CONTENDING EARNESTLY FOR THE FAITH ONCE DELIVERED TO THE SAINTS
JM The faith once delivered to the saints includes the working out of the truth practically among the brethren, as seen in our walk and conduct. I read the earlier section where you see the labour of Paul. It is a well-known chapter but it is well to go over it again.
It says Paul passed through the upper districts and came to Ephesus. I think that is significant, finding certain disciples there who had not received the Holy Spirit. It says later on that the number of the men was about twelve. When Paul came into Ephesus they received the Holy Spirit and it is from that base that the unfolding of the truth proceeds.
WMcK Would you say that considering the breakdown it is even more critical today that persons should receive the Holy Spirit? There can be no formative assembly work apart from that.
JM Why do you say it is even more critical?
WMcK I think because of the fact that the breakdown can have an effect on us and we lose sight of the upper districts which you alluded to. Our tendency, if the Spirit’s formative work is not proceeding in us, is to settle for something less than Ephesian truth.
JM Yes. We remarked in the house and discussion this morning that the only way to hold Christianity is by the Spirit. It is the Spirit’s work in ourselves, and if that is not there or it is weak, then the result is going to be weak however much doctrine we may have. It is an exercising thing, I think, that we should make sure that we give the Spirit His place. What is in view here is that the whole scope of the mind of God regarding the assembly should be opened up in Ephesus.
LB I was just going to say that the Lord’s desire for the disciples before He left this scene was that they should be in an area where they could receive the Spirit from on high which seemed the backbone of Christianity to maintain that which is of divine glory and pleasure.
JM I think, as you quite rightly say, the Lord placed them there so that everything was favourable to them for the reception of the Holy Spirit. We cannot emphasise that too much. There is always the danger, if we are in a close association with the truth, and we neglect making room for the Spirit and His work amongst us, we can be deluded; that is one of the things that the Spirit might raise with us at the present time.
DMW Is it helpful to see that they received the Spirit in relation to Paul in verse 6? He spoke to them of the Lord Jesus.
JM Yes I think it is. Indeed the whole section is very interesting. Why should it be twelve men?
DMW The idea would be that, in spite of what might come in, of which Paul spoke in Acts 20, the whole thought would go through and persons would be exercised to carry it through.
JM Yes, we generally connect the idea of twelve with love’s administration. You think of God’s administration and the fulness of time. As we go through the Scriptures we get touches of God hinting that He has something greater in mind and He is setting the scene for it. I think that what had been in His mind from eternity was coming out here, and it must have given great pleasure to God to see the work beginning to form, what there would be for His own eternal pleasure.
NJH Is there a reflection of the formation of the house here, as we have in Acts 2?
JM Yes I think so. The only difference, if one could use the word, is that this is Pauline. There is the twelve here and that connects with Acts 2 but it is a point in the Acts where you can see that God is definitely opening up in a fuller way what has ever been in His mind. That involves, not exactly the twelve in Acts 2, not that we would criticise or say anything against the twelve, but what was in His mind was what had been given to Paul (see Ephesians 3: 2, 3). Religious persons would say that we make too much of Paul; God makes much of Paul.
NJH There was no testimony until this order was set up in Ephesus. I just thought that the formation in this chapter would be what the Spirit was at, at the given moment. Is that what your point is?
JM You mean that there was no testimony in Ephesus?
NJH It was after the twelve received the Spirit that there was a testimony in the place.
JM Yes I think that is right. I think it awaited that. You think of God having gone there before Paul; there were these twelve men. They were deficient, but they were there, they were available, and as coming under the influence of Paul they set out what God was working towards so, as from that point, the testimony goes out, and it is from that point too that there is a development of the great truth of Christ and the assembly.
TFN In chapter 20 they embraced Paul and kissed him. Is it not important that we embrace Paul in that respect as far as the testimony of Christ and the assembly is concerned? What has happened in Christendom is that they have rejected Paul. I thought that embracing Paul is embracing the truth that was committed to him by the Lord.
JM I think that they embraced Paul, as you say, because of the truth that was committed to him, but also they embraced Paul because he was a man who set out in himself the truth that he sought to bring in among the saints. We remarked that yesterday and I would stress it again today that the faith once delivered to the saints is not just the holding of doctrine but it is the exemplification of the practical working out of the truth in the lives of persons. That is what is for God’s pleasure and is what is properly formative of the assembly.
