Article 1, Section 5, Paragraph 4
Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other Place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.
Consent of the other house
Consent is to mutually agree with another.
Consent now means to give approval to something. It has legal connotations. It used to mean the arrival at an agreement in sentiment.
This indicates the houses were to be in agreement about when they should meet, and that their meeting was to be of short duration.
They were not to boycott each other by meeting at separate times and forcing the members of the other house to rejoin for a special session.
Consent is not always a good thing. One use of the term is found in Acts and translated “privy.”
Acts 5:1-2, "But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles’ feet."
Biblically it is the secondary agreement to what another has presented. It is the yielding to the principle what is proposed (ISBE “Consent”).
“Consent” in the Bible refers to the mutual consent of two parties. Today it is used more often in the reluctant approval of a second party.
1 Corinthians 7:5, "Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency."
Zechariah 3:9, "For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes: behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day."
“Consent” in Zechariah means “one shoulder.” It refers to the part of the upper back that carries the burdens. When people learn the pure language of God, it will bring a unity that has not existed since before the Tower of Babel.
There are times it is wrong to consent:
Proverbs 1:10, "My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not."
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