a thread opens
Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that merriment is heaviness.
The Vigil
Today’s scroll, one verse at a time — each linked to the last by the cross-references rather than by any model of you. The same vigil for everyone, and a different one tomorrow.
I said of laughter, It is mad: and of merriment, What does it?
from Proverbs 14:13 · a strong link
It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.
from Ecclesiastes 2:2
So teach us to number our days, so that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.
from Ecclesiastes 7:2
LORD, make me to know my end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.
from Psalms 90:12 · a strong link
a thread opens
Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then has God also to the Gentiles granted repentance to life.
from Acts 20:21
For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich to all that call upon him.
from Acts 11:18 · a strong link
Or despise you the riches of his goodness and forbearance and patience; not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
from Romans 10:12
The eyes of your heart being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
from Romans 2:4 · a strong link
For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man sees, why does he yet hope for?
from Ephesians 1:18
a thread opens
Be it known to you therefore, men and brothers, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins:
I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake.
from Acts 13:38
To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whoever believes in him shall receive remission of sins.
from I John 2:12 · a strong link
Truly, truly, I say to you, He that hears my word, and believes on him that sent me, has eternal life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death to life.
from Acts 10:43
Truly, truly, I say to you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.
from John 5:24 · a strong link
That whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
from John 8:51 · a strong link
Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.
from John 3:15
a thread opens
Because he has appointed a day, in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.
In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
from Acts 17:31
But why do you judge your brother? or why do you set at nothing your brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
from Romans 2:16
Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
from Romans 14:10
a thread opens
For truly against your holy child Jesus, whom you have anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
And when they had bound him, they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor.
from Acts 4:27 · a strong link
There were present at that season some that told him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
from Matthew 27:2
Look, O LORD, and consider to whom you have done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?
from Luke 13:1
For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her,
from Lamentations 2:20
a thread opens
You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did, so do you.
And do not grieve the holy Spirit of God, by whom you are sealed to the day of redemption.
from Acts 7:51
How often did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!
from Ephesians 4:30
Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
from Psalms 78:40
You shall not tempt the LORD your God, as you tempted him in Massah.
from Psalms 95:8
Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
from Deuteronomy 6:16 · a strong link
a thread opens
And he said to me, Depart: for I will send you far hence to the Gentiles.
But the Lord said to him, Go your way: for he is a chosen vessel to me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:
from Acts 22:21 · a strong link
Of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of his power.
from Acts 9:15 · a strong link
Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?
from Ephesians 3:7
According to the grace of God which is given to me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let every man take heed how he builds thereupon.
from I Corinthians 3:5
For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
from I Corinthians 3:10 · a strong link
And I say also to you, That you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
from I Corinthians 3:11 · a strong link
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Proverbs 14:13 along this chain. Today’s own vigil is laid separately.
Each verse follows the one before it along the chain a study Bible draws — a century old, public, and compiled by people arguing about Scripture rather than about how long you stay. Every card says which verse it came from and opens the chapter it belongs to. Today’s vigil is the same for every reader and is worked out from the date alone, so there is no account, no counter, and nothing stored in your browser or ours.
The text is the Lantern Modern Standard. The links are openbible.info’s cross-reference set (CC BY), the same apparatus behind the reader’s Echoes drawer. Read a whole book · Today’s table