AML Is it significant that after the Spirit is received in a mature way you always have opposition from those speaking evil of the way?
JM Yes, you immediately find that. Our young people need to understand that if they want to be faithful to the Lord in any measure they will have to suffer for it, because the testimony is in suffering. But when you come to the height of the truth, as we use that expression, you find the suffering is all the more intensive, the opposition all the more intense. I think that Satan uses every wile that he possibly has to divert the saints from what is in the mind of God for them.
WMcK Is there some instruction in that these twelve men were set in relation to the Trinity really? They were baptised to the name of the Lord Jesus, and then the Holy Spirit came upon them, and what is emphasised in Paul’s service is initially the kingdom of God, as though the full line of the Ephesian truth is in his mind, but he is proceeding into that in relation to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
JM That is the setting of it as I understand it. I have no doubt that was in Paul’s mind; not only was it in God’s mind, and in the Spirit’s mind, but it was in Paul’s mind. There is never a word in scripture that is unnecessary and it says here that he passed through the upper districts. I think you can see that what is coming into Paul’s mind, and what is becoming formative in it and governs him, is the development of the truth of Christ and the assembly and the development of the truth of the assembly for God.
WMcK So would you think as any one of us might be coming freshly into Christianity through coming into the revival, or whether we are in it and seeking to continue on, we need to have the three Persons before us, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, and then that God has given Christ to be head over all things to the assembly which is His body, and then the Holy Spirit of promise. A wonderful range of divine light opens up as we come into the Spirit’s current would you say?
JM Yes I am sure that is right and it keeps us in perfect balance, but you are really introduced into the economy. You are introduced into what is as near God as creature man can come. That is really what is involved here.
WMcK Would you say it is really how the answer to all the fulness dwelling in Him bodily becomes effective in us? There must be an answer for the pleasure of God, and God is operating in this wonderful way to bring about an answer to what is there in Christ, the fulness of the Godhead.
JM Yes, I think that is very beautiful.
DMW So when we speak of Paul’s ministry it really develops the whole counsel of God. They had some shadow of the truth regarding the kingdom of God, as having been baptised to John, but they did not have the truth of the whole counsel of God in what the Spirit was doing in His movements. We speak of Paul’s ministry which involves the fulness, does it not?
JM Yes. Paul left the synagogue and separated the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. This took place for two years, “so that all that inhabited Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks”. I am not going to say that we have to give up our work and devote ourselves to these things, but it shows the energy and the devotion that is necessary if the truth is to be understood and developed amongst us.
APD Is there any suggestion in the fact that it is “to the name of the Lord Jesus”? This title is peculiarly linked with the assembly, do you think?
JM That is what I have always understood about it. Have you anything to add to that?
APD Well I wondered if He would therefore become the centre of their affections. You spoke earlier about Paul being embraced. They really saw in him an expression of the Lord Jesus, would you say?
JM Yes I think so. Scripture says, “no one can say, Lord Jesus, unless in the power of the Holy Spirit”, 1 Corinthians 12: 3. As we have been rightly taught that is peculiarly an assembly title. That is the title that involves the tremendously affectionate place that the Lord Jesus has in our affections, and the tremendously affectionate place that we have in His.
APD We could suitably address Him in that way as we are together, do you think?
JM I am sure we can. In fact there are other ways of addressing the Lord Jesus. In relation to the use of the name in our conversations together, I looked up the concordance and traced how many times the various writers used just the personal name, Jesus. Mr Darby used it quite a lot so one has to be careful, but the use of it alone in the Scriptures is exceedingly scarce. In the gospels and in the Acts the singular title Jesus is used extensively, and you can understand that because in the gospels the subject is the Man who was here known by that name, and in the Acts of the Apostles, especially in the earlier chapters, that theme is continued; but when you come to the writings of others. Paul, Peter, John and so on, the use of the name Jesus just by itself is singularly scarce.
APD There seems to be the element of reverence and affection in using the name Lord Jesus.
JM Yes, there is.
