Custom Excerpt "Read more…" text won't display

I’ve used a custom formatted “Read More” for excerpts for some time now. Just recently, I noticed that it reverted back to the default […] format. I haven’t edited the code, so I’m at a loss for how this change happened.

Here’s the line of code:
<?php if( $wp_query->current_post <= 1 ) the_content('<p><span class="readmore">Read More &rarr;</span></p>'); else the_excerpt(); ?>

And here’s the preceding loop code:

<?php if(!is_single()) : global $more; $more = 0; endif; //enable more link ?>

<article id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>" <?php post_class("post clearfix $class"); ?>>

	<h1 class="post-title"><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h1>

	<p class="post-meta">
		<span class="post-author">by <?php the_author_posts_link() ?></span>
		<span class="post-time"> | <time datetime="<?php the_time('o-m-d') ?>" class="post-date" pubdate><?php the_time('F j, Y') ?></time> | </span>
		<!-- span class="post-category"> | <?php the_category(', ') ?></span> -->
		<?php the_tags(' <span class="post-tag">', ', ', '</span>'); ?>
		<?php if ( comments_open() ) : ?>
			<span class="post-comment"><?php comments_popup_link( __( '0 Comment', 'themify' ), __( '1 Comment', 'themify' ), __( '% Comments', 'themify' ) ); ?></span>
		<?php endif; //post comment ?>

	</p>

Help?