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My husband’s grandmother passed away a couple years ago. Her children invited family and extended family to sort through her things and take what was desired. She had a lot of things. As I was sifting, I found a precious little red book simply entitled, “Story Gems,” by author Albert L. Zobell, Jr.

The book is dedicated “to that simple faith – and to those who possess it…” (Zobell, A., “Story Gems,” 1953)

Since you are among the faithful, I thought you’d like to read some “story gems” x 3, as below:

Story Gem #1

“Dr. James E. Talmage, late member of the Council of the Twelve, as a student had a fine oil-burning study lamp, which he carefully groomed daily. Dr. Talmage would continue telling the story: One summer evening I sat musing studiously and withal restfully in the open air, outside the door of the room where I lodged and studied. A stranger approached. I noticed that he carried a satchel. He was affable and entertaining. I brought another chair from within, and we chatted together till the twilight had deepened into darkness. Then he said, ‘You are a student, and doubtless have much work to do at night. What kind of lamp do you use? And without waiting for a reply, he continued: I have a superior kind of lamp I should like to show you, a lamp designed and constructed according to the latest achievements of science, far surpassing anything heretofore produced in artificial lighting.’ I replied with confidence: ‘My friend, I have a lamp, one that has been tested and proved. It has been my companion and friend through many a long night. I have trimmed and cleaned it today; it is ready for lighting.’ We entered my room, and I put a match to my well-trimmed lamp. My visitor was high in his praise. It was the best lamp of its kind, he said, and he had never seen a lamp in better trim. He turned the wick up and down, and pronounced the judgment perfect. ‘Now,’ he said, ‘with your permission, I’ll light my lamp,’ taking it from his satchel. It had a chimney which, compared with mine was as a factory smokestack along side a house flue. Its hollow wick was wide enough to admit my four fingers. Its light made bright the remotest corner of my room. Its brilliant blaze made the flame in my lamp weak and pale. Until that moment of convincing demonstration I had never known the dim obscurity in which I had lived and labored, studied and struggled. ‘I’ll buy your lamp,’ I said, ‘you need not explain or argue further.’ That same night I took the lamp to the laboratory and found that it burned with fully four times the intensity of my student lamp. Two days later I met the lamp-peddler on the street about noon. He answered my question that business was good. ‘But,’ I questioned, ‘you are not working today?’ His rejoinder was a lesson: ‘Do you think that I would be so foolish as to go around trying to see lamps in the daytime? Would you have bought one if I had lighted it for you when the sun was shining? I chose the time to show the superiority of my lamp over yours; and you were eager to own the better one.’ Such is the story. Now consider the application of a part, a very small part, thereof. ‘Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father, which is in heaven.’ The man who would sell a lamp did not disparage mine. He placed his greater light alongside my feebler flame, and I hastened to obtain it. The missionary servants of the Church of Jesus Christ today are sent forth, not to assail nor ridicule the beliefs of men, but to set before the world a superior light, by which the smoky dimness of the flickering flames of man-made creeds shall be apparent. The work of the Church is constructive, not destructive.” (Zobell, A., “Story Gems,” 1953)

Story Gem #2

“After healing the sick in Montrose, Iowa, July 22, 1839, all the company followed the Prophet Joseph Smith to the banks of the Mississippi River, where he was going to take the boat to return home. While waiting for the boat, a man from the West, who had seen that the sick and dying were healed, asked Joseph if he would not go to his house and heal two of his children who were very sick. They were twins and were three months old. Joseph told the man he could not go, but he would send some one to heal them. He told Elder Wilford Woodruff to go with the man and heal his children. At the same time he took from his pocket a silk bandanna handkerchief, and gave to Brother Woodruff, telling him to wipe the faces of the children with it, and they should be healed; and remarked at the same time: ‘As long as you keep that handkerchief, it shall remain a league between you and me.’ Elder Woodruff did as he was commanded, and the children were healed, and he kept the handkerchief to [the day of his death]. (President Wilford Woodruff, Leaves from My Journal Chapter X1X, see Zobell, A., “Story Gems,” 1953)

Story Gem #3

“We sometimes think that things religious are for the old. Are they? It was the twelve-year old Boy Jesus who taught the learned men in the Temple. (Luke 2:46-47) It was a lad on the shores of Galilee who gave his five barley loaves and two fishes with which the Master fed the five thousand. (John 6:9) It was young Samuel who heard the voice of the Lord; it was David, the shepherd-boy, who slew Goliath on a day which looked mighty dark for the armed forces of Israel; it was Daniel who had the courage of his convictions and stood unharmed in the lion’s den; Joseph Smith received instruction from Heavenly Beings for ten years before organizing this Church when he was but twenty-four. Chances are, it was a youth in his teens or early twenties whose testimony first struck a responsive chord in the hearts of members of your family. And because of that testimony from the lips of youth, you have one of your priceless possessions today: membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Guard it well.” (Zobell, A., “Story Gems,” 1953)

Unto all the world: Gospel gems are such an enrichment. Be nourished by them. Daily.