TF You asked the question about the twelve men and it does say “all the men were about twelve”. I wondered if there is a link with what has just been said as to the Lord Jesus that really substantially and perhaps representatively what is in Him comes out in the twelve, in those twelve men.
JM Well I am sure it does. There is a verse in Ephesians 3 that is going through my mind, which links to the administration of love as seen working out in the assembly.
AJMcS Is the verse you are referring to in chapter 3, the “all-various wisdom of God” (Ephesian 3: 10)?
JM Well, it leads to that. There is a hint in these twelve men to the fact that God is not awaiting the day of glory. He is actually displaying at the present time the all-various wisdom of God. Is that what you are thinking?
AJMcS Yes, it certainly is, and I was just affected by what has been said as to that because the Lord Jesus is a title which relates to administration. What you said earlier I think is important. In the Hebrew epistle the term Jesus is mentioned several times, not as a form of address but rather to attract the saints to go forth to Him without the camp, do you think?
JM Yes, I think you will find that it is mentioned more in Hebrews than elsewhere, as you have said, it is a term of affection. As was remarked earlier, the important thing is to be making room for the Spirit and His operations amongst us; one of the things unquestionably that the Spirit will do is to enshrine Christ in our hearts and give Him the place that is proper to Him.
AJMcS Do you think that that is involved in the enjoyment of first love?
JM Yes, that is first love as you say; it is not first in time, it is really unadulterated love for Christ. That is what first love is.
AJMcS Do you think it also involves some sense of His love for the assembly? We appreciate His love in an individual way, the Son of God who loved me, but I was thinking of the great matter of His love for the assembly, something that transcends even His love for the individual. I think what was in your mind yesterday was very important as to coming to a judgment of all that is false, and needs to be dealt with, and forming a holy enclosure. The line that you are bringing before us now goes along with that because the assembly at Ephesus had left their first love. They had judged the evil, they were commended for doing so, but along with that we need to keep the thought of first love before us, do you think?
JM I think that is the important thing; really that is the essence of Christianity and the essence of the relationship between Christ and the assembly. I used that expression, unadulterated love, that nothing is allowed to come in to spoil it in any way. I think that is what the enemy would seek to do, to bring in things that might not be bad in essence, but would set aside this first love between Christ and the assembly.
GDR Paul says, “I have espoused you unto one man to present you a chaste virgin to Christ”, 2 Corinthians 11: 2. It is really what you have in your heart and that is the way that we are arriving at it. I wondered about the comments as to Jesus and Lord Jesus. The Lord appears to Saul of Tarsus saying, “I am Jesus”, Acts 9: 5. I wondered if that was more of a personal name and a personal relationship to us, but then the assembly title is Lord Jesus, would that be right?
JM I think it is; it is an assembly title and it should be used with the affection that is proper to it. I am trying to be careful not to lay down any rules but I would like to see the truth flowing out of love. That I think is what is the workmanship of the Spirit—the flowing out of love, love for Christ. As has been said it is first love.
DMW Would the thought of the twelve also suggest unity?
JM Yes I think it does. It looks on, as we have remarked, to what God really had in His mind. It is the administration of the fulness of time.
WMcK Are you referring to the administration of the mystery?
JM That is right, the administration of the mystery. I think that is what was potentially in these twelve men, what was in Paul’s mind when he came into Ephesus; he came through the upper districts and he found these twelve men. They were there before he came there. God had placed them there so that they were material for Paul, for the working out of what He had given to Paul. It was in the affections of Paul before he arrived there.
WMcK So would you say that to know the love of the Christ, and then holding the truth in love which follows in Ephesians, is all involved in the administration of the mystery? No one could understand the mystery without having some knowledge and experience of the love of the Christ, nor could he understand the mystery unless he knows how to hold the truth in love, along with others who are contending earnestly for the faith.
JM I think all that is confirmatory as to what we are considering, that we are in the great area of love; it is not sentimentality. That is a poor thing, but it is love, divine love, expressed in the Father, Son and Spirit, that has come into our hearts through the work of the Holy Spirit, the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which He has given to us; you have vessels not only filled with the Spirit, that is true, but filled with love. What that is for God!
