Why is adding log probabilities considered "numerically stable"?
A "numerically stable" method calculates a result in a way that will not produce excessive rounding errors. 

Given a small number x, let's say x = 0.00079, it is possible to calculate log (1 + x) with much higher precision than 1 + x. (Of course calculating log (1 + x) avoids adding 1 + x). In both cases the relative error will be small and about equal size, but since the logarithm is very small, it's absolute error is much smaller. 

So if you want to calculate the product of values $1 + x_i$ for many small i, then you use a clever method to calculate $log (1 + x_i)$, add those values, and calculate the exponential. With probabilities, it is possible that you have say 1,000,000 events each with small probability $p_i$, and the probability that none of the events happens is the product of $1 - p_i$, and calculating that probability is more precisely done by adding logarithms (you would also keep the rounding errors down by always adding the two smallest values). 

In other situations, using logarithms can be less precise. For multiplication, the relative error is independent of the size of the numbers. But if you add logarithms, and say their sum is around 100, then each addition loses precision because 7 bits of the mantissa are used to store the 100. The precision of your result will be much less. So it's quite the opposite of numerically stable. 

Start with x = 1, y = 0. Then for i = 1 to 100, multiply x by i, and add log i to y. Then for i = 1 to 100, divide x by i, and subtract log i from y. Except for rounding errors, you should end up with x = 1 and y = 0. Check how much the difference is. 

PS. How do we calculate log (1 + x) without calculating 1 + x? There is the power series around 1, $ln (x) = (x-1) / 1 - (x-1)^2 / 2 + (x-1)^3 / 3 ...$.  If we substitute 1 + x, then $ln(1 + x) = x / 1 - x^2 / 2 + x^3 / 3 ...$, which is obviously calculated without ever calculating 1 + x.

That's an important lesson: Given a problem that suggests an obvious sequence of steps to solve it, you will very often find a better and less obvious solution. To calculate log (1+x), the obvious sequence of steps is to calculate y = 1+x, z = log (y), but there is a much better solution that completely avoids the first step.