beyond the attestation of the sanctity of character of the deceased. After giving the date, it reads thus: ΛΕΥΚΕϹ · ΦΙΛΕΙΕ ϹΕΒΗΡΕ · ΚΑΡΕϹϹΕΜΕ · ΠΟϹΟΥΕΤΕ · ΕΔ · ΕΙϹΠΕΙΡΕΙΤΩ · ϹΑΝΚΤΩ · ΤΟΥΩ · Read, _Leuces filiæ Severæ carissimæ posuit et spiritui sancto tuo_,--“Leuces erected this (memorial) to her very dear daughter, and to thy (_sic_) holy spirit.”