GDR The verse that has been quoted in Ephesians, it is remarkable how Paul says there that “holding the truth in love, we may grow up to him in all things, who is the head, the Christ”, Ephesians 4: 15. I just wondered if that did not epitomise what you are saying. These Ephesians were examples of growing up in relation to this matter of the truth being held in love.
JM I think so. It is well worth bearing in mind that as a result of Paul’s service here in Ephesus this truth was actually secured. It was seen in its beauty there unmarred, untouched by man’s hand and now for the heart of Christ, undoubtedly for the pleasure of the Spirit and for the pleasure of God. Think of what a beautiful gem it must have been, but then how long did it last? How rapid was the decline.
KNP I was thinking the apostle Paul was the greatest lover of Christ and I wonder if that comes out in his labours, not making much of himself, but in addition to making much of the Lord, there is also his love for the saints as shown in the way that he labours in these sections that you have read. I wondered if that is important because he does not put himself above the saints; he puts himself along with them. It says here that he was daily reasoning with them. I wondered if that would indicate that he was putting himself alongside the brethren, and these twelve men that were there in Ephesus.
JM I think that is so, then as you translate that into chapter 20 he brings out the way that he carried things in his labours. You can see the beauty of the way he was amongst them, it was just like Christ being there.
WMcK So would you say, linking with that, he says “I have not shrunk from announcing to you all the counsel of God”, not the purpose of God? The counsel of God would be the operational side. Our God has operated in His love and wisdom, and you see a reflection of that in how Paul operated in Ephesus.
JM Yes I think you can, and it opens up the vast scheme of divine operations, what really is in the mind of God. Then, dear brethren, we have been brought into that. We have to be careful of sectarianism, but we should value what we have. I very much doubt if you can find anywhere else where you can get the same.
JRB The way that things are being maintained is the way in which the appreciation of Christ and the assembly is maintained in the heart.
JM I am sure it is, and as we have gone over these matters, it seems to me that there is a certain deficiency among us, but I have to say that the deficiency is with myself. If you think of the way that Paul served the brethren here, you can understand why there is such a result from his service. I think as we seek the Spirit’s help to take on that character, there will be a lifting of the state generally among the saints, and there will be much more for God.
GDR Are you saying at the present time the need is of working through the school of Tyrannus? That is the moral way, is it not?
JM Yes, it is the moral way; it was not an easy school. You could not take a day off there if you wanted, a day at the sports field or something like that. There is no room for that kind of thing.
GDR The kingdom makes way for the assembly; it must precede that. An earlier comment showed the importance here of the teaching relating to the kingdom of God. That is the way into the assembly, is it not?
JM Yes, that is really what it is bringing out. You have to read this section alongside the section we read in chapter 20. It says there, “I have not shrunk from announcing to you all the counsel of God”. He has not shrunk; you might say that is a tribute to the Ephesian saints in that he found the material there where he can bring out the counsel of God, but then it was very largely through the labours of Paul himself. Maybe we do not labour enough. If you go back in the history of the revival, there were persons who were referred to as labourers. We do not want any official title, but I think the matter of labourers is something we ought to be concerned about.
APD We have some appreciation of what the assembly is to God. Here it is “the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own”. So different from the
assembly of God at Corinth; this is the whole assembly as it is for the pleasure of God. Would that be right?
JM I cannot say that I fully grasp it. I would be very glad for help but I fully accept and go with what you say. It is not exactly the assembly as an administrative vessel, but it is the assembly of God. I have wondered recently whether that line of things needs to be in our affections, and maybe the Lord will open up to us what the fulness of it is; but perhaps you can help.
APD I thought it was a very touching reference to the blood of His own. What do you say about that, the reference to “the blood of his own”?
JM It is not exactly here put the way of “Christ also loved the assembly, and has delivered himself up for it”, Ephesians 5: 25. You get that setting but that is not what it is here; it is the blood of His own. I think it shows the cost, it shows the depths of love that were there on God’s side, the valuation that is put upon the assembly in this aspect. That is why I am saying that I would like to get a little more help on it as to what it really is, but I would think (I am subject to correction) it is perhaps the highest thought of the assembly that you can get.
APD Would you link it with the reference in Ephesians 3, “to him be glory in the assembly”?
