In such a social state an association for mutual benefit would naturally receive a warm welcome. The little Christian Church appeared to be a paradise. This family of simple and united brethren attracted people from every quarter, who in return for that which they brought secured a settled future, the society of congenial friends, and precious spiritual hopes. The general custom of converts[7.3] was to convert into specie their property, which usually consisted of little farms but scantily productive. To unmarried people in particular the exchange of their plots of land for shares in a society which would secure them a place in the Heavenly Kingdom, could not be otherwise than advantageous. Several married persons did likewise. Care was taken that the new associates should contribute their entire effects to the common fund without retaining any portion for private use.[7.4] Indeed, as each one received from the common treasury in proportion to his needs,{7.5} and not in proportion to his contributions, every reservation of property was a fraud on the community. Such attempts at organization show a surprising resemblance to certain Utopian experiments made recently; but with the important difference that Christian communism rested on a religious basis, which is not the case with modern socialism. It is evident that an association whose dividends were declared not in proportion to the capital subscribed, but in proportion to individual needs, must rest only upon a sentiment of exalted self-abnegation and an ardent faith in a religious ideal.