JM Yes, it would involve that I think. We have to put things in their context in accordance with the way the Spirit has revived the truth amongst us. We have had a tremendous amount as to the relations between the assembly and Christ, and the Man and the woman, but here God has purchased the assembly of God “with the blood of his own”. There is something very, very choice there; it shows the valuation that God had of the assembly. I think it means that the assembly is there for God’s delight, and would relate to what is said in that section in Ephesians 3. We need all the help we can get.
WMcK Well I was thinking what you both are saying is right, the assembly of God and the assembly in Christ Jesus are equivalent thoughts really. The assembly in Christ Jesus must be the most glorious thought of the assembly because it is what is God-ward. The old brethren used to tell us that in Colossians the body is for Christ and in Ephesians it is for God, “and might reconcile both in one body to God”, Ephesians 2: 16. So that in whatever way we view the assembly in Ephesians we must think of what it is God-ward.
JM That is very much what one has been thinking. I just speak for myself, we have been a little negligent of that side of the truth. You think of what a vessel she is for God.
WMcK And then as we have had before us a bit, and you are aware of it, it is not exactly the assembly femininely for God, she is that for Christ, but the assembly in Christ Jesus must involve what both Christ and the assembly are God-ward.
JM Yes, I am sure that is very helpful and I think should give us something to take away, and seek to work out in secret with the Spirit, that we might be a little more considerate and a little more exercised to know more of what the assembly is for God’s pleasure.
LB So the hymn-writer says—
‘The assembly in Christ Jesus
Yieldeth glory unto Thee’, (Hymn 170).
I suppose both are expressing glory to God.
JM Yes, that is a reference to Ephesians 3, the assembly in Christ Jesus; it is that vessel. We are on a very high level here, but it comes down to practical things. How much do I value the assembly?
DMW Is this not the highest expression of love in view of result for itself?
JM In Acts 20? Yes, I understand that. It is the highest expression of love. You could hardly get an expression of a greater intensity of love than what you get here, could you?
DMW It was the same One who was in the bosom of the Father, it was the same One who was the only begotten of the Father; He was wholly for God and God has desired in love to have Christ and the assembly together. It is the highest expression in view of results for God, is it not?
JM Yes. It shows us what the cost was to Him, purchased, Paul is saying that, and this is where it comes down to us today. He is saying to these elders in Ephesus, Now the responsibility is upon you, “contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints”. Do not let us give it up, beloved brethren; do not let us give up one iota of it. Do not let us be deceived into some lower order of things. What the Spirit has in mind is really what is for the eternal pleasure of God, and then He wants to have that pleasure now.
WMcK You were speaking about what obtains now. That is referred to in the end of Ephesians 2, “a habitation of God in the Spirit” (Ephesian 2: 22). God so loves this thought of the assembly that He is not waiting for the day of eternity to bring it about for Himself. He has the thing already and it is His habitation in the Spirit. Well it should be the greatest inducement to us to give ourselves over to this thought of the mystery because this really involves the mystery, does it not?—“The assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own”.
JM That was what I was thinking; these things come out and young people might think that they are a little beyond them, but persevere and seek the Spirit’s help. Nothing is too difficult for the Spirit and He can bring us into the help. What it does is that it gives you a valuation of the assembly which is in accord with the divine valuation, and I think that when one comes to valuations the only thing that counts is the divine valuation. How much is the assembly made of in a public way these days? It is not; persons say you do not need to trouble too much about that, but then this is the greatest thought of God.
WMcK Mr. Stoney gave himself over to understanding the mystery and to bringing that out in his ministry, so one of the paramount things in his ministry is union with Christ, which leads on to what we are speaking about as to what the assembly is God-ward. Union with Christ really leads on to what Christ and the assembly are to God, would you say?
JM Well I am sure that is exactly it. That was a great point in his ministry. He says himself, that when the truth of that dawned on him he was almost overtaken, that he should be united to a Man in the glory, the Man that the assembly as a vessel should be united to. One of the things that Mr. Stoney pressed was that not only is the assembly united to Christ, but we are united individually to Christ, a Man in the glory. Is that so?
WMcK Yes.
JM If you are united to Christ, a Man in the glory, what a blessed privilege that is. You may have something in your mind to do, stay a weekend where there are no brethren, or something like that, and then you have to say to yourself, Well I am united to the Man in the glory. Could I really do that? The truth is not legal, there is no legality in it, but you just get down to its basic matters and consider it, and you have to say to yourself, If it is so. That is an expression that Mr. Stoney uses; it is so of course, but it is not the ‘if’ of doubt but the ‘if’ of consequences. If I am united to the Man that is in the glory, there are certain things down here that I just cannot do.
WMcK So that “he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit”, 1 Corinthians 6: 17.
JM Very beautiful.
WMcK If you have a company of persons who are conscious of that individually, when they come together it is very easy to flow into the thought of the assembly as united to Christ.
JM I am sure that is the truth. I trust there has been something in the meetings that may encourage all of us, to take things up in that way, to be convicted that we are having to do with the Spirit and His operations, and what He is really securing for the pleasure of God and He is securing it in persons. It is a wonderful thing that He is securing it now. We do not need to wait for the glory, we can have it now.
GDR It is affecting to see that divine Persons are protecting this vessel. He left it to saints to guard it, but where there has been departure that is the first truth that is lost. We have been witness to it and have seen it, but we need to value it in an increasing way, would you think? What is precious to Christ must be precious to us.
JM I think so. Mr. Stoney said that if you had gone into the meeting in Ephesus after the falling away there, you might not have seen any difference. You might say they are going on with exactly the same things, but if a spiritual man had gone in there he would immediately say, Ah, the essential thing is lacking. I hope that will encourage us and exercise us to make more room for the Spirit so that we can have a true judgment of these things.
TFN I was thinking of what the apostle says, “Take heed”. Do you think it should be a voice to us, “Take heed”? That is making room for the blessed Holy Spirit, keeping in mind the truth of the mystery. The mystery is the greatest light that has come to us and displaces everything that belongs to mere man, man’s glory and greatness or whatever it may be; it involves the greatest vessel that God has secured, so we ought to value it.
JM Yes, it says, “Take heed therefore to yourselves, and to all the flock, wherein the Holy Spirit has set you as overseers, to shepherd the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own”. These were the elders at Ephesus. They had an official position, but we do not have such a position today because we are in days of breakdown, but nevertheless the exercise of overseership can be taken up, “has set you as overseers, to shepherd the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own”. I suppose as Paul goes on here, “For I know this”, he must have been conveying this to the elders of Ephesus with a broken heart.
CCE In the Lord’s word to Ephesus in Revelation twice He brings in the thought of repentance. He says in Revelation 2, verse 5, “Remember therefore whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works—but if not, I am coming to thee, and I will remove thy lamp out of its place, except thou shalt repent”. I am thinking of the state that the Lord seeks to promote in our hearts to have us to arrive at, but repentance seems to be the softening element that is needed first, do you think?
JM Well that is certainly very touching that he actually gives Ephesus the opportunity for repentance. We speak about repentance and that context generally, and it is needful that persons have to do with God; you have to do with God about matters, and as you have to do with God you weigh matters up as to how they affect God and have affected God. I think the Lord would help us. There is not one of us I suppose in our histories that has not had to repent over something.
CCE David spoke of a broken and a contrite spirit.
JM “A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise”, Psalm 51: 17. The need in all these matters is to have to do with God. The tendency with us always is to be a bit shallow. The older brethren used to say, the point of departure is the point of recovery. You have really to get back in your soul. I think that is important. We have not said much about it but what actually works in the soul.
LB Paul says, “And now I commit you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give to you an inheritance among all the sanctified”.
JM What had you thought about that?
LB Affection would be corresponding with the Lord Himself.
JM Yes, I think Paul’s affection comes out, “I commit you to God”. It is always a blessed thing for God will always work for His own pleasure, and while there might be much failure and much sorrow and much to be humbled about. God never changes.
3rd Reading at Ormond Beach/Bunnell
18 December 2004
KEY TO INITIALS
J. R. Bellamy
N. J. Henry
M. Noel
L. Barnard
A. M. Lidbeck
T. F. Noel
A. P. Devenish
W. McKillop
K. N. Pye
C. S. Elliott
A. J. McSeveney
G. D. Rosenberry
T. Franklin
J. Mitchell
D. M